
■L 

















«££j. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



OP 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 



FROM 1801 TO 1834. 



WITH A 



MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE, AND SELECTIONS FROM HIS 
LETTERS FROM 1831 TO 1846. 



FREDERICK W. SEWARD. 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

549 AND 551 BROADWAY. 

1877. 

IT 






E 
■7 



Copyright by D. APPLETOX & CO., 1877. 



PEEFAOE, 



In 1871, after his return from a journey round the world, my 
father's family and friends were earnestly desirous that he should 
prepare, with his own hand, some record of his eventful life. He 
considered the matter, and a few days later wrote to a friend, " I 
am clearing away from my table an accumulated business and cor- 
respondence, with a view, if I can find the necessary aid, to prepare 
an account, not of my life and times, but of my own particular 
part in the transactions and events of the period in which I have 
lived." He began the work in the form of a narrative addressed 
to his children, and brought the story down to 1834. His death 
left it unfinished. 

He had never kept a diary. But, fortunately, many of his 
private letters had been preserved. "Written with careless freedom, 
and of course without any idea of their future publication, they 
mirror his daily thoughts, and are often minute in their detail of 
passing events. Gathering these, together with his memoranda, 
his public writings, and his general correspondence, and aided by 
the memories of those who knew him longest and best, I have 
endeavored to complete the story of his life. 

F. W. S. 



/ 



/ 



COXTE^TS. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



1801-1816. 

Birth and Parentage. — Colonel John Seward. — School-Life in Orange County. — Witches. — 
The Great Eclipse.— The Eighteen States. — War with England.— Downfall of Napo- 
leon. — Kitchen and Parlor. — A Boy's Impressions about Slavery . . page 19 

1816-1818. 

First Steamboat Journey. — Chancellor Kent. — College-Life at Schenectady. — The Mohawk 
Trade.— Dr. Nott.— Wayland.— Welcome to Daniel D. Tompkins . . .29 

1818-1819. 

A College Escapade. — A Coasting-Voyage.— Six Months in Georgia. — Kindly Patrons. — The 
Union Academy. — Planters and Slaves. — Law-Studies. — Eeturn to College. — Adelphic 
and Philomathean. — A Secession. — Trial and Defense.— Commencement Honors 36 

1820-1824. 

Studying Law.— John Duer.— John Anthon.— The Forum.— Edward N. Kirk.— Ogden Hoff- 
man.— Chief-Justice Spencer.—" Bucktails" and " Clintonians."— Constitution of 1821. 
—Admitted to the Bar.—" Going West."— Partnership with Judge Miller.— Choosing 
Church and Party .......... 47 

1824. 

Stage-Coach Excursion to Niagara.— First Meeting with Thurlow Weed. — Buffalo. — New 
York and tbe~Western Trade. — Benjamin Rathbun. — Origin of Parties in the United 
States. — Their History and Character. — Presidential Election of 1824.— Struggle over 
the Electoral Law. — Adams and Jackson. — Marriage . . . . .55 

1825-1828. 

President Adams, Clinton, and Clay. — A Southern Combination. — The " National Eepub ■ 
lican" Party. — A Night-Ride with Lafayette.— Pageants in his Honor.— Visit to De 
Witt Clinton. — Adhering to Adams. — Rejection as Surrogate. — A Resolution about Of- 
•fice.— Death of Clinton.— Presidency of Young Men's Convention at Utica . . 03 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

1831. 

Fourth-of-July Orations.— Captain Seward.— A Militia Career.— President-Making.— First 
Railway-Bide.— Disraeli.— Dr. Campbell.— Judge Bronson.— GerritY. Lansing.— Abram 
Van Vechten.— Mrs. Hamilton ...... page 192 

CHAPTER VI. 
1831. 

A New England Journey.— A Steamboat Lottery.— Indian Traditions.—" Last of the Mo- 
hicans." — Providence. — President Wayland. — Boston. — Revolutionary Memories and 
Men.— The Polish Standards.— Ride to Quincy.— First Meeting with John Quincy 
Adams.— Down the Delaware.— The Baltimore Convention.— William Wirt . 198 



CHAPTER VII. 

1832. 

lative Debates.— Speech on the United States Bank.— Railroads.— General Root and 
the Regency.— Boyish Memories. — Ways of the Lobbyists.— The Address. — The 
Greeks * 209 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1832. 

Rural Fancies. — Rev. Alonzo Potter. — The Fire-King. — Coming of the Cholera. — Maynard'a 
Death.— Lieutenant-Governor Livingston.— Jackson reelected. — Governor Marcy. — A 
Weather-Prophet. — Rival Stages.— The Price of Candles. — Edwin Forrest. — A Pre- 
monition of the Civil War ........ 215 

CHAPTER IX. 
1833. 

New-Year's Reflections. — A Round of Calls.— United States Senators. — Silas Wright. — N. 
P. Tallmadge. — Christian Faith. — South Carolina Nullification. — Speech defending 
Jackson's Proclamation.— A .Mothers illness. — Voyage to Europe . . 225 

CHAPTER X. 

1833-1834. 

Return Home.— The Wadsworths.— Dissolution of the Antimasonic Party. — Debate on 
Removal of the Deposits. — The Six-Million Loan.— Commercial Distress. — A Depre- 
ciated Currency. — The Cholera. — Freeman the Artist. — Nomination for Governor 230 

CHAPTER XI. 

1834. 

Campaign of 1834.— Seward and Stilwell.— " Young Man with Red Hair."— The Whig 
Party.— Election. — "Mourners." — Journey with Cary. — New York Hospitalities.— 
Charles King. — Chancellor Kent. — New England Dinner. — End of Legislative Life. 

236 



CONTENTS. . 9 

CHAPTER XII. 

1835. 

Return to Private Life. — Law and Chancery Practice. — Judge Miller. — Seward and Beards- 
ley. — Political Speculations. — French Claims. — Personalities in Debate. — Attempt to 
assassinate Jackson. — Advice about going West. — Editorial Life. — " Optimism." — 
Henry Bulwer ......... page 248 

CHAPTER XIII. 

1835. 

A Summer Tour. — The Pennsylvania Mountains. — The Susquehanna Valley. — Harrisburg. 
— Harper's Ferry. — The Valley of Virginia. — Weyer's Cave. — Natural Bridge. — Slaves 
and their Masters ......... 260 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1835. 

Virginia Hospitality. — The Blue Ridge. — Monticello. — Jefferson.— Fredericksburg. — Mount 
Vernon.— The Washington Estate.— The National Capital in 1835.— Visit to "Old 
Hickory." — Baltimore and Philadelphia. — The Biddies. — Sully. — Dr. Physick. — Joseph 
Bonaparte. — Long Branch Life. — Old Memories and Traditions of Florida. — The 
" Moon Hoax."— Death of Mrs. Miller.— The " Neutral Ground " . . 272 

CHAPTER XV. 
1835-1836. 

Abolitionists. — " Incendiary Publications " and Riots. — The Auburn & Owasco Canal 
Project. — Harrison and Granger. — The " Loco-focos." — Webster and Clay's With- 
drawal. — The Small-Bill Law. — Town and Country Life . . . .291 

CHAPTER XVI. 

1836. 

The Holland Land Company. — Trouble with Settlers. — A Fortified Land-Office. — Seward 
as Pacificator. — Life at Westfield. — A Night Attack. — Geology and Science. — Exploring 
Chautauqua County ......... 301 

CHAPTER XVII. 

1836. 

The Year of Speculation. — New York Schemes. — Auburn Projects. — A Complex Trust. — 
Van Buren elected President. — Thanksgiving-Day. — A Christinas Sermon . 315 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

1837. 

The Year of Financial Collapse.— Busy Times at the Land-Office.— Death of his Daughter. 
— A Conflagration. — The Ides of March. — Van Buren. — A Member of the Episcopal 
Church.— General Banking Law. — The Crash.—" Shinplasters." — Louis Napoleon 323 



10 . CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

1837. 

Chautauqua in Summer.— Discourse on Education.— "Washington in the Extra Session.— 
First Meeting with Clay and Webster. — Calhoun's Speech. — New York & Erie Rail- 
road Convention.— Samuel B. Ruggles.— A Political Revolution. —Whig Exultations.— 
Weed and the Clerkship. — The Canadian "Patriot War." — The Jeffersonian. — Letters 
to Children ......... page 384 

CHAPTER XX. 

1838. 

Auburn & Syracuse Railroad. — A Whig Legislature. — Small Bills and Specie Payments. 
— An Ice-Adventure. — Euggles's Canal Report. — Charles King. — Ocean-Steamers. — 
Over-zealous Friends. — Granger and Bradish ..... 356 

CHAPTER XXI. 

1838. 

The Canvass. — Whig Young Men's Convention. — Whittlesey. — Fillmore and Tracy. — The 
Episcopal Diocese. — Whig State Convention. — Nomination of Seward and Bradish. — 
'• A Speculator." — The Antislavery Interrogatories. — The Election . . . 36S 

CHAPTER XXII. 

1839. 

A Busy Season.— The " Kane Mansion." — The Inauguration. — The Message. — A Legisla- 
tive Dead-Lock.— State Officers. — The Oneidas. — Geological Survey. — "The Three- 
Walled House.' 1 — The " Atherton Gag." — Horace Greeley. — Spencer. — Dr. Potter.— 
Canadian Raids.— Secretary Poinsett. — Foreigners. — Colonel Worth . . 370 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
1839. 

A Levee in New York.— The Bible.— Habits of the Letter-Basket.— J. P. Kennedy.— Hamil- 
ton. — First Diplomatic Question. — A Canal-Journey. — Visit to the Prison. — Future 
Railroads.— Animal Magnetism.— Van Buren's Progress. — Fourth of July with Sunday- 
School Children .......... 407 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
1839. 

The Pardoning Power.— Experiences, Sad and Grotesque— Going to Commencement.— Mrs. 
Clinton.- Henry Clay at Auburn.— President Van Huron in Albany. — A Requisition for 
Three Black Men.— Tour through the Northern Counties.— Conferences with Clay.— A 
Clever Caricature ......... 419 

CHAPTER XXV. 

1S39. 

Y '- it to"V? York.— The Amistad.— The Virginia Controversy.— Cole's Picture. 

—Military Reviews.— School Libraries.— Mprus Multicaulis Fever.— No Coal-Mines.— 
Church and State. — Election of a Whig Legislature.— Presidential Tours.— Partisanship 
in ( 'ttiee ........... 433 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XX VI. 

1839. 

The Harrisburg Convention. — General Harrison nominated. — Congress disorganized. — R. 
M. T. Hunter. — The Patroon. — The Helderberg War. — Story of a Youthful Friendship. 
— David Berdan. — Scotchmen. — Gulian C. Verplanck. — Frankenstein . page 447 

CHAPTER XXVn. 

1840. 

The Whigs in Power. — Appointments. — Virginia's Threats. — Antislavery Laws. — The 
Schools in New York. — The Old Writing-Chair. — The First Daguerreotypes. — Social 
Life. — John A. Kim;. — Stephens. — St. Patrick and St. George. — Natives and Foreigners. 
—The " Higher Law " ........ 458 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

1840. 

A Talk with the Onondagas. — Abraham Le Fort. — New Railways and Canals. — Registry 
Law. — The D'Hauteville Case. — Manorial Tenures. — Law Reform. — Bankrupt Law. — 
Silk Experiments.— The Staff Snuffbox.— Smoking .... 472 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

1840. 

Results of the Session. — Embarrassments of the Appointing Power. — Six Thousand Disap- 
pointments.— The Rathbun Forgery Case.— Outlook for the Presidential Contest- 
Escape of Lett. — Establishment of the Cunard Line .... 482 

CHAPTER XXX. 

1840. 

Cherry Valley Centennial.— The World's Antislavery Convention.— Georgetown wanting 
to get out.— The Sub-Treasury Law.— Prison Bibles.— Dtica Convention.— Renomina- 
tion.— Webster at Saratoga.— Caleb Cushing.— Edward Stanley.— Case of Cornelius 

488 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

1840. 

The Presidential Campaign.— " Old Tip."— Mass-Meetings.— Speeches and Songs.— The 
Conservatives.— Bishop Hughes.— The " Forty-Million Debt."— The Glentworth Ex- 
plosion.— Reception at All. any. —The Last Time a Candidate ... 495 



!2 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

1840. 

Bush for Federal Appointments.— Whig Jubilations.— Antislavery Party.— Virginia Con- 
troversy continued.— Thanksgiving.— Murder Cases.— The Electoral College page 508 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

1841. 

Second Inauguration. — A Prosperous State. — Burning of the Caroline. — Fox and Forsyth. — 
The Legislature on the Virginia Question. — The Colonial History. — Brodhead's Search 
among Dusty Records.— Cabinet-Making. — Granger. — No Secrets. — Legislative Fun. — 
John Duer.— Death of his Brother ...... 51G 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

1841. 

Administration at Washington. — Appointments. — The McLeod Case. — General Scott. 
— Crittenden. — Virginia Search Law. — Trial by Jury of Fugitive Slaves. — Crisis at 
Richmond. — Irishmen and Father Matthew. — Death of President Harrison. — Funeral 
Solemnities .......... 525 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

1841. 

Tyler sworn in.— Whig Hopes.— The T?-ibune.— The State Printing.— The " Nine Months' 

."—Sunday-Schools.— The Public Schools in New York.— The Blind and Mute.— 

The Oneidas.— McLeod's Arrest.— Correspondence with President Tyler . 533 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

1841. 

Proposal to stop Work on the Canals.— Whig Assembly turned Democratic.— Willis Gay- 
lord Clark.— The Senecas. — Tyler's Message. — The Georgia <'orrespondencc. — The 
Anti-rent Troubles.— Trip to New England.— Bob, tho Mocking-Bird.— McLeod Excite- 
ne Court Decision ....... 541 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
1841. 

Whig Troubles i I ton.— The Georgia Corn .—Stealing a Woman.— Re- 

fusal to be a Candidate.— Extra Session at Buffalo.— Lyell.— Murder of Marj Bodgers.— 
Webster and the McLeod Case.— The Vetoes.— Clay and Tyler.— Breaking up the 
Cabinet .......... 554 



CONTENTS. 13 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

1841. 

Spencer in the War Department. — Trial of McLeod. — An Alibi. — The Election. — A Demo- 
cratic Victory. — Letters to Adams and Scott. — The Prince de Joinville. — Lord Mor- 
peth. — Opening of Boston & Albany Kailroad. — Josiah Quincy. — O'Connell's Opinion 

page 565 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

1842. 

The Temperance Reform.— Opposition Plans and Discords.— The Right of Petition.— Sir 
Charles Bagot. — Dickens.— Lord Ashburton.— A Revolutionary Reminiscence. — Letter 
to Greeley.— Battle between Senate and Governor.— Expunging Messages . 577 

CHAPTER XL. 

1842. 

A Mammoth Petition.— Change of State Officers.— South Carolina Search-Law. — The " Fis- 
cal Agent." — Passage of the New York School Law. — Seward's Policy adopted. — Meet- 
ing of the Legislatures of Massachusetts and New York. — "Honest John Davis." — 
General Herkimer ......... 585 

CHAPTER XLI. 

1842. 

St. Patrick and Father Mathew.— Congressional Temperance Society.— The " Stop-and- 
Tax" Policy.— Aldermen as Judges.— The Liberty Party.— Gerrit Smith.— Closing 
Scenes of the Legislature.— Trial by Jury of Fugitives.— New York Riot.— Election 
Law 593 

CHAPTER XLII. 

1842. 

Lord Ashburton.—" The Dorr Rebellion " in Rhode Island.-Prigg <st. Pennsylvania.— 
Virginia Search Law.— Protestants and- Catholics.— Extradition.— Jenny, the Fawn.— 
Dickens.— Spencer.— "Wickliffe.— Hammond 598 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

1842. 

End of Rhode Island Rebellion.— Dr. Vinton.—" Notes on New York."— Opening of Cro- 
ton Aqueduct.— Collapse of United States Bank.— Presidential Nominations.— Guber- 
natorial Candidates.— Extradition.— The Ashburton Treaty ... 608 



14 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

1842. 

The Extra Session.— Stoppage of Public Works.— Repudiating States.— Carlin.— The Hutch - 
inflons.— The Millerites.— Webster and Adams.— Bradish and Bouck.— Address at State 
Fair.— Education of Farmers ....... page 017 

CHAPTER XLV. 

1842. 

The Croton Water Celebration.— Spencer and Tyler.— Election. — A Whig Overthrow. — Phi- 
losophy of Defeat. — The Murder of Samuel Adams. — Case of John C. Colt . 624 

CHAPTER XLYI. 

1842-1843. 

Last Month in Office. — Dr. Sprague. — Colonel Webb. — A Christmas Pardon. — Lewis Tap- 
pan. — Haifa Cord of Papers. — Case of Philip Spencer and Mackenzie. — A Week at the 
Eagle Tavern. — Governor Bouck ....... 635 

CHAPTER XLYII. 

1843. 

At Home again. — The Law-Office. — A Struggle for Independence. — The Mackenzie Inquiry. 
—The Virginia Question.— The City-Hall Portrait . . . . .645 

CHAPTER XLYIII. 

1843. 

War at Albany. — "Old Hunkers" and " Barnburners." — Harding. — Abolition Nomination. 

— Greeley and Fourier.— Law and Gardening. — Proposed Constitutional Convention. — 

on Repudiation. — O'Connell on Slavery .... 654 

CHAPTER XLIX. 
1843. 

Weed in Europe. —Letters from America.— Bunker Hill Monument.— Death of Legare.— 
Van Buri q, Cass, ami Calhoun.— Change of Professional Employment.— Patent Cases. 
— The End of the World . . . • • • .663 

CHAPTER L. 
1843. 

John I iburn. — Prediction about Slavery. — Inman and Harding. — A 

t.— Father Mathew. — Chancellor Kent. — Opinions vs. Commentaries. — 
.— " Hunkers" and " Barnburners " in Convention . . 671 



CONTENTS. 15 

CHAPTER LI. 

1843. 

Van Buren, Bouck, and Webster. — State Fair. — A Dramatic Scene. — Checks and Balances. 
— " Puseyism." — Morse's Telegraph. — A Candidate for no Office. — Fillmore and the 
Vice-Presidency. — Weed for Governor ..... page 680 



CHAPTER LII. 

1843-1844. 

Postal Eeforms. — Simultaneous Eepeal Meetings. — The Law's Delay. — Prescott's " Con- 
quest of Mexico." — Mocking- Bird Moralizings. — Legislative Battles. — Clay Meetings on 
Washington's Birthday. — Auburn Speech. — Fillmore and Seward. — The Texas Issue. 

688 

CHAPTER LIII. 

1844. 

Explosion of the " Peacemaker." — American Destiny. — Calhoun and Annexation. — Native 
American Movement. — Whig National Convention. — Clay and Frelinghuysen. — Greeley 
and Cooper. — Legislative Address. — Characteristics ..... ti'Jo 

CHAPTER LIV. 

1844. 

The Law-Office. — Eecollections of a Student. — A Church Quarrel. — " Third Parties." — 
Philadelphia Eiots. —Adams's Report. — Democratic National Convention. — Polk and 
Dallas .......... 70-4 

CHAPTER LV. 

1844. 

The Presidential Canvass. — Calhoun's Policy. — Texas and the Tariff. — Addresses at Union 
and Amherst.— Whig Mass Meetings.— Incidents of the Campaign.— Jealousies and 
Forebodings. — Ash and Hickory. — The Alabama Letter. — Clay's Defeat . . 715 

CHAPTER LVI. 

1844. 

Southern Exultation.— Clay defeated by Abolition Votes.— His Letter to Seward.— Gerrit 
Smith.— Weed in the West Indies.— Birth of a Daughter.— Death of his Mother.— 
Stage-coach Accident.— A Dislocated Shoulder.— John Stanton Gould . . 732 

CHAPTER LVII. 

1845. 

Convalescence.— At Work again.— The Greeley and Cooper Case.— Polk's Administration. 
—The Antislavery Movement.— Letter to Chase.— House and Grounds.— Birds and 
D °g s ........... 738 



IQ CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER LVIII. 

1845. 

Trip to Lake Superior.— Cleveland. — Detroit.— Lake Huron. — The Chippewas. — The Mani- 
tou.— French MissionarieB.— Mackinac— Henry B. Schoolcraft. — Sault Ste. Marie.— 
Down the Kapids. — Wigwam-Life ...... page 747 

CHAPTER LIX. 

1845. 

Texas annexed. — Humors of War. — Policy of the Whigs. — Governor Throop. — Free Suf- 
frage.— John Van Buren. — Fillmore. — Governor Wright. — Whig Discords. — Seward, 
Morgan, and Blatchford. — The S. S. Seward Institute .... 755 

CHAPTER LX. 
1845. 

Rural Cemeteries. — Constitutional Changes. — The Anti-Eenters. — Organizing a School. — A 
Pair of Ponies. — The Telegraph. — Hudson River Railroad. — Congress and Slavery Ex- 
tension. — Going to Washington . . . . . . . 762 

CHAPTER LXI. 
184G. 

Washington Life. — Causes in the Supreme Court. — The Oregon Question. — Stanley. — 
Washington Hunt. — The Adams Family. — Mrs. Gaines. — Mrs. Maury. — John M. Clay- 
ton. — Judge McLean. — General Scott ....... 707 

CHAPTER LXII. 
1846. 

Trip to Richmond and Norfolk.— The Happiest People in the World.— Benjamin Watkins 
Leigh. — President and Mrs. Polk. — Mr. Buchanan's Ball. — Governor Marcy and the 
Diplomats.— Colonel Benton.— The Calhouns.— Mrs. Madison.— Mrs. Hamilton.— The 
Oregon " Notice "........ 776 

CHAPTER LXIII. 

1846. 

Wyatt'e I !ase.— Winter Journey to Florida.— The Van Nest Murder.— A Bloody Mystery.— 
Popular Excitement. — Attempt to lynch Freeman. — A Solemn Appeal . . 785 

CHAPTER LXIV. 
1846. 

'triclc and his People.— Convention Delegates. — General Taylor marching to the Eio 
promise.— Wei >ster and Adams. — " 54° 40', or Fight ! " . 788 



CONTENTS. 17 

CHAPTER LXV. 

1846. 

Western Tour.— Pittsburg.— The Ohio Eivei\— Wheeling.— Cincinnati.— Louisville.— Lex- 
ington.— Cassius M. Clay.— Henry Clay at Ashland.— Southern Indiana and Illinois.— 
Vineennes.— Vandalia.— The Prairies.— Butler Seward.— St. Louis.— Steamboat-Life on 

the Mississippi.— Memphis.— New Orleans.— Volunteers for Mexico.— War proclaimed. 
— Palo Alto and Eesaca de la Palma. — The Future . . . page 7;! i 

CHAPTER LXVI. 

1840. 

The Trials for Murder. — Public Feeling. — Wyatt.— Arraignment of Freeman.— His Counsel. 
—His Story. — Sane or insane ?— Witnesses.— John Van Buren.— The Argument.— Con- 
viction and Sentence. — Seward's Epitaph ...... 809 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



AUTOBIOGEAPHT. 



1801-1816. 

Birth and Parentage. — Colonel John Seward. — School-Life in Orange County. — Witches. — 
The Great Eclipse. — The Eighteen States. — War with England. — Downfall of Napo- 
leon. — Kitchen and Parlor. — A Boy's Impressions about Slavery. 

It is natural that you should ask me to relate for you, in my leisure 
hours, as much as I can recall of what I have hitherto seen, and thought, 
and done. 

I can tell you little of my ancestors. I know the fathers of my 
father and mother only by name and tradition. John Seward, of Mor- 
ris County, New Jersey, has been described to me as a gentleman of 
Welsh descent, intelligent, public-spirited, and courteous. He bore, 
bravely and well, a colonel's commission in the Revolutionary War, 
and educated a numerous family respectably. He died in 1799. His 
wife, Mary Swezy, lived until 1816. I remember her as a highly- 
intellectual woman, pious as well as patriotic, although many of her 
relations had adhered to the British cause, and consequently found it 
convenient to seek an asylum, after the war, in Nova Scotia and 
Canada. Of my maternal grandfather, Isaac Jennings, I know only 
that he was of English derivation, a well-to-do farmer, who turned 
out with the militia of Goshen, and, more fortunate than most of 
his associates, escaped the Indian massacre at the battle of Minisink. 
His wife, Margaret Jackson, who was of Irish descent, survived him 
many years. Her peculiarity which I most distinctly remember was, 
antipathy toward the Roman Catholic religion. 

My father, Samuel S. Seward, received such a classic education as 
the academies of that period furnished, Columbia College, the only 
one in the colony of New York, being disorganized during the war. 
He was educated a physician, and during my minority practised his 



20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1801-'16. 

profession, to which occupation he added those of the farmer, the 
merchant, and county politician, magistrate, and judge, discharging 
the functions of all with eminent ability, integrity, and success, and 
gradually building up what at that day, and in that rural neighborhood, 
seemed a considerable fortune. He represented Orange County in 
the State Legislature in 1804, and showed much vigor and ability in 
debate. My mother, Mary Jennings, enjoyed only the advantages of 
education in country schools, but improved them. She is remembered 
by her survivors as a person of excellent sense, gentleness, truthful- 
ness, and candor. 

I was the fourth of six children, and the third son, born in 1801, 
May lGth. A daughter, older than myself, died in infancy; a second 
daughter and a son came after me. I have been told that the tender- 
ness of my health caused me to be early set apart for a collegiate 
education, then regarded, by every family, as a privilege so high and 
so costly that not more than one son could expect it. 

I remember only one short period when the schoolroom and class 
emulation were not quite so attractive to me as the hours of recess and 
recreation. But this devotion was not without its trials. My native 
village, Florida, then consisted of not more than a dozen dwellings. 
While the meeting-house was close by, the nearest schoolhouse was 
half a mile distant. It stood on a rock, over which hung a precipitous 
wooded cliff. The schoolhouse was one story high; built half of stone 
and half of wood. It had a low dark attic, which was reached by a 
ladder. They did say, at the time, that a whole family of witches dwelt 
in that wooded cliff above the schoolhouse by day, and that they came 
down from that favorite haunt and took up their lodgings, by night, in 
the little attic. 

One day, before I had reached the age at which I was to take a 
legitimate place in the school, I went there with my elder brothers, 
without parental permission. While there, and " all of a sudden," it 
grew dark ; the light from the windows failing. The larger boys and 
girls were formed in a circle, round the open door, to recite their cus- 
tomary lessons. I had no doubt that the tyrannical schoolmaster had 
kept us in school until night, and I expected every moment to see the 
atrial inhabitants of the hill enter the schoolhouse, and make short 
work of us all, for obstructing them in their way to their nocturnal 
abode in the garret. Crying vociferously, I was discharged from the 
school, and ran for my life homeward. On the way I met what seemed 
to me a great crowd, some of whom were looking down into a pail of 
standing water, while others were gazing into the heavens through 
ni'iiis of smoked glass. In after-years, I came to learn that I had 
thus been an observer of the total eclipse of the sun which occurred in 
the year 180G. The phenomenon repeated itself to me, sixly-three 



1801-'16.] SCHOOL-LIFE. 21 

long years afterward, under the sixtieth parallel of latitude, in the 
midst of the Indians of Alaska. 

I do not know how near I came to losing my destined preferment, 
by a failure to satisfy my father's expectations of my progress. 

He placed me on the counter of the store, and directed me to recite 
a poetical address, which I had committed to memory, before an audi- 
ence of admiring neighbors. When I had pei'formed this task, amid 
great applause, one of the persons present asked me which one of my 
father's many callings I should adopt. I had not been unobservant of 
the deference paid to the magistrate. I answered therefore, innocently, 
that I intended to be a justice of the peace. When my audience had 
dispersed, my father took me severely to task for not knowing that 
the office of magistrate was to be obtained through the favor of others, 
and not to be ambitiously usurped. This reproof, however, did not 
subdue my aspirations; judicial preferment continued to be the aim of 
my ambition until an advanced period in life. How often have I 
reflected that, whatever care and diligence we exercise, our fortunes in 
life are beyond our own control ! 

Franklin's lightning-rod was then a new invention. I was engaged 
out-doors in making reservoirs during a summer shower, when I was 
alarmed by a terrific peal of thunder. I gathered myself up and rushed 
toward the house for safety, but, falling by the way, a reflection came 
over me that the bolt always precedes the aerial report; that, conse- 
quently, I was safe already. From that time until now, I have never 
been alarmed by a commotion of the elements in that form. 

At the age of nine years I was transferred to the Farmers' Hall 
Academy at Goshen, where my father had been educated. I boarded 
there with two affectionate cousins, who were nieces of my father, and 
daughters of the brother-in-law under whom he studied his profession. 
You have known those ladies well. I need not tell you of the endur- 
ing friendship which grew out of that relation. I began then my study 
of Latin, but my rural training had not prepared me for association 
with the ambitious youth of the county capital, some of whom insisted 
that, as I came from a neighboring village, I must establish my right 
by single combat ; and all of whom were disgusted with my refusal to 
join them in shutting the master out when he required us to attend 
school on Christmas-day. I cheerfully retired in the spring to private 
life at home, where a graduate of a New England college had been 
employed in a new academy which, in the mean time, had been erected. 

My preparation for college was chiefly made here. I was not long 
in coming to the discovery that the elaborate education appointed for 
me had its labors and trials. My daily studies began at five in the 
morning, and closed at nine at night. The tasks were just the utmost 
that I could execute, and every day a little more ; even the intervals 



22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1801-' 16. 

allowed for recreation were utilized. It was my business to drive the 
cows, morning and evening, to and from distant pastures, to chop and 
carry in the fuel for the parlor-fire, to take the grain to mill and fetch 
the flour, to bring the lime from the kiln, and to do the errands of the 
familv generally ; the time of my elder brothers being too precious to 
permit them to be withdrawn from their labors in the store and on the 
farm. How happy were the winter evenings, when the visit of a 
neighbor brought out the apples, nuts, and cider, and I was indulged 
with a respite from study, and listened to conversation, which generally 
turned upon politics or religion ! 

My first schoolmaster in the new academy, whose name I will not 
mention, must have thought that I had an intuitive knowledge of the 
art of war, and an aptitude for unraveling the inversions of heathen 
poetry. He required me, unaided, to translate Caesar's most terse 
descriptions of his campaigns, and to render into English prose the 
most intricate and inverted lines of Virgil. When I failed in these 
tasks, he brought me upon the floor, with the classic in one hand and 
the dictionary in the other, to complete the work amid the derision or 
the pity of my youthful associates. This, although others were served 
in the same way, was more than I could bear. I contrived, ineffectu- 
ally, to lose my Latin books in the fields as I passed home ; and the 
schoolmaster, on his part, reported me to my father as too stupid to 
learn. This brought about the crisis, which was followed by explana- 
tions and reform. My father excited my emulation by telling me that 
1 might ultimately become :i great lawyer, like Theodore Frelinghuj-sen 
and Joseph C. Hornblower, of the neighboring State of New Jersey ; 
ami under that influence I readily acquired a double lesson within the 
time allowed for a single one. The schoolmaster no longer exposed 
me to disgrace, and I found study thenceforward as attractive as it had 
before been irksome under his severe administration. 

I cannot but think that, at that period, when recollections of the 
Revolution were quite recent, and the world was engrossed with the 
tremendous Napoleonic wars in Europe, men were more intensely 
earnesl than they are now. Of course, whatever thoughts I had, how- 
ever puerile, took their shape and complexion from the debates that I 
heard "n every side. 

Tin- firsl mental anxiety which I recall was, manifestly, an eitect of 
the fearful presentation of death and its consequences, so common in 
the sermons and exhortations of the clergy at that day; 1 hurried 
rapidly past the graveyard, the monuments of which were generally 
ornamented with a skull and cross-bones; and I made an especially 
wide circuit around the reputed resting-place, by the roadside, of a 
who had taken his own life. The murky theology of that period 
had filled til-- popular mind with a belief that not only the Evil One 



1S01-'16.J SCHOOL-LIFE. 03 

himself, but hordes of spirits he had seduced and ruined, were lurking, 
prowling, and intruding everywhere into human affairs, seeking only to 
destroy the unsuspicious, and that continually. I often was watchful 
at night, through fear that if I should fall asleep I should awake in the 
consuming flame which was appointed as a discipline that allows no 
reformation. My mother unwittingly cured me, in a large degree, of 
these painful imaginings. I overheard her earnestly protesting, in 
debate with some of her orthodox neighbors, that she could not believe, 
would not believe, and did not believe, that "there were infants in hell 
not a span long." I thought I was but a little longer than that meas- 
ure ; and I supposed my mother knew whereof she affirmed her faith. 
Reflecting upon this incident, it became an interesting study afterward, 
how constantly a decline of imaginary terrors in the future state of 
being attends the progress of mankind in natural science. Think of 
Dante's " Inferno," and of Milton's " Pandemonium ; " and yet the 
hell of both of those great poets, while depicted with the most vivid 
hues of the imagination, was described with all the sincerity of the 
firmest convictions of fact. 

I can now see that surrounding influences early determined me in 
the bent toward politics. Addison's " Cato " was presented in one of 
our school exhibitions ; and, although I was too young to take a part 
in the representation, it made me a hater of military and imperial usur- 
pation for life. I think it a misfortune that that great drama has lost 
its place on the modern stage. 

The opening of an academy at Florida was attended by one of those 
efforts for local improvement which, too often, prove merely convulsive, 
as this one did, but which can seldom be injurious. Too much is ex- 
pected of them, and the failure to realize all brings reaction, followed 
by ridicule, the most effective weapon of conservatism. The ascent to 
an academy, from a school which was of the lowest class, never attain- 
ing half the stability or character which belongs to the common school, 
under our present district system, was abrupt, and therefore impossible. 
Nevertheless teacher, parents, and pupils, were of one consent in trying 
it. Very ludicrous incidents occurred. The plan embraced four dis- 
tinct measures, all of which seemed to the pupils of my age, and per- 
haps even to our rural parents, new inventions. First, we were to 
learn to " declaim select pieces." Second, we were to " write original 
compositions." Third, we were to have a " debating society." Fourth, 
an annual or semi-annual " dramatic exhibition." 

Charles Jackson, a farmer's son, I think fourteen years old, but large 
enough for eighteen, dull and awkward, was called up to open the exer- 
cises in declamation, with the speech of Romulus on the foundation of 
Rome. At the first attempt, taking his place in the middle of the 
schoolroom, with arms hanging straight downward, and eyes dropped 



24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [ISOl-'IC. 

to the floor, he spoke the speech in a low and perfectly monotonous 
manner, and was dismissed, with the master's criticism that he had 
done very well for the first effort, but, on the next Thursday, he must 
speak with head erect, and turn from one side of the audience toward 
the other. With continual prompting, he managed to lift his eyes, 
and roll his head from right to left, with regular alternation, through 
the whole exercise. This proved, to the awkward boy, a sad encourage- 
ment, when it brought the further requisition that, on the third rehear- 
sal, he should gesticulate with his arms and change the posture of his 
feet. He honestly declared that he could not understand the process, 
nor the object of the required movements of his arms and legs. There- 
upon the master opened a page of " The Monitor," and showed him a 
diagram, in which the orator was represented standing with head erect, 
facing a dotted line drawn across the opposite wall, a similar dotted 
line drawn across under his feet, one arm horizontally extended from 
the shoulder, witli a dotted line extending from the end of the thumb 
to the wall, and the other arm raised at an angle of 45°, with a dotted 
line from the thumb of that hand stretching also diagonally to the wall. 
The diagram only confused the pupil still more. The master cleared 
up the affair, by taking a stand and going through the motions indi- 
cated by the diagram, shifting his feet, first to one side and then to the 
other, lifting one arm, then the other, and thus showed how easily it 
could be done. Thereupon Charles, thus instructed, took the master's 
place, and aiming, as well as he could, at the points designated on the 
wall, and turning his head to the right, lifted his right arm out, straight 
and stiff ; then, suddenly dropping that arm and turning his head to the 
left, he lifted the other to the same position, and so, with the regular- 
ity, precision, and quickness of a clock-pendulum, sawed the air, and 
meanwhile, with a drawling intonation, addressed the people of the 
ly-established city of Rome in a manner that Livy never dreamed 

of: 

"If all the strength of cities (sawing with right arm) 
Lay in the height of their ramparts (sawing with left arm), 
<>,• i ;' their ditches (sawing with right arm), 

We should have great reason t<> be in fear (sawing with left arm) 
For that which we have now A'//'//" (sawing with right arm). 

Charles Jackson I think was discouraged. He certainly never be- 
came even a stump-orator or a Methodist exhorter. 

It was mine to Lad off in the second great exercise — that of "ori- 
ginal composition." Not having the least idea of what was wanted, 
or how it was to be done, I moved to the side of Robert Armstrong, a 
young man eighteen years old, self-possessed and capable of instruct- 
in-- me, because he had already been a pupil at the famous academy of 
Mendhai . Be told me nothing was easier. "You are," 



1801-'16.] FOURTH OF JULY. 25 

said he, "first to take a subject, and then all you have to do is to 
write about it." 

" But," said I, " what is a subject ? " 

He replied, " It is anything you want to write about." 

" But," said I, " I don't know of anything that I do want to write 
about. I wish I could see a composition." 

" Well," said he, " if you won't tell, I will show you an old one of 
mine, that I wrote at Mendham." 

Havino- bound myself to secrecy, he showed me a composition, 
which was after this sort : " On Drunkenness." (A heavy black line 
was drawn under this caption.) " Drunkenness is the worst of all vices." 
Then followed an argument which, I think, well sustained the proposi- 
tion thus confidently announced. I do not know why, perhaps because 
I was constitutionally an optimist, I decided instantly that I would not 
choose, for my subject, anything that was naughty, bad, or wicked. 
So I said, " I will choose a different subject, and will show the com- 
position to you when it is written." He promised me his help. I 
wrote with great labor my essay, brought it and submitted it to him. 

It began : " On Virtue. Virtue is the best of all vices ! " My success 

iii my department seemed as hopeless as Charles Jackson's in his. 

The " dramatic exhibition " was abandoned after a single perform- <• 
ance. " The Debating Society " continued, with interruptions, sev- 
eral years. I profited by the debates, although I think, from diffidence 
or some other cause, I did not participate in them. The. debate was at 
that day a prominent feature of college societies. If I were required 
now to say from what part of my college education I derived the great- 
est advantage, I should say, the exercises of the' Adelphic Society. It 
was under this conviction that I afterward cheerfully associated myself 
with debating societies, during the studies of youth in Goshen, New 
York, and Auburn. 

There was of course an annual or nearly annual celebration of the 
Fourth of July. My first conception of the dignity and destiny of our 
country arose out of these rural festivities. In one of them, a skiff 
was brought from the neighboring mill-pond, mounted on a wagon, 
over a carpet, which covered the wheels. Four horses were harnessed 
before it. In the stern stood my elder brother, who personated Colum- 
bus, listening intently to Miss Fanny Bailey, a farmer's pretty daugh- 
ter, who stood by his side, as the Genius of America, and pointed 
toward scenes " by distance made more attractive." Two village lads, 
representing boatmen, plied their busy oars above the carpet. I was 
among the curious and anxious crowd of boys who clustered around the 
wagon, as it moved, to the measured strains of martial music, along the 
road to the foot of the hill which is crowned by the village church, 
and thence made its way up the lawn in front with a graceful sweep, 



26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1801 -'16. 

and over many hillocks beneath which " the rude forefathers of the 
hamlet sleep." The eventful barge came to a stop, and the great dis- 
coverer, with his guardian genius, alighted upon an island extemporized 
for the occasion, by sods, plants, and trees, and inhabited by one stuffed 
fox, three or four chained gray squirrels, and a painted and alarmed 
Indian chief, crouching in the foliage, the whole revealing, to his won- 
dering and fascinated eyes, the island of San Salvador, the earnest of a 
New World, which was now to be added to the kingdom of Castile 
and Leon. I was much older before I appreciated the wit with which 
the village attorney travestied the ode that was sung on the memora- 
ble occasion by the village choir : 

" Columbus sing ; for it is he 
Can poise the globe and bound the sea, 
Can boldly sail through waves unseen, 
And find an island on the green." 

There were, at that time, only eighteen members of the American 
Union. At the next anniversary their greatness and felicity were sym- 
bolized by eighteen boys, whom their mothers had carefully dressed in 
white muslin coats and trousers, with white-paper caps on their heads 
and pretty blue sashes around their waists, and the neatest blackened 
shoes possible. These formed in procession, each carrying a green- 
bordered white banner, upon which was printed the name of some one 
of the renowned civil and military founders of the republic. It was 
my part to personate my native State, by no means then the " Empire 
State," and on my banner I bore the pure and chivalrous name of " La- 
fayette." T have loved, honored, and lamented the gallant French hero 
since that time, and I suppose I shall die loyal to New York, and to the 
Federal Union. 

While these patriotic experiences were going on, war was pro- 
claimed by the United States against Great Britain. The village uni- 
formed artillery-company, to the number of forty swords, came out 
upon the green, and fired a salvo, which, according to my thinking, 
gave the enemy notice of what he might expect. Just in the moment 
when 1 was listening for the news that General Hull had conquered 
Canada, and annexed it all, with Gaspe and Newfoundland, to the 
United States, came the astounding disappointment of that unfortunate 
general's surrender and capitulation, at Detroit, without the discharge 
of a single musket! Then quickly came the recruiting-lieutenant, with 
a cockade in his hat, and red trimming on his coat; then came the 
departure of the artillery to New York for the defense of the city; 

n the draft. The long and sad story of military failures was relieved 
by the brilliant achievements in the campaign of Scott, on the Canada 
frontier, and the o-lorious naval victories on the lakes and the ocean. 



1801-'16.] KITCHEN AND PARLOR. of 

I took new courage and new hope from these achievements, and the 
victory at New Orleans compensated me for the defeat and overthrow 
of Napoleon, which caused me to weep, because I had come to regard 
him as an ally of the United States. I had already become old enough 
to understand that a domestic part}' which continues to oppose and 
assail the government, when engaged in a foreign war, becomes, 
though indirectly and unintentional!}', an ally of the enemy. It was 
not until long after the dissolution of the Federal party that I became 
able to believe its members as loyal to the country as their opponents 
on the issue newly raised between them. 

In later life, when our militia system was falling into disuse and 
ridicule, men wondered at the personal vanity which they supposed I 
manifested by continuing to hold and fill its offices. A remembrance 
of the War of 1812, and of its losses and sufferings, increased by reason 
of inadequate military preparation, determined me to adhere to and 
uphold the reviled militia system, which a republican government, if it 
means to endure, must always substitute in time of peace for the stand- 
ing army. Even at this late day, when many of the different titles of 
honor allowed by our form of government have descended, as if in a 
copious shower, upon me, I am not at all ashamed when one of the 
surviving veterans, whom I commanded before going into the higher 
departments of civil life, accosts me in the presence of visitors from 
distant States or countries with the now obsolete title of " general," 
" colonel," or " captain." 

There was existing at that time a social anomaly, which I long found 
a perplexing enigma. Besides my parents, brothers, and sisters, all of 
whom occupied the parlor and the principal bedrooms, there were in 
the family two black women, and one black boy, who remained exclusive 
tenants of the kitchen and the garret over it. The kitchen fireplace 
stretched nearly across the end of the room. A grown person need 
hardly stoop to get under the mantel. The supply of wood was pro- 
fuse, and the jambs at the side of the fireplace were not only the 
warmest but the coziest place in the whole house. The group that 
gathered round this fireplace could be enlarged by merely sweeping a 
new circle. Turkeys, chickens, and sirloin, were roasted ; cakes and 
pies were baked at this noble fire. Moreover, the tenants of the kitchen, 
though black, had a fund of knowledge about the ways and habits 
of the devil, of witches, of ghosts, and of men who had been hanged; 
and, what was more, they were vivacious and loquacious, as well as 
affectionate, toward me. What wonder that I found their apartment 
more attractive than the parlor, and their conversation a relief from the 
severe decorum which prevailed there ? I knew they were black, 
though I did not know why. If my parents never uttered before me a 
word of disapproval of slavery, it is but just to them to say that they 



2S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1801-'16. 

never uttered an expression that could tend to make me think that the 
negro was inferior to the white person. The few rich families in the 
neighborhood had as many as or more than we ; others had only one. 
While the two younger of my father's slaves attended school, and sat 
at my side if they chose, I noticed that no other black children went 
there. After a time I found that the large negro family of a neighbor 
were held in disrepute for laziness, drunkenness, and disorder; and that 
they came under suspicion of having stolen anything that either was 
lost or was supposed to be. Zeno, a negro boy in the family of an- 
other neighbor, was a companion in my play. He told me one day 
that he had been whipped severely, and the next day he ran away. He 
was pursued and brought back, and wore an iron yoke around his neck, 
which exposed him to contempt and ridicule. He found means to break 
the collar, and fled forever. In the mean time, both of my father's 
female servants were seduced and disgraced ; and the third, a boy, 
followed Zeno in his flight. I regarded all this immorality and wicked- 
ness just as inexcusable and ungrateful toward their masters as it 
would have been in me to bring dishonor upon my parents ; nor had I 
any distinct idea of any difference between the relations of children and 
slaves. A black woman died in the neighborhood at the age, it was 
said, of one hundred years. She had been imported when young ; and 
she died asserting a full belief that she was then going back to her 
native Guinea. How could such a superstition be accounted for? 
How could the ignorance and vice of these black people, living in the 
midst of a moral and virtuous community, be accounted for? I early 
came to the conclusion that something was wrong, and the " gradual 
emancipation laws" of the State, soon after coming into debate, en- 
abled me to solve the mystery, and determined me, at that early age, to 
be an abolitionist. Shall I not stop now to say that, while the family of 
which I was a member has increased, until it numbers more than eighty 
persons, all of whom hold respectable positions in society, and some 
one or more of whom are to be found in every quarter of the globe — 
tin- descendants of that slave family in my father's kitchen now number 
but seven, and these have their only shelter under a roof which I pro- 
vide for them ? 

So time wont on, and I went on with it, closing my preparatory 
studies in a new term of six months at the old academy in Goshen, 
with little variation of habit or occupation, except that my parents 
occasionally permitted me to attend them in their social visits at New- 
burg. These excursions gave me the only glimpses I then had of life 
outside of the sweet little valley in which I was cradled. 



1816-'18.] ALBANY IN 1816. 29 



1816-1813. 

First Steamboat Journey. — Chancellor Kent. — College-Life at Schenectady. — The Mohawk 
Trade. — Dr. Nott. — Wayland. — "Welcome to Daniel D. Tompkins. 

I thixk I am six years older than the first steamboat on the Hud- 
son. But my first sight of a vessel of that kind was when I embarked 
on one, at night, to ascend that river on my way to college. What a 
magnificent palace ! What a prodigy of power, what luxury of enter- 
tainment, what dazzling and costly lights ! More than by all these 
was I struck with the wondrous crowd of intelligent passengers, among 
whom some youthful acquaintances, newly made, pointed out many of 
the eminent men of the day. But no one was able to identify Chan- 
cellor Kent, who was said to be on board. At noon there was what I 
thought to be an alarm of colliding with some other vessel, or running 
upon a rock, or encountering an enemy. The vessel certainly scraped 
against something that obstructed her speed. The captain had mounted 
a bench on deck, and was objurgating violently with somebody on the 
level of the water below. I climbed up behind the crowd, and saw 
that we were running against upright poles, which had been stuck into 
the river-bottom by the fishermen. A short, thick-set, cheery -looking 
man leaped upon the bench, and, seeing at a glance the state of the 
case, cried out in a loud voice, heard by all : " That's right, captain ! 
that's right ! bring those fellows into my court, and I'll take care of 
them ! " This was Chancellor Kent, the great judge, who was uphold- 
ing the steamboat monopoly conferred by the State of New York upon 
its citizens, Fulton and Livingston, against the no less great and finally 
overruling authority, the Supreme Court of the United States. The 
monopoly was lost ; the inventors died unrewarded ; but the public 
gained. On my first passage I paid eight dollars fare. We now make 
the entire voyage of the navigable Hudson for fifty cents. Chancellor 
Kent was the most buoyant and cheerful of men. When he afterward 
lost his great office and its dignity, he told me that he had never ex- 
perienced any disappointment worth grieving over. "A gentleman 
wants," he said, " only a clean shirt and a shilling, every day, and I 
have never been without them." 

Have I ever seen, in after-life, a city so vast, so splendid, so im- 
posing as Albany, that then loomed up before me ? Not Paris, not 
Benares, not even Constantinople, inspired me with so much awe. And 
then the figure of blind Justice, with her sword and scales, that sur- 
mounts the little red-stone Capitol. What patriotic pride it inspired ! 
While the stages were coming up, I ran stealthily up into Pearl Street, 
and, looking through the fence, I fed my wondering eyes with a sight 
of the house in which the loyal and patriotic Governor Tomj>kins lived. 



30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1816-'18. 

But it was not my destiny yet to see the chief magistrate of my native 
State. 

The country between Albany and Schenectady, slightly rolling, was 
then a sandy and almost sterile plain, without culture or dwellings, 
except the frequent taverns on the broad turnpike-road. This road, 
roughly paved at first, had been renderd nearly impassable by heavy 
wagons. In the stunted pine-woods on either side were huts or 
hovels of a vagrant race called " Yancys," who had the habits of gyp- 
sies, and were said to be a mixture of debased whites, vicious negroes, 
and Indians. I do not know, nor have I ever heard, in what way they 
disappeared. 

At Schenectady I alighted on the bank of the Mohawk River, then 
navigated with " bateaux." I think that ideas of material improve- 
ment come to us later than those belonging to every other form of 
social progress. I had found the Hudson River gay with canvas, the 
intermediate turnpike crowded with freight and emigrant-wagons ; and 
I now found the narrow, shallow Mohawk filled with fiat-bottomed 
produce-boats. It was not 3'et, nor indeed until a much later period, 
that I was to conceive my first idea of the commercial and political im- 
portance of this great thoroughfare. 

It has been my habit always to distrust my capacity and qualifi- 
cations for every new enterprise. Mr. Givens gave me a generous 
breakfast at his hotel, and cheered me with the recollections of his 
acquaintance with my father when he was a member of the Assembly 
at Albany ; but I had no heart for either of these enjoyments. I 
climbed the College Hill with a reluctant and embarrassed step, to 
offer myself for an examination at which I feared I might not pass. I 
called at the office of the register, Mr. Holland, and by him was imme- 
diately introduced into the presence of the Professor of Mathematics 
and Natural Philosophy. The college catalogue, which I had carefully 
read, described him as the Rev. Thomas McCauley, Doctor of Divinity 
and Doctor of Laws. I wondered at my presumption in coming into 
so high a presence. The professor inquired which of the classes I sup- 
posed myself prepared to enter. I summoned boldness to answer that 
I had studied for examination to enter the junior class. He immedi- 
ately put me through a scries of questions for half an hour, in several 
preparatory class-books, and pronounced me more than qualified. He 
then asked my age, and on receiving the answer, "fifteen," he replied 
that my studies had carried me beyond my years ; the laws of the col- 
lege making sixteen the age for entering the junior class. I did not 
regret the decision. Life at college seemed very attractive ; and my 
previous excess of preparation would make my studies easier. Long 
before night my " chum " was chosen, my room supplied with the cheap 
furniture which the college regulations required, and I sat down to 



1816-'18.] COLLEGE-LIFE. 31 

meditate, with self-complacency, on the dignity of my new situation. 
I was duly matriculated as sophomore ; and these two large words 
signified, for me, a great deal, because I had not the least idea of the 
meaning of either. Within a week my habits of life were established. 
The class competition required diligent but not excessive study; while 
I felt a conscious self-satisfaction in being trusted to pursue my studies 
and govern my conduct without the surveillance of parent or teacher. 
The companionship of intelligent and emulous classmates harmonized 
with my disposition, while I cherished in my secret thoughts aspira- 
tions to become, at the end of my three 3-ears, the valedictorian of my 
class. In college-life, if one looks beyond that distinction at all, it is 
only with the full belief that unto him who obtains that honor all 
other honors shall come without labor or effort. 

Union College, founded in 1795, was now, in 1S1G, at, or near the 
height of its prosperity. The President, Dr. Nott, ranked with the 
most popular preachers of the day ; while his great political talents se- 
cured him the patronage of all the public men in the State. The dis- 
cipline of the college was based on the soundest and wisest principles. 
There was an absence of everything inquisitorial or suspicious ; there 
were no courts or impeachments ; every young man had his appointed 
studies, recitations, and attendance at prayers ; and a demeanor was 
required which should not disturb the quiet or order of the institution. 
If he failed or offended, he was privately called into the presence of 
the president or professor, remonstrated with, and admonished that 
repeated failure would be made known to his parents for their consid- 
eration, while habitual insubordination would be visited witli dismissal. 
What notices were given to parents was never known to any but them- 
selves and their son ; nor was any offender ever disgraced by a public 
notice of his expulsion. I think I know of no institution where a man- 
lier spirit prevailed among the uncler-graduates than that which distin- 
guished the pupils of Dr. Nott. I cannot speak so highly of the system 
of instruction. There was a daily appointment of three tasks, in as 
many different studies, which the pupils were required, unaided, to 
master in their rooms, the young, the dull, and the backward, equally 
with the most mature and the most astute. The pupil understood that 
he performed his whole duty when he recited these daily lessons with- 
out failure. With most of us the memory was doubtless the faculty 
chiefly exercised ; and where so much was committed mechanically to 
memory, much was forgotten as soon as learned. It was a consequence 
of this method of instruction, which, I think, was at that day by no 
means peculiar to Union College, that every study was not a continu- 
ous one, but consisted of fragmentary tasks, while no one volume or 
author was ever completed. The error, if it be one, is, I suppose, inci- 
dental to our general system of education, which sacrifices a full and 



32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1816-'18. 

complete training of the individual to the important object of af- 
fording the utmost possible education to the largest number of citi- 
zens. 

My first session in college was not without its mortifications. When 
1 came to write what are called compositions, I found that, having 
rarely practised it, I wrote with difficulty, and confusedly, and it seemed 
to me that difficulty was incurable, because I had no general supply of 
facts or knowledge. The first time I rose to speak I encountered a 
general simper, which, before I got through, broke into laughter. On 
carefully inquiring the reasons, 1 found I had a measured drawl. More- 
over, the dress which I wore was not of sufficiently fine material, hav- 
ing been awkwardly cut by the village tailor, who came annually to 
my father's to prepare the wardrobe for the whole rustic family. The 
former difficulty was so far surmounted as to save me from future morti- 
fication ; the latter, which did not depend upon any efforts of my own, 
was only surmounted by my early falling into debt to the accomplished 
tailors of Schenectady ; and this was the beginning of many and seri- 
ous woes. There was, moreover, a third difficulty. I conceived a 
desire, not merely to acquire my lessons, but to understand them as 
well. I had not yet learned either to suspect, or to be suspected of, dis- 
honor. Finding, in my Latin author, passages too obscure to be solved 
unaided, I went freely, though meekly, to the tutor, and obtained his 
assistance during the study-hours. Soon afterward the leading mem- 
bers of the class, witli the support of the rest, determined to oblige the 
accomplished tutor to give them shorter lessons, and more frequent 
holidays. They attempted to effect this by throwing asafcetida on the 
heated stove, and, when this proceeding failed, one, bolder than the 
rest, standing behind the tutor, pulled him by the hair. Of course he 
found out the offenders, and of course they were punished. The whole 
class suspected an informer; and who could the informer be but myself, 
who excelled them all in the recitations, who refused to go into the 
general meeting, and who was seen daily going to and from the tutor's 
room upon some errand unexplained ? This, I think, was my first ex- 
perience of partisan excitement. I need not say that I never afterward 
offended my classmates by seeking to obtain special instruction or aid 
from my teachers. 

It was about this time that I first came to be personally known to 
the president, Dr. Xott. My tutor in Homer was then known as Mr. 
Wayland, afterward the distinguished and learned Rev. Dr. "Wayland, 
author of an excellent treatise on "Moral Philosophy," and President 
of Brown University, lie seemed to be much abstracted. Our class, 
though it was large enough to form two or three sections, nevertheless 
recited together. It happened, of course, that any one lesson would 
be exhausted in going one-third through the class. The tutor invari- 



lSlG-'IS.] DR. NOTT AND DR. WAYLAXD. 33 

ably began each new recitation at that point in the class where he had 
stopped the previous day. The members, knowing by this practice the 
davs on which they would not be called upon to recite, contracted the 
habit of carrying, with their Homer, novels, or other light literature, 
into the hall to occupy them during the recitation. Bolder than the 
rest, I carried my book of amusement without a Homer, making no dis- 
guise of it. My next neighbor in the class was a simple-minded, in- 
offensive, dull young man, who was seldom if ever prepared, but who 
depended on me to help him through by whispering. The tutor, desir- 
ous to correct so objectionable a practice as that into which the class had 
fallen, one day skipped from one end of the class to the other, and 
called up this unfortunate friend of mine. He had a novel concealed 
by his Homer. Taken all aback, he asked me what he should do. I 
was surprised by the tutor's adopting this mode of correcting his previ- 
ous mistake ; and, moreover, I knew that my companion would be quite 
unable to recite the lesson with any help I could give him. I told him, 
therefore, in a whisper, to answer that he was not prepared. He did 
so. The tutor insisted. In a more earnest and louder voice I instructed 
my companion to say that he could not recite. Some one, however, 
found the place for him, and he got through badly enough. The tutor 
then said, "The next, Air. Seward." I had already committed myself 
to insubordination by the instruction I had given to my unfortunate 
neighbor, and I answered that I declined to recite to-day. " What is 
the reason ? " I replied, " I do not know that I am prepared." He 
said, "I thought you might assign that reason; and, therefore, I have 
called you to recite to-day from the book which one of your classmates 
now offers you — the very lesson which you recited only yesterday, from 
memory, without any book at all." I answered with decision, " I shall 
not recite to-day." "Then, sir, you will please leave the room." I 
obeyed. That night I received a summons from the teacher to apologize 
to him for my insubordination. I declined to comply, unless the tutor 
would at the same time apologize to me for having resorted to a sur- 
prise which exposed me to the class, instead of having given me notice 
privately, or the class some notice publicly, of his desire to change his 
system of examination. He declined to do this. The next day when 
I came to the recitation my name was omitted in the call ; and a like 
omission of my name occurred in all the recitations. I left the college, 
and took up my lodgings in the city, upon this implied hint that I was 
suspended. After two weeks Dr. Nott sent for me, and asked me what 
I was doing, and why I was absent from college. 

I gave him the facts of the case. 

He asked me why I did not come back. 

I answered, "The tutor requires me to apologize." 

" Why, then, don't you apologize, my son ?" 
3 



34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1816-'18. 

I replied, " I think the tutor did me the first wrong-, and he ought 
to apologize to me first." 

"If the tutor would apologize to you, would you then apologize to 
him?" 

" Oh, yes, I am quite convinced that I was wrong ; but he was wrong- 
before me." 

"Well, my son, suppose that I should apologize to you for him, 
would you be willing to apologize to me for his benefit?" 

" Certainly." 

" "Well, then, I do say that I think the tutor would have acted more 
wisely in telling the class that he had observed the erroneous practice 
into which they had fallen, and appealed to them to correct it." 

" Well, then," I replied, " I confess that it would have been better 
and more becoming in me to recite my lesson, with an explanation of 
my sense of the grievance of the class." 

" Now, my son, go to your room, and resume your studies, and re- 
flect upon this incident, whenever you are tempted to stand upon the 
punctilio of anybody." 

If there is one enjoyment of youth higher than another, it is found 
in the pleasant vacations which the college student spends in the so- 
ciety of his family and friends at home. Next to this is the enjoyment 
of return to industrious and emulous pursuits when the vacation is 
ended. The college reports of my study and demeanor gratified my 
parents and encouraged me. There was only one drawback, and that 
was my entire failure to bring my expenses to an equation with the 
parental allowance. There were small things, not in the estimates, 
with which I could not dispense. Not the least of these was my equal 
portion of the expenses of recreations, not to speak of the sums which 
I could not refuse to give away in charity, or to lend to juvenile bor- 
rowers, by whom 1 am not yet reimbursed. Moreover, the more I re- 
trenched these expenditures, the more the quarterly appropriation was 
reduced. 

Nor did the established system of awarding the college honors, 
which was then universal in the United States, and, for aught I know, 
may be so now, escape distrust on my part. The honors of the class 
srved for the close of the entire academic course, at the end of 
senior year. ( lompetition for these honors began at the organiza- 
tion of the freshman class, and the final award depended upon the 
smallest number of failures exhibited in recitations during the entire 
course. The class had hardly commenced its curriculum before candi- 
dates appeared, as in the case of a presidential election, demanding, 
prematurely, a division of the faculty, and of the suffrages of the class. 
It was impossible to avoid a suspicion that the partiality of the faculty 
was to he won \)y servile or unmanly compliances Avith their caprices. 



1816-'18.] DANIEL D. TOMPKINS. 35 

However that might be, I thought I discovered that the competitors 
who aspired to the great reward came to exhibit less of sympathy than 
others with their classmates, and to take a more contracted view of 
subjects of general interest. In short, while I would have been willing 
to receive the honors of valedictorian, I doubted very much whether 
they were to be desired at the expense of, at least, the isolation which 
the pursuit of them involved. I do not know how much I had become 
demoralized, by sentiments of this sort, at the beginning of the junior 
year, but I was brought to a serious reconsideration of them, when it 
was finally announced that the Phi Beta Kappa Society of the United 
States, which embraced in its members all the eminent philosophers; 
scholars, and statesmen of the country, and which had already three 
branches — one at Harvard, one at Yale, and one, I think, at Dartmouth 
— had determined to establish a fourth branch at Union College, and 
that its membership would be conferred, at the end of the year, upon 
those only of the junior class who excelled in scholarship. Ought I not 
to be ambitious to have my name enrolled in a society of which De 
Witt Clinton, Chancellor Kent, and Dr. Nott, were members ? Would 
it not be a disgrace to be left out ? Besides, the Phi Beta Kappa was 
a secret society, and was it not a case of laudable pride and curiosity, 
not merely to acquire great secrets of science, but to hold them in 
common with the great men of the country and the age ? I determined 
to make a trial. My room-mate agreed to share with me the labors 
and privations of it. We quitted the college commons, supplied our- 
selves with provisions for living in our own room throughout the long 
period of trial. We rose at three o'clock in the morning, cooked and 
spread our own meals, washed our own dishes, and spent the whole 
time which we could save from prayers and recitations, and the table, 
in severe study, in which we unreservedly and constantly aided each 
other. The fruits of this study were soon seen in our work. It was 
not enough for us to solve the most difficult equation in algebra or 
problem in Euclid upon the black-board, but we went through them 
without the use of lines or figures ; it was not enough for us to read 
Homer or Cicero, translating the passages, word by word, into English, 
but, when called upon to recite, we closed the book, and recited the 
text in a carefully prepared and euphonious version. Need I say that 
we entered the great society without encountering the deadlv black- 
ball ? 

The junior year closed with introducing me into a political field, 
much broader than that of the college. Daniel D. Tompkins had been 
advanced, in 1816, to the vice-presidency of the United States. A 
schism, which occurred in the same election, had divided the Republican 
party into two sections : at the head of one of which was De Witt 
Clinton, then the Governor of the State ; and at the head of the ether 



3fi AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1818-'19. 

was Martin Van Buren. The latter faction, despairing of defeating 
Governor Clinton in the election, had nominated the popular Vice- 
President for the gubernatorial office. My training at home had pre- 
pared me to be an earnest admirer of Tompkins, and of course hostile 
to Clinton. Vice-President Tompkins, at the request of his party, 
made a progress through the eastern part of the State, and, in " swing- 
ing round the circle," came to Schenectady. He had a reception in the 
citv, which, of course, was a party one. The Republican students, 
nicknamed " Buck-tails," thought it a patriotic duty to receive him at 
the college. Should I not study carefully the first political speech I 
was to make, especially when that speech was an address to the great- 
est patriot and statesman whom my native State had produced ? I did 
study the speech, and I did make it ; but, like many other well-studied 
speeches, made to or for political candidates in our country, this effort 
of mine " fell on stony ground ; " and, in spite of the advice of the 
Republican students of Union College, De Witt Clinton was reelected 
Governor of the State of New York. 



1818-1819. 

A College Escapade. — A Coasting-Voyage. — Six Months in Georgia. — Kindly Patrons. — Tho 
Union Academy. — Planters and Slaves. — Law-Studies. — Eeturn to College. — Adelphic 
'hilomathean. — A Secession. — Trial and Defense. — Commencement Honors. 

The first session of the senior class came on in September, 1818, 
and I was to take my degree in .Inly, 1819. The financial misunder- 
standing with my father, at which I have already hinted, increased by 
the intrusion of the accomplished tailors of Schenectady, had brought 
a crisis which I had Ion;}- apprehended. I would by no means imply a 
present conviction that the fault in the case was altogether with my 
father. On the other hand, I think now that the fault was not alto- 
gether mine However this may have been, he declined to pay for me 
bills thai he thought unreasonable; and I could not submit to the 
shame of credit impaired. I resolved thenceforth upon independence 
and self-maintenance. 

On th«' 1st of .January, 1810, without notice to him, or any one 

I 1'1't Union College, as I thought then forever, and proceeded 

by stage-coach to New York with a classmate who was going to 

lake cliargf of an academy in Georgia. I had difficulty in avoiding 

srvation as I passed through Newburg, the principal town of the 
county in which my father lived. Arriving in New York for the first 

, I would have staid to see its curiosities and its wonders, but 
I feared pursuit. I took passage, with my fellow-traveler, on the 
schooner which was first to sail for Savannah : hvt the vessel was 



1818-'19.] A SEA-VOYAGE. 37 

obliged to wait for a wind. I lived on board during this detention, so 
as to avoid discovery on shore. The last night before our departure, 
with the permission of the captain of the schooner, I went to the Park 
Theatre, the only one then in New York. Not merely my education, but 
my straitened circumstances, impressed me with the importance of econo- 
mizing in this my first act of dissipation. I bought the cheapest ticket, 
price twenty-five cents, and of course ascended to the gallery in entire 
ignorance of all other grounds of discrimination than that of economy. 
Taking no notice of my surroundings, I wept with Mrs. Barnes in the 
tragedy until the curtain fell on the first act, when I discovered that I 
had become, for some cause, the object of sneering remark and con- 
temptuous laughter among the promiscuous crowd of both sexes who 
occupied the opposite side of the gallery. As I looked immediately 
around me to see what could be the cause, a negro man of middle age, 
black as the ace of spades, but gentle of speech, approached me meekly 
and said, "Guess young master don't know that he's got into the 
colored folk's part of the gallery." I thanked him, repaired to my proper 
position, and the jibes and laughter ceased. From what I afterward 
learned of the usages of the theatre, I suppose it may be doubtful 
whether the change was for the better in a moral point of view ; but 
the immediate effect of the incident was to awaken my distrust of my 
ability to begin the world alone. 

At sunrise next morning there was a rushing of the wind and the 
sea. We were under way. Full of curiosity, I leaped from my ele- 
vated berth upon the floor, and fell like a drunken man against the 
opposite side of the cabin. Gathering my clothes in my hand, I 
climbed the stairs ; but no toilet was to be made until I had paid the 
tribute which the ocean exacts of every navigator on his first voyage. 
The weather was cold, and the sea rough. I crept into a peddler's 
wagon freighted with dried codfish, and made my breakfast upon it. 
After that I went to the cabin, only to sleep. The confinement to the 
deck was not a great privation, for a voyage then on a coasting- 
schooner had few conveniences and no luxuries. On the seventh day 
we crossed Tybee, and anchored in the river at Savannah. What an 
unexpected transition from New York, which I had left congealed and 
covered with snow, to Savannah, which seemed embowered among 
trees and flowers ! I was in haste, because my funds were small and I 
feared pursuit. I rode by stage-wagon to Augusta, the way at night 
often lighted up by immigrants' camp-fires, which consumed the dry, 
girdled trees. My associate and I made inquiries at Augusta, and 
he contracted there for employment in the academy in that city. I 
proceeded by stage-coach as far as it went, and then hired a gig, which 
landed me at Mount Zion, in a society that had lately been founded 
there by immigrants from Orange County, to whom I was known. They 



38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1818-'19. 

were under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Beman, who afterward be- 
came so distinguished a preacher at Troy, in the State of New York. 
Here I rested one or two days, while my linen was washed ; and then, 
no longer able to hire a conveyance, I took the road on foot for a 
journey thirty miles, more or less, to Eatonton, the capital town of 
Putnam County. Farmers, there called " Crackers," cheerfully gave 
me a lift as I overtook them on the way, and shared their provisions 
with me. Arriving at the town late at night, and weary, I was shown 
into a large ballroom, which I found filled with long rows of cots, one 
of which was assigned to me. My reflections in the morning were by 
no means cheerful. Inquiring of the tavern-keeper, I learned that the 
academy which I was looking for was in a new settlement, ten miles 
distant. I was to make that journey with only nine shillings and six- 
pence, New York currenc} 7 , in hand, after paying my reckoning The 
shirt 1 wore, of course, was soiled with the wear of travel, and the 
light cravat I wore was worse. I invested eight shillings in a neck- 
cloth, which concealed the shirt -bosom, and with the one and sixpence 
remaining I resumed my journey. 

Arriving at a country store, standing at the cross-roads, after walk- 
ing eight miles, I came to a rest, communicated the news which I had 
received at Eatonton, and in return was enlightened with the mer- 
chant's news of the admission of Missouri into the Union, then under 
debate in Congress, and with what was more directly to my own pur- 
pose, the names and residences of the planters living in the neighbor- 
hood who had founded the new academy of which I was in search. 
I was directed to Mr. Ward, whose house was distant two miles and a 
half, as the person to whom I should apply. Going a mile and a half 
through the woods, I became both hungry and thirsty, and quite too 
weary to go farther. A double cottage, built of logs, that is to say, a 
log-house of one story, with two rooms, one on each side of the door, 
invited me. It was new, its windows were without glass, and its chim- 
not yet "topped out;" but manifestly it was occupied, because 
domestic utensils lay about the doorway, and the blanket which served 
for a door was drawn up. I found there a lady, yet youthful, and 
handsome as she was refined, with her two small children. The owner 
of the house was Dr. Tddo Ellis, a physician, who had emigrated there 
only a year or two before from Auburn, New York, and his wife was a 
daughter of the Rev. Mr. Phelps, an Episcopal clergyman at that place. 
The "Hi came home, and it was immediately made known to me 

that a visitor who had just come from the vicinity of their ancient 
home could not be allowed to go farther, although he might fare better 
than in their humble and unfurnished collage. Of course, I stopped 
there, and duiing the evening told my hospitable entertainers of my 
journey and its object, giving the explanation that I was impatient to 



1818-'19.] THE UNION ACADEMY. 39 

begin the work of life in the new and attractive field which they had 
found. The house had no partitions, but I had a separate apartment 
for sleep, which was easily made by suspending- a coverlid from the 
beam to the floor. 

After an early breakfast, the doctor summoned a meeting of the 
trustees, which I could attend, at eleven o'clock. They were five in 
number. Major William Alexander, of the militia, a genial planter,, 
was president; William Turner, Esq., Treasurer of the State, was sec- 
retary; and Dr. Ellis chief debater. The matter of my introduction 
was promptly disposed of. My traveling associate, who, while we were 
yet in college, had accepted the call to this academy, had obtained a 
more distinguished situation at Augusta, and had recommended me. 
Dr. Ellis spoke kindly of the impression which my brief acquaintance 
with him had made. Mr. Turner, who had had a better academic edu- 
cation than the rest, asked me a few general questions ; and then 
Colonel Alexander announced that the board did not think it necessary 
to extend the examination further. I withdrew, that the board might 
consider. I went round the corner of the academy, sat down on the 
curbstone of the spring, into which I dipped the gourd which hung 
upon the tree by its side ; and I meditated: What chance was there 
that these trustees would employ me ? If they should decline to do 
so, what next ? With only eighteen pence in my pocket, a thousand 
miles from home, my little wardrobe left thirty miles behind, where 
was I to go, and what could I do ? I scarcely had time to conceive 
possible answers to these questions, when Dr. Ellis appeared, and in- 
vited me into the official presence. If ever mortal youth was struck 
dumb by pleasant surprise, I was that youth, when William Turner, 
Esq., rose before me, six feet high, grave and dignified, and made me 
this speech : " Mr. Seward, the trustees of Union Academy have ex- 
amined you, with a view to ascertain whether you are qualified to 
assume the charge of the new institution they have founded. They 
have desisted from that examination because they have found that you 
are better able to examine them than they are to examine you. The 
trustees desire to employ you, but they fear that they are unable to 
make you such a proposition as your abilities deserve. The school is 
yet to be begun, and with what success, of course, they do not know. 
The highest offer that they feel able to make is eight hundred dollars 
for the year, with board in such of their houses as you may choose, to 
be paid for at the rate of one hundred dollars a year. But the academy 
will not be finished for six weeks, during which time you will be with- 
out employment. We will compensate you for that delay by furnish- 
ing you a horse and carriage, in which you can travel in any part of 
the State, and, in the interval of rest, you will board among us with- 
out charge." 



4Q AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1818-U9. 

I accepted the position with an expression of profound thanks, and 
an assurance of determination to merit the approval of my generous 
patrons. It was, as I still think, an important crisis in my life. I 
indulged, with satisfaction, the reflection that thenceforth I was to be 
an independent, self-reliant, and self-supporting man. At dinner with 
the doctor and his family, he said : " I am going to state something to 
which, if you prefer, you need not reply. In your absence from the 
meeting of trustees, they asked how old you were. I answered that 
I thought you were twenty. They replied that seemed very young for 
such an enterprise." I candidly confessed to my generous patron 
that I was only seventeen. " Well, we'll leave them to find that 
out." 

The part of Georgia into which I had fallen was in the northwestern 
region, and had then recently been recovered from the Indians. It was 
newly settled with immigrants from Virginia and North and South Caro- 
lina. The staple was cotton, and its culture very profitable. Profes- 
sional men and teachers were freely accepted and welcomed there 
from the North. The Southern States were only just beginning to 
establish schools and academies for themselves. Although the planters 
were new and generally poor, yet I think the slaves exceeded the white 
population. No jealousy or prejudice at that day was manifested in 
regard to inquiries or discussions of slavery. But, at the same time, 
there were two kindred popular prejudices highly developed. One was 
a suspicion, amounting to hatred, of all emancipated persons, or free 
negroes, as they were called ; the other, a strong prejudice, of an 
abstract nature, against the lower class of adventurers from the North, 
called " Yankees." The planters entertained me always cordially, as 
it seemed, from a regard to my acquirements ; while the negroes 
availed themselves of every occasion to converse with a stranger 
who came from the "big North," where they understood their race to 
be free, but which they believed to be so far distant as to be forever 
inaccessible to them. They seemed like children in this respect. Two 
house-carpenters, bright and intelligent men, expressed so much curi- 
osity about the "big North," that I asked them why they did not lay 
up wages, buy their freedom, and go there. They thought the distance 
an insuperable obstacle in any case. Conversations of this kind with 
these simple creatures attached the whole community of negroes to 

without exciting any jealousy on the part of their masters. Of 
course, its effect was to confirm and strengthen the opinions I already 

rtained adverse to slavery. A " Yankee" had come there, with an 
exhibition of wax-figures. He was allowed to exhibit it in the chief 
room of the w althiest planter. His price for admission was a dollar, 
negroes half price. Among the crowd attracted were a pair of middle- 
aged slaver-, wit!) a long retinue of young children. The parents had 



1818-'19.] GEORGIA LIFE. 41 

mustered just money enough to admit the latter. They were standing 
outside. When I asked why they did not go in themselves, they 
replied that they had only money enough to pay for the children. I 
took them in with me. Not the faintest idea had they of the manner 
or material with which the figures had been prepared. Looking long 
with admiration upon " General Washington," " General Greene," 
" General Marion," " The Sleeping Beauty," " Louis XVI.," and " The 
Witch of Endor," their master became impatient, but they were reluc- 
tant to leave. I interposed, and asked them why they did not go. 
They replied that they understood that all the figures would dance at 
four o'clock, and asked me to secure their master's consent that they 
should stay till that hour. 

Making an excursion into Jasper County in a gig, I had occasion to 
cross the " Little River." The stream was broad and the water low. 
There was the framework still remaining of a bridge, but only a con- 
tinuous flooring of the width of two planks, available for a footpath, 
but not for wheels. I drove in my carriage across the ford, below the 
bridge, over round stones, and at imminent peril of being lost in the 
stream. Arriving at the opposite bank, I found there a young negro 
woman, with a blind horse loaded with grain for the mill. She asked 
ny advice and help. I thought it impossible to conduct the blind beast 
safely across the ford. I explored the entire pathway of the bridge, 
and judged that it was safer to attempt to lead him over it ; at all events 
the woman would be safe. I led the horse along the bridge, care- 
fully keeping the middle of the path until we had almost reached the 
end, when a miss-step precipitated him off the plank, and across a great 
beam of the bridge. The grist fell off. No effort that I could make, 
with the aid of the woman, could extricate the animal. I said that I 
would go and bring her master to the rescue. The woman implored 
me not to do so, for he would beat her. But there was no alternative. 
I found the master a mile distant from the river, and when I told him 
of the ill-luck which had befallen his servant, he hastened to the spot 
to give relief ; but not without swearing so wrathfully at the slave and 
at myself as to make me feel that I only just escaped, while the poor 
woman would be made a victim. 

I availed myself, next day, of the horse and wagon to proceed to 
Eatonton, where I called at the post-office, expecting there a letter 
from the associate I had left at Augusta. Besides the expected letter 
I received others, which, while they gave me much pleasure, caused me 
much perplexity. There was a packet which had been transmitted to 
me by Richard Richardson, President of the United States Branch 
Bank at Savannah. The packet contained a letter from my father, in 
which he stated that he had heard with paternal anguish and solicitude 
of my flight from college and home ; that he had followed me from 



42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1818-'19. 

Newburg to New York, and personally, and with the aid of necessary 
agents, had gone through nearly the entire shipping at the wharves, 
resting at night from his unsuccessful search, leaving only unvisited the 
schooner in which I had sailed. He implored me to return, and in- 
formed me that I would be supplied with what funds I should need by 
Mr. Richardson. By no means disposed to give up an independence 
which had been so dearly gained, I drew on Mr. Richardson, as he had 
advised me I might, for one hundred dollars. With this sum I brought 
my person into more presentable condition, and returned to my patrons 
near the Union Academy. I replied to my father a day or two after- 
ward, and, in declining his request for my return, I know not whether 
it was my vanity, or a solicitude that I felt to relieve parental appre- 
hension, that induced me to send to him an Eatonton newspaper, which 
contained an advertisement that had been carefully prepared by Wil- 
liam Turner, Esq., secretary, and signed by himself and Major Alex- 
ander as president, which announced to the people of the State of 
Georgia that " William H. Seward, a gentleman of talents, educated 
at Union College, New York," had been duly appointed Principal of 
the Union Academy ; that applications for admission were now in 
order ; and that the school would be opened on the first of May next. 
My patrons contended with each other for the honor of entertaining 
me during the interval ; and so I moved in a hospitable circle round the 
new academy, now staying at Mr. Ward's, then at Mr. Walker's, and 
then at Mr. Turner's, and from these places I made excursions to Mil- 
ledgeville, Sparta, and other towns, always hospitably received by 
prominent citizens. 

Hardly more than half my vacation was passed in this pleasant way 
when there arose a now and startling difficulty. I was in my attic bed- 
room, at Mr. Ward's, alone, revising the classics which I was so soon 
to teach, when Major William Alexander, President of the Board of 
Trustees of Union Academy, ascended the crooked little stairway un- 
attended, and presented to me a letter, written in a hand that I quick- 
ly recognized. He said, " I thought I ought to show you this letter 
before informing any one else about it." I read it, 1 doubt not, with 
manifest embarrassment. My indignant father, in this letter, informed 
Major William Alexander that lie had read a newspaper advertisement, 
in which the major announced the employment of William H. Seward 
as principal. My lather proceeded to say that he lost no time in in- 
forming Major Alexander and the trustees who and what kind of a 
person this new principal of their academy was, that lie was a much- 
indulged son, who, without any just provocation or cause, had abscond- 
ed from Union College, thereby disgracing a well-acquired position, 
and plunging his parents into profound shame and grief. In con- 
clusion my father warned the major, the trustees, and all whom it 



1818-'19.] RETURN HOME. 43 

mio-ht concern, that, if they should continue to harbor the delinquent, 
he would prosecute them with the utmost rigor of the law. 

" There," said the major, in the chivalrous manner which the South- 
ern planter had already learned to assume, " I suspected as much all 
the while, but I don't believe that you abandoned your college and 
home without good cause ; I shall be your friend. I will keep the 
affair to myself, and you may decide upon it as you think best. If you 
should conclude to go home, we will not oppose you, although it will 
be a disappointment. If you decide to remain, your father may prose- 
cute me as soon as he pleases." Had this been the whole of the case, 
it would have been easily settled. But, by the same mail which 
brought my father's summons, I received letters from my mother, which 
showed that the proceeding I had taken had been represented to her 
with aggravating additions, and that she neither had received, nor 
could be expected to receive, anything that should go to extenuate 
my conduct. Her letter indicated a broken heart ; and my sister, next 
in years to myself, assured me that our mother was on the verge of 
distraction. Alas ! poor lady, my desertion was not her only sorrow. 
My eldest brother had, two or three years earlier, come into a misun- 
derstanding with my father, no less unhappy than my own ; had left 
the paternal home, and was seeking, with uncertain success, to establish 
a fortune for himself in the then new State of Illinois. My next 
brother, perhaps more under the influence of erroneous example than 
from any real difficulty in his own case, had strayed away from the 
paternal mansion, and obtained precarious employment in the city of 
New York ; had afterward thought to improve his condition by enlist- 
ing in the United States Army, and was then writing to his mother 
mysterious accounts of his new occupation from the barracks at Old 
Point Comfort. 

Taking sufficient time, I carefully reconsidered the case, and then 
convened the trustees. I assured them that I would not break the en- 
gagement to the injury of the institution ; that I would call a young 
gentleman thither from Union College, as competent as myself, to take 
my place, and I would remain with them, in the performance of my 
duties, until he should arrive, and they should declare their entire satis- 
faction with him. They assented to the arrangement, and it was carried 
into effect. I opened the academy on the appointed day, with sixty 
pupils, most of whom were well advanced in years, but quite unin- 
structed. Mr. Woodruff, my successor, came, and was accepted, and I 
took leave of my spirited and generous patrons, and affectionate 
scholars, with sentiments of affection and sadness such as I have sel- 
dom since experienced. 

A long summer voyage made the sea seem congenial. The idea of 
its expanse took possession of me, and as I had improved the sea to 



44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1S18-'19. 

learn how the people of the Southern States differed from those of my 
native region, so I determined that an early use should be made of my 
now postponed independence to explore the eastern shores of the 
Atlantic. On my way home I learned that a voyage, made in com- 
panionship with others, in order to be agreeable, must not be too long. 
During the first eight days, the passengers were not merely mutually 
pleased and satisfied with each other, but seemed to become affectionate 
friends. In the next ten days they broke into cliques and factions, 
from which the quarantine week, inflicted upon us at Staten Island, 
seemed a welcome escape. 

I felt well satisfied on arriving at home, on the ground, not that I 
had decided wisely for myself in returning -there, but that 1 had relieved 
my fond mother and sister from anxiety and sorrow on my account, 
and I promised myself never thereafter to abandon them, however diffi- 
cult my own situation might become. I soon ascertained that I had no 
change to expect on the part of my other parent. On the other hand, 
his former opinions of my great disobedience were confirmed by the 
discovery that, unlike the prodigal son in the parable, in coming home 
again I had come impenitent. But I now reckoned that the time must 
be short when, having arrived at my majority and acquired my profes- 
sion, I should resume, lawfully, the independence I had seized upon 
prematurely, and given up with reluctance. It was decided that I 
should return to Union College, and join the senior class of that year, 
at the same stage at which I had left my own class in the previous year. 
But this gave me six months, which I determined not to lose. I en- 
tered an attorney's office, and diligently studied at Florida, and at 
Goshen, the elementary books of law. 

A changed condition of feeling affecting me had partially revealed 
itself while in Georgia, and now it broke upon me more fully and dis- 
tinctly at home. In obtaining and asserting so much personal inde- 
pendence, I found I had become amenable to popular opinion ; that the 
society around me divided, more or less equally, into two parlies, and 
with great earnestness, upon the question whether my previous con- 
duct should be approved or condemned. Of course, each party pre- 
dicted a future for me in harmony with the sentiments they respectively 
adopted. While 1 was trying to silence this debate by a meek and inof- 
fensive line of conduct, a new incident occurred which, at first, seemed to 
put an end to all hope of that kind. The load of debt which had driven 
me, like Christian's "burden," into my desperate pilgrimage, was some- 
thing less than a hundred dollars. I now began the process of liquida- 
tion, not by establishing a sinking-fund, but by earning fees as an advo- 
cate in the justice's court. These earnings, with small but convenient tem- 
porary loans from friends, always early repaid, had enabled me to tran- 
quilize, though not fully relieve myself from, my sartorian creditor. 



1818-'19.J CLOSING YEAR AT COLLEGE. 45 

One warm September day my father mounted me upon a horse and 
dispatched me with letters and drafts upon debtors of his who lived 
within a circuit of six miles. The very first draft which I presented, at 
a distance of a mile from home, brought into my hands a hundred and 
fifty dollars in small bank-bills. I rode three miles farther and brought 
up at the door of another debtor, Mr. Archibald Owens, to whom one 
of my letters was addressed. Unfortunately for me, Mr. Owens's house 
was raised some ten feet above the ground, and his door was only to 
be reached by ascending an abrupt flight of steps. A woman, I then 
thought a lady, had just ascended the steps as I rode up. I thought 
first that she might come down to take the letter from me, as I was in 
the saddle, but on second thought this seemed to be ungallant. I dis- 
mounted, walked up the steps, gave her the letter, which she promised 
to deliver to Mr. Archibald Owens when he should come home. It was 
not until I had ridden a mile farther that I discovered that I had lost 
the bank-bills previously received. I led my horse while I went back, 
carefully searching the road, over which, in the mean time, no subse- 
quent traveler had passed. Night came on, and the amiable Archibald 
Owens searched the road with me with the aid of lantern-light ; but 
the money was not found. It was hopelessly lost. 

Nearly two years afterward, the woman who had received the letter 
from me on the steps at Mr. Owens's house suddenly bloomed out in 
silk dress, parasol, and a set of china, and made presents, as rich people 
ought always to do, to her poor relations. She was arrested, and then 
confessed that she had picked up the money I had dropped at the doer. 
My father submitted to the loss, perhaps all the more cheerfully be- 
cause he had mentally appropriated the lost money to the discharge of 
my indebtedness at Schenectady. 

The resumption of my collegiate course was embarrassing. I think 
that, by competitors for collegiate honors, I was regarded as a late in- 
truder ; and by those who had no such aspirations, as a probable leader 
in irregularities and insubordination. I determined, though my pro- 
bation must be short, if possible, to reconcile these two prejudices, to 
maintain my personal independence, and not to lose a just share of the 
collegiate distinctions. A new state of things, however, had occurred 
during the year of my absence from the college. Previously to that 
event, the students from the North and the South mingled promiscu- 
ously and lived harmoniously together. The great debate of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, which occurred during the year, faintly disclosed to 
the public the line of alienation upon which, forty years afterward, the 
great civil war, through which we have just passed, was contested. 
Union College, during that year, received a large accession of students 
who, even at that early day, had become known as " Southerners." 
Previous to their coming-, the students were divided between two lit- 



46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1818-'19. 

erary societies, secret according to the custom of the time, the one 
"the Philomathean," the other "the Adelphic," which were nearly 
coeval with the college itself. Of these, the Philomathean was the 
larger and more popular, as it claimed to be, by a year or two, the 
more ancient. I belonged to the Adelphic, which, at that time, con- 
soled itself for inferiority of numbers by pretensions to superior schol- 
arship. The Southerners, on their arrival at the college, had joined 
the Philomathean, but soon afterward had complained of oppression, 
seceded and organized a third (and, of course, exclusive) society, under 
the name of the " Delphian Institute," which new society was improvi- 
dently sanctioned by the faculty. 

This division of the Philomathean Society, not unnaturally, agitated 
the Adelphic, leading members of which anticipated an increase of 
their own strength from the diminution of the numbers and prestige 
of their great rival, the Philomathean. The agitation drew into dis- 
cussion, not at all the question of slavery, but the relative merits of 
Southern and Northern society. It seemed to be believed by both par- 
ties that the opinions I should express, after having had a six months' 
experience in the South, would carry weight. The Philomatheans 
claimed 1113- sympathy on the ground of the character I had established 
for independence. The Adelphic sympathizers with the seceders 
claimed my adhesion on the ground of loyalty to the institution to 
which I belonged, and which had crowned me with all its little honors. 
Thus at that early day, before my educational course was ended, I stood 
upon the threshold of national politics. I promptly decided that the 
Southern secession was unjustifiable and disloyal to the institution and 
the country, while I made due acknowledgments of the hospitable and 
chivalrous character of the South. This decision brought me into direct 
conflict with the recognized leaders of the Adelphic Society. They 
caused me to be indicted and arraigned for some offense against the 
institution, the nature of which I do not remember, but the punish- 
ment for which was expulsion. The college honors, whatever they 
might be, lay beyond that preliminary trial. I appeared on the day 
appointed, and nut the charge witli such proofs as I could command. 
I addressed the society, but without any previous canvass of my judges. 
I spoke alone in sell-defense, and, when I closed, I asserted that I did 
not then know the opinion of any member ; that even if the decision 
was 1 Mic of expulsion, 1 should never inquire how any member of the 
society had east his vote; that I disdained the advantage of hearing the 
summing up of my accusers, as well as the debate preliminary to the 
final vote. With this speech I left the chamber. An hour or two 
afterward there was a rush of generous young men into the antecham- 
! er where I sat in waiting. I had been triumphantly acquitted. An 
election as one of the three representatives of the Adelphic Society 



1820-'24.] STUDYING LAW. 47 

who were to speak on commencement-day, an election by the class as 
one of its managers for that day, and finally the assignment of my 
name in an alphabetical arrangement of the members of the class re- 
ceiving the highest honors of the college, easily followed the ill-con- 
sidered and unsuccessful impeachment. 

A review at this day of the experience of this my last term at col- 
lege leaves me in doubt upon the question of precocity. My chef- 
d'oeuvre in the Literary Society was an essay in which I demonstrated 
that the Erie Canal (then begun under the auspices of De Witt Clinton, 
the leader of the political party in the State to which I was opposed) 
was an impossibility, and that, even if it should be successfully con- 
structed, it would financially ruin the State. On the other hand, the 
subject of my commencement oration was " The Integrity of the Amer- 
ican Union." 

Commencement in July was signalized by an open feud between the 
Delphians, now known as " Southerners," and the combined Philoma- 
theans and Adelphics, now the Northern party. The class separated on 
the stage, and I think it was not until thirty years afterward that I 
received a kind recognition from any one of the seceders. 



1820-1824. 

Studying Law.— John Duer. — John Anthem. — The Forum. — Edward N. Kirk. — Ogden Hoff- 
man. — Chief-Justice Spencer. — "Bucktails" and " Clintonians." — Constitution of 1821. 
— Admitted to the Bar. — " Going West." — Partnership with Judge Miller. — Choosing 
Church and Party. 

From the commencement platform in July I returned directly to 
the humble law-office of John Duer, Esq., in Goshen, which I had left. 
There I remained until the autumn of the following year, when I was 
received as a student in the office of John Anthon, Esq., in Beekman 
Street, in the city of New York. Mr. Anthon had written a book on 
" Practice," and this department received my more special attention. 
The young lawyers and students in New York, then less numerous than 
now, had a literary society called " The New York Forum," in which 
they in private tried causes as a mock court; while they defrayed their 
expenses by the sale of tickets of admission to their public meetings, 
in which they recited or declaimed original compositions. I was an 
active and earnest member of this association. It was useful to all its 
members, while it afforded me one experience peculiarly useful to my- 
self. Earlier than I can remember I had had a catarrhal affection, which 
had left my voice husky and incapable of free intonation. I had oc- 
casion, throughout my college course, to discover that I was unsuccess- 



48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1820-'24. 

ful in declamation. When I came to deliver my own compositions in 
competition with others, they received applauses which were denied to 
me. This discouraged me as a writer. The same experience continued 
in the public exercises of the New York Forum. A fellow law-student, 
who very soon afterward attained distinction, which he yet enjoys, as 
a great and eloquent divine, always carried away the audience by his 
declamation in these debates. He assured me that my essays, which 
fell upon the audience with much less effect, were superior in merit to 
his own, and generously offered me a chance for trial. He wrote and 
gave to me the best essay he could produce ; and I, in exchange, gave 
him one of mine. I pronounced his speech as well as I could, but it 
did not take at all. He followed me with my speech, and I think 
Broadway overheard the clamorous applause which arose on that occa- 
sion in Washington Hall. 

In the spring of 1822 my old master, John Duer, transferred his law- 
office in Goshen to Ogden Hoffman, already, though young, one of the 
most eloquent of advocates. Mr. Hoffman invited me to join him, giving 
me the privilege of earning what I could by practice in justices' courts; 
and also, although I had not yet been admitted to the bar, one-third of 
the attorney business of the office, reserving the counsel fees for him- 
self. My collegiate debts, unavoidably increased on my return to 
Schenectady, had again become embarrassing, and I eagerly accepted 
the offer. The partnership continued six months, during which I re- 
viewed all the elementary books I had before read, and completely 
analyzed " Sellon's Practice," in the form of questions and answers. 
My partnership with Mr. Hoffman closed with the end of my prepara- 
tory studies for the bar. This period of study was marked by few in- 
cidents of interest and importance. 

I attended the courts held at Goshen, and there, for the first time, 
saw the late Chief -Justice Spencer. He arrived at the village hotel on 
Monday morning alter breakfast, and was immediately surrounded by a 
large and respectful assemblage of citizens. He was then universally 
regarded as the chief adviser and manager of the administration of the 
Governor, De Witt Clinton. He discoursed to his large audience in a 
manner so dogmatical and so vehement as to silence all debate, and to 
in my own mind a doubt whether a partisan so violent could be 
an impartial judge. The doubt was unjust. No more independent and 
impartial judge ever presided in any court. The sternness of his 
manner, however, is remembered by all his contemporaries. 

One morning, shortly before the opening of that term of the court, 
a stranger, not past the middle age, and well dressed, who declared 
himself a member of the Philadelphia bar, appeared in the village, em- 
ployed the printer, and posted placards throughout the place, announc- 
ing that lie- would deliver a lecture on the next evening for which 



1820-'24.] CHIEF-JUSTICE SPENCER. 49 

tickets could be had at the bookstore — price twenty-five cents. The 
modern lecture-system was then unknown. The tickets were largely 
bought, and the avails paid over to the lecturer. Night came. No 
lecturer appeared. He had quietly and clandestinely departed. The 
next morning a young farmer, with the aid of a constable, brought the 
lecturer back to the town, and he was committed to jail on a complaint 
of having, on an out-of-the-way road, on the bank of the Wallkill River, 
entered the complainant's house and bedroom by the light of a candle 
which his wife had left burning awaiting her husband's return, and 
made a forcible attempt on her virtue. The prisoner was arraigned on 
this charge, and for want of means of his own an eminent member of 
the bar was assigned as his counsel. The counsel put in a plea of in- 
sanity. The adventurer's eccentricities were duly proved ; and the 
pleadings being concluded, Judge Spencer charged the jury, strongly 
advising them to acquit the prisoner on the ground of madness. The 
jury were unconvinced, and rendered a verdict of guilty. The prisoner 
was brought up the next morning to receive his sentence. The judge 
began his address to the culprit by saying that he had been tried for a 
heinous crime ; that, in consideration of his poverty and defenseless 
position as a stranger, the court had mercifully given him the aid of the 
most eminent advocate at the bar, who had defended him with such 
signal ability as to produce conviction on the part of the court that the 
prisoner was insane ; but the jury thought otherwise, and it was their 
exclusive province to decide that issue. " Have you anything to say 
why the sentence of the law should not now be pronounced ? " 

" I have much to say — I have enough to say to prevent any just 
court from dooming me to a felon's punishment. My counsel has not 
understood my case. He has betrayed me by putting my defense 
upon a false ground. Instead of admitting it, and excusing me on 
the ground of insanity, he ought to have defended me on the ground 
that I attempted no violence." 

" Stop, sir, stop ! " said the judge, interrupting him. " The pun- 
ishment of the crime of which you have been convicted is, in the dis- 
cretion of the court, either imprisonment in the county- jail for a short 
period as for a misdemeanor, or in the State-prison for seven years as 
a felony, according to the aggravation of the case. The court, taking 
a more favorable view of the case than the jury, have instructed me to 
impose a sentence of ten days' imprisonment in the county-jail. "What 
you have already said has gone far to shake the confidence of the 
court in that opinion, and to convince them that the jury have not 
been unjust in their verdict. You may resume your speech, but you 
will understand that you will do it at your peril." 

The prisoner sank into his seat. 

During the same period the politics of the State took a new aspect, 
4 



50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1820-'24. 

and became confused and highly exciting. Under the Federal Admin- 
istration of President Monroe, national politics subsided into a dead 
calm. The State of New York was divided into two parties, each 
claiming to be Republicans, successors of the party under the lead of 
the Virginia Presidents, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. One was 
nicknamed " Bucktails ".and the other stigmatized as " Clintonian." 
A local contention arose. The so-called Bucktail faction, opposed to 
Mr. Clinton, and led by Mr. Van Buren, had succeeded in obtaining a 
Constitutional Convention. The convention was held at Albany in 
1821. It brought into activity the highest talents and virtue of the 
State. Daniel D. Tompkins presided. Committed by my early train- 
ing to the support of that faction, I was so far prejudiced against Mr. 
Clinton as to be able to see that he had, perhaps unavoidably, lost the 
position of a great national leader, and become instead the head of a 
merely personal but ardent, intelligent, and energetic organization. 

When the constitution was submitted to the people I had become 
of age, and was an elector. I was well prepared for the abolition of 
the Council of Revision, which made the judiciary a power obstructive 
of legislation. An ardent believer in democracy, I rejoiced in the 
new provisions which enlarged the sphere and the bases of popular 
suffrage. In these respects the new constitution satisfied me ; and I 
rejoiced in it as the work of the political party in which I had been 
educated. But this satisfaction and pride were abated in view of two 
other provisions, the harmony of which with the liberal spirit pervading 
. the rest of the new charter I was unable to see. First, while the new- 
constitution gave to the people the election of their sheriffs and other 
executive officers, it withheld from them the power of choosing inferior 
magistrates, and vested it in the county courts. Secondly, while it 
removed all property qualifications as conditions of suffrage for white 
men, it, for the first time, required the negroes, now universally free, to 
possess a freehold of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, as a 
condition of voting. It vexed and mortified me to see that on both 
these points Hie Clintonian minority were more liberal than the ma- 
jority of which I was a supporter. Nor was this circumstance rendered 
less perplexing and painful by the suspicion it awakened in my mind, 
that the Republican party in the State, and its leaders, adopted the re- 
straint upon negro suffrage from a motive of sympathy with slavery, 
or favor toward it, as that institution then existed in all the more 
Southern Atlantic States of the Union. 

I ought not to forget here the very feeble attempts I made, at this 
period, to acquire neglected accomplishments. My father employed 
for me n music-master, who promised to instruct me to sing in the 
choir at the church, but gave it up in despair after a second lesson. I 
was social, and had heard much of dancing as tending to refine man- 



1820-'24.] -'GOING WEST/' 51 

ners. The dancing-master found me too awkward to execute the pre- 
liminary " positions." The French teacher carried me successfully, on 
the Hamiltonian system, through the first two chapters of St. John's 
Gospel ; but I found that further study would restrict the time that I 
required for reviewing Coke on Ly ttleton, and mastering Lilly's Entries. 

Just before I left Orange County, Judge Thompson, who was the 
oldest and most eminent citizen of that region, and was the owner 
of a small eminence that overlooked the valley of. the Wallkill, told 
me that he remembered when the last Indian chief who resided there 
took his leave and departed for the West. Mr. Thompson said his 
father asked the Indian why he should go away. The chief replied, 
" You have cut away the trees, and let the sunlight in upon the valley, 
and the Indian can no longer stay here." 

I received from the treasury of the firm of Hoffman & Seward sixty 
dollars, in full satisfaction of my earnings in it. The earnings in the 
justice's court had been already expended in keeping up my proper 
state in society during that period. My father furnished me with the 
necessary means of traveling to Utica for examination in the Supreme 
Court, and return. These sixty dollars received from Hoffman & 
Seward would enable me to explore the western part of the State with 
a view to my establishment there. 

I passed my legal examination at Utica in October, 1822, having 
lost no considerable time by my one year's absence from college. I 
stumbled on a single question of practice, which gave an advantage to 
a candidate from Geneva, who availed himself of it to treat me with 
particular respect and kindness. We became thenceforth close friends, 
and, if he is living, we are so yet. The Chief-Justice, Spencer, won me 
to a grateful and confiding friendship by the affectionate kindness 
with which he delivered to me the diploma for which I had so hardly 
labored. 

Certain heavy scales fell from my eyes as I descended from the 
wharf and entered the packet-boat that w T as to convey me on the Erie 
Canal (which two years before I had pronounced impracticable) eighty 
miles to Weedsport, the landing-place for Auburn. Between two 
offers of legal partnership which I received at Auburn, I declined the 
one which promised the largest business, but involved debt for a law 
library, and accepted the less hopeful one which I might assume with- 
out new embarrassment. I returned home to announce to my parents 
and friends that I had made that engagement, and on the 20th of De- 
cember, 1822, receiving fifty dollars from my father, with the assurance 
of his constant expectation that I should come back again too soon, I 
took leave of my native home and arrived at Auburn by stage-coach 
through the southern tier of counties on Christmas-morning. 

My new business began on the 1st of January, 1823. I had stipu- 



52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1820-'24. 

lated with my senior partner, Elijah Miller, that if my earnings 
during the first year should fall short of five hundreddollars, he would 
make up the deficiency. The younger portion of the bar were at that 
time generally in the habit of employing their elder brethren to try 
their causes in court. I shocked the bar by trying my own causes, 
where the rules of the court permitted, from the first. At the end of 
the year I had exceeded my stipulated gains. My distant creditors 
were fully paid, and so long as I continued in my profession I was 
neither without occupation nor independence. 

My d'ebut at Auburn obtained for me a reputation which, though I 
was thankful for at the time, I had no reason to be proud of. A con- 
vict discharged from the State-prison there in the morning was warned 
to leave the town immediately. Reaching the suburb he discovered an 
open door, entered it, and proceeded to rifle a bureau. Taking alarm, 
he rushed out, carrying with him only a few valueless rags. He was 
indicted for this petty larceny, which, being a second offense, was 
punishable with a new term in the State-prison. I was assigned by the 
court to the defense of the unfortunate wretch. The theft and the 
detection were completely proved. The stolen articles lay on the 
table. The indictment described them as " one quilted holder of the 
value of six cents," and " one piece of calico of the value of six cents." 
I called upon a tailor as an expert, who testified that the holder was 
sewed, not " quilted," and that the other article was white jean, and not 
" calico " at all. The by-standers showed deep interest in the argument 
which this defense produced, and were gratified when they found that 
the culprit escaped a punishment which they thought would be too 
severe for the transgression. 

My habit of business was promptly settled. I had long before 
known that I was to support myself by the practice of the law. I liked 
the study, but only necessity reconciled me to a toleration of the tech- 
nicalities of the practice, to the uncertainty of results, and to the 
jealousies and contentions of the courts. Nevertheless, I resigned 
myself to the practice with so much cheerfulness that my disinclina- 
tion was never suspected. Scarcely any one would have believed me 
if I had told him that when I came to the responsibilities of a trial or 
an argument 1 would have paid a larger sum to be relieved from them 
than the fees which I had before received or stipulated. 

My papers were carefully engrossed in a fair round hand. Within 
a year I had acquired reputation as a careful conveyancer, and the 
clerks of courts pronounced that the papers I filed in their offices were 
peculiarly neat and accurate. My circuit as an advocate before jus- 
tices' courts extended over the county, and the merchants, not only at 
Auburn, but also at New York and Albany, employed me as a diligent 
collector of debts. 



1820-'24.] CHURCH AND PARTY. 53 

I boarded at the house of a widow lady, Mrs. Brittan, with other 
young men who were my contemporaries as lawyers, merchants, and 
bankers, and I lodged in the back room which, in the daytime, served 
as the counsel-chamber of my office. My senior partner gradually re- 
linquished the business to me, only coming in to my aid in cases of diffi- 
culty. It had been a maxim, in the offices in which I had studied the 
profession, that a lawyer must eschew society and politics, and no 
newspaper must be seen on any office-table. But I was practising law 
only for a competence, and had no ambition for its honors, still less any 
cupidity for its greater rewards. I thought that my usefulness and my 
happiness lay in the devotion of what time and study could be saved 
from professional pursuits to promote the interests of the community 
in which I lived, and of the Commonwealth. The newspapers and 
magazines of the day, therefore, those not only of one party, but of 
both parties, were always at my hand, while the law-books were only 
taken down from the cases for reference when necessary. I took my 
pew and paid my assessments in the church, attended the municipal, 
political, and social meetings and caucuses, acting generally as secre- 
tary. I enrolled myself in the militia, and wore my musket on parade. 
I paid my contributions, and, when required, managed dancing assem- 
blies, although, for want of skill, I never have danced myself. And so 
I rendered, to my neighbors and acquaintances, such good offices as my 
training and position made convenient. 

The new constitution had opened the circuit courts to equity juris- 
diction, and I found in that department a study congenial with my 
zeal for direct justice. 

I have often seen the foreign immigrant or exile come, under the law 
of naturalization, to enjoy the right of suffrage. I have seen the negro 
race, within the United States, raised to the same status, and I have 
admired the spirit of self-satisfaction which that advancement afforded 
them. But I have never seen any person, of either of those classes, or 
of any class, who regarded the rights and responsibilities of citizenship 
more highly than I did at that period. I found that, after all, politics 
was the important and engrossing business of the country. It was 
obvious, too, that society was irreconcilably divided on the subject of 
politics and religion. Whatever might be a man's personal convictions, 
and however earnestly he might desire to promote the public welfare, 
he could only do it by associating himself with one of the many reli- 
gious sects which divided the community, and one of the two political 
parties which contended for the administration of the government. A 
choice between sects and parties once made, whether wisely or unwisely, 
it was easy to see, must be practically irrevocable. Content with the 
general system of religious doctrine that was held in common by the 
many sects, which divided on what seemed to me unimportant questions 



54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1820-'24. 

of faith or discipline, I decided to adhere to the Episcopal Church, into 
attendance upon which I had casually fallen, and thus, through associa- 
tion with that Church, give to the community the benefit, if any, of my 
example, while I should, at the same time, inculcate toleration of all 
religious creeds and denominations, and render them any aid and assist- 
ance in their undertakings to educate the people, and extend and fortify 
the institution of Christianity in new regions and foreign countries. 

I had been taught that the Republican party was the one which was 
loyal to the country, and faithful to republican institutions. I had not 
been able to obtain a satisfactory solution of the question why Wash- 
ington, whom I regarded as the greatest and the purest of the founders 
of the republic, dissented from the Republican party, or why Hamil- 
ton, the ablest and most effective statesman engaged in organizing and 
establishing the Union, was opposed by the Republican party. My 
father and his associates explained it to me in this way, that Washing- 
ton failed in intellectual strength and independence during his adminis- 
tration, and surrendered himself too implicitly to the advice of Hamil- 
ton, while Hamilton, though accepting the Constitution as it came 
through the ordeal of convention and elections, really desired a stronger 
and even a monarchical government. History forbade my acceptance 
of either of these explanations. 

On the other hand, I had seen in the Virginia and Kentucky resolu- 
tions, which came from the pen of Jefferson himself, and were accepted 
by the Republican party, the bold and dangerous theories that, long 
afterward, were to culminate in nullification and secession. I found it 
easy, therefore, to disenthrall myself from the influence of tradition and 
personal association in choosing the party to which I should belong. 
I considered the matter in this light : " The nation has become inde- 
pendent, and it has received its efficient and complete organization. It 
has proved its ability to endure, by trials of foreign war. What is 
needed now is, for the future, a policy which shall strengthen its founda- 
tions, increase its numbers, develop its resources, and extend its do- 
minion." I did not doubt that its foundations wore to be strengthened 
by the abolition of slavery, and by the enlargement of popular suffrage, 
with the more general diffusion of knowledge, and extension of popular 
rights. To develop the resources of the country, there was necessary 
a general system of material improvement, involving the construction 
of canals and roads. An increase of numbers required that an asylum 
should be offered to the immigrant and exile of every creed and nation. 
By the tendencies which the Republican party already exhibited, I 
judged that, having its base chiefly in the slaveholding States of the 
South, it could not be trusted to abolish slavery and to prosecute the 
system of material improvement, while the opposite party was un- 
equivocally hostile to foreign immigration. 



1824.] NIAGARA EXCURSION; 55 

In the election of 1824 De Witt Clinton was a candidate for 
Governor of the State. He and his party were completely iden- 
tified with the system of internal improvements within the State, and 
throughout the country, while the opposing party gave it a reluctant 
and divided support within the State, and their associates in the South- 
ern States had already avowed themselves opposed to it. I avowed 
my preference for John Quincy Adams as the candidate for President, 
and Mr. Clinton as the candidate for Governor, from whose election 
most might be hoped in respect to the policy which commended itself to 
my approval. It thus happened that, although educated and trained 
in the Republican party, I nevertheless cast my first votes in 1824 for 
the opposing one. 

But, though I thus chose my religious denomination and political 
party, I did so with a reservation of a right to dissent and protest, or 
even separate, if ever a conscientious sense of duty, or a paramount 
regard to the general safety or welfare, should require. 



1824. 

Stage-Coach Excursion to Niagara.— First Meeting with Thurlow Weed. — Buffalo.— New- 
York and the "Western Trade. — Benjamin Rathbun. — Origin of Parties in the United 
States. — Their History and Character. — Presidential Election of 1824. — Struggle over 
the Electoral Law. — Adams and Jackson. — Marriage. 

I had, in the spring of 1821, while on a visit to Florida, met there 
my sister, who was a pupil in Mrs. Willard's popular seminary at Troy, 
and was then at home, accompanied by her schoolmate, Miss Frances 
A. Miller, of Auburn. A partiality that I conceived for her was my 
inducement to stop at Auburn when afterward exploring the West. 
Our intercourse had now ripened into an engagement of marriage. 

My father seemed especially pleased when, instead of receiving me 
home again as a returned prodigal, I invited him, with my mother and 
my sister, to visit me at Auburn, and become acquainted with what the 
lawyers would then have described as the " condition of prosperity and 
happiness " which I was enjoying. They came, and the two parents 
projected an excursion by us all to Niagara Falls. Colonel Wilhelmus 
Mynderse, of Seneca Falls, a gentleman of great intelligence, a friend 
of Mr. Miller and his family, joined us. The three gentlemen provided 
a spacious stage-coach, and Colonel Mynderse took his own carriage 
and horses, so that the journey, which was made to the satisfaction 01 
all, is still remembered as one of my most pleasant experiences. At 
Rochester, then new, and inferior to Auburn in population, we visited 
a suspension-bridge which spanned the Genesee River at Carthage, 



56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1824. 

below the Falls. I think this, the first of suspension-bridges in our 
country, fell in the next year. Returning through the streets of 
Rochester from that excursion, a linchpin gave way, a fore-wheel fell 
off, the coach went down, and the whole party, except myself, required 
to be lifted out of the muddy ravine. 

Among a crowd, which quickly assembled, one taller and more effec- 
tive, while more deferential and sympathizing, than the rest, lent the 
party his assistance. This was the beginning of my acquaintance with 
Thurlow Weed. He had acquired the printer's art through severe 
trials, was then editing and conducting a newspaper at Rochester, 
which he printed chiefly with his own hand, and he had already 
become distinguished for public spirit and eminent ability. I think 
also he was, the next year, a leading member of the Assembly at Al- 
bany. 

From Rochester we proceeded through Lockport, already noted for 
its seven double locks, though still a very inconsiderable and obscure 
town, to Lewiston, where we crossed the Niagara by a ferry, and exam- 
ined the battle-ground on which, during the previous war with Great 
Britain, General Solomon Van Rensselaer, at the head of an American 
force, was repelled by the British regulars, Indians, and Canadian 
militia. We rode northward, up the west bank of the river, then 
forest-covered, quite surprised that we were not deafened by the thun- 
der of the cataract, the fame of which was so great. We saw the mist 
and spray rising above the trees. Alighting from our carriages, we 
ascended the steps at the west door of Forsyth's tavern, and, as we 
rushed into the hall, I inquired eagerly, " Where are the Falls ? " I 
was answered, "You will see them from the piazza." In a moment I 
-xys,s standing on Table Rock, and the majestic cataract, in its fullest 
breadth and height, and immense depth, confronted me. The scene 
had (\en at that time lost some of the awe with which it had impressed 
the spectator fifty years before, by the removal of the native groves 
which then surrounded it, and the substitution for them of utilitarian 
structures. We remained four days exploring the Falls and their 
surroundings; and then, crossing the battle-fields of Lundy's Lane and 
Chippewa, we recrossed the river at Fort Erie, and entered the long 
but straggling street of Buffalo. 

Here it was our good fortune to meet Judge Wilkeson, a very in- 
telligent, vigorous, and enthusiastic pioneer of that place. He showed 
us the plans of the harbor which had been adopted by the canal com- 
missioners, and my mind, for the first time, swelled with a large though 
by no means complete conception of the grandeur and beneficence of 
the system of internal improvements in which my native State was 
then so deeply engaged, but without support or sympathy from the 
Federal Government, although Washington had pointed out its value 





^^W ^/^^z^_ 



1824] ORIGIN OF PARTIES. 5f 

and importance as early as when visiting Fort Stanwix in 1783. I took 
notice then, for the first time, of the facts that the Atlantic slope is 
only a narrow belt, although then containing four-fifths of the popula- 
tion, wealth, and enterprise, of the Union ; that the vast material re- 
sources of the country are in the region lying westward of the Alleghany 
Mountains ; that the trade and commerce of the country must soon be 
conducted across that range ; that a competition in the construction of 
such channels was then on the point of beginning between the various 
cities of the seaboard, each seeking by the nearest and most feasible 
route to bring that trade to its own wharves ; that ultimately the West 
would take away and hold forever the governing power of the country; 
and that that city in the East would become the most prosperous and 
powerful which should most effectually constitute itself the Atlantic 
seaport for the West. I took notice, moreover, that Georgia, Carolina, 
Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, could reach the great Mississippi 
Valley only by making canals and roads over the Alleghany Moun- 
tains ; but that this great range of mountains is pierced by the Hudson 
River at the Highlands, and sinks on either side of the Mohawk Valley, 
so as to afford a feasible, easy, and not circuitous inland navigation 
from the Great Lakes to the ocean ; and that such navigation could be 
easily extended to the sources of the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the 
Missouri Rivers. Whatever doubts I had before entertained in regard 
to the direction of my political course, I now determined to give my 
best efforts to the achievement of an enterprise which, while it would 
greatly exalt the State of New York, would tend to increase immeasu- 
rably the wealth, prosperity, and greatness, of the whole republic. 

Our party lodged at Buffalo in a tavern which, while it had no pre- 
tensions, was in all respects more comfortable, neat, and agreeable, 
than any I had before seen. The praises of our host were on the lips 
of every traveler, and the broad esteem and confidence that he then 
secured were an important element of the success which attended 
Benjamin Rathbun as a leader of improvement in the city of Buffalo, 
and which tempted him to the extravagance, followed by the painful 
catastrophe- of crime, that obscured his brilliant career. He emerged 
from that cloud, and became a reputable hotel-keeper in New York, 
where he still resides. 

The road of progress is not always clear and direct ; and, therefore, 
parties are liable to mistake it. It happens, sometimes, that the way 
is entirely obstructed ; and, while earnest men are seeking to impel the 
nation forward, it nevertheless recedes continually. Much as party 
sp'irit, or partisanship, is decried, it is nevertheless true that every pro- 
gressive movement begins with and is conducted by a party. 

Time is an essential element in the development of partisan in- 
fluences which mark the progress of a nation. It may be easily seen, 



58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1824. 

now, though it was little understood at the time, that the American 
Revolution was the result of a long-ripening popular conviction that 
the colonial condition was incompatible with prosperity and progress. 
The colonies easily passed from the state of constitutional resistance to 
that of self-assertion and independence. Advanced as they were under 
British instructions in the idea of liberty and equality, it was more 
natural and easy for them to organize the republic than it could have 
been to constitute or accept a monarchical or imperial system. Through- 
out the Revolutionary War the struggle of the new nation was con- 
ducted and managed by a party more bold and liberal than its conser- 
vative opponents, who insisted on retaining colonial relations, and on 
the maintenance of monarchy. The triumphant conclusion of the war 
brought the people to a unanimous acceptance of the principles of 
independence, liberty, and equality, for which it was waged. A new 
question then arose : What constitutional ordination would best pre- 
serve, perpetuate, and transmit to posterity, the great boon which had 
been secured? 

The several States had conducted the great conflict to a conclusive 
success, with only the feeble cohesion prescribed by the Articles of 
Confederation of 1777. Under that frail national organization, the 
people, through the protection of their several State governments, en- 
joyed a greater measure of personal liberty, and a greater exemption 
from the burdens of government, than any nation had ever before 
secured. Earnest, enlightened, and energetic men, however, early dis- 
covered that a stronger, firmer, and more controlling national constitu- 
tion would be necessary to preserve internal peace and harmony be- 
tween the several members of the Union, secure the country against 
foreign aggressions, and develop the immense resources of the conti- 
nent. They, of course, combined themselves into a party, and promul- 
gated that great and necessary policy. 

They were resisted, from the first, by a class not less patriotic than 
themselves, who feared to exchange, without a longer trial, the liberty 
and equality the country then enjoyed for the hazards of a new and 
untried constitution, which they naturally apprehended would take a 
reactionary character, and endanger the advantages which the Revolu- 
tionary War had secured. Thus the country was divided into two parties. 

Although the line of division was obvious, the character of each 
party was peculiarly complex and uncertain. The Federalists, who 
advocated the new Constitution, were, in one view, the party of prog- 
ress, inasmuch as they proposed to the people a new and bold national 
advance ; but, in another view, they were reactionary, because they 
proposed that the people, who then regarded the State governments as 
the citadels of popular liberty, should weaken those citadels by trans- 
ferring no inconsiderable portion of their strength and power to a Fed- 



1824.J FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS. 59 

era], and therefore distant and independent, Government. The " Re- 
publicans," for so their opponents chose to be called, were, in one sense, 
reactionists, because they refused to concede the necessity of reform 
and progress ; but they were at the same time progressive, because 
their refusal was grounded in a jealousy for liberty and equality. The 
controversy was earnest, but experience of the defects of the Confed- 
eracy continually gave new advantages to the Federal party. In the 
organization of the Federal Constitution, by which they conferred 
greater benefits upon society in the United States, and upon the human 
race, than any other combination of men has ever bestowed, they 
achieved, virtually, not only their first but their last political victory. 

It was Governor Marcy's opinion that the b%sis of the two parties 
was, that the Republicans confided in the Constitution as permanent 
and reliable, while the Federalists, as he thought, feared it would go 
down in political convulsions. He would have been more correct if he 
had said the Republicans apprehended that the Federal Constitution 
would prove too strong for popular liberty, while the Federalists main- 
tained that it must be upheld to save the Union. 

Popular sympathy with the now reduced and abridged State gov- 
ernments, and popular jealousy of a central and therefore practically 
distant Government, remained. It needed only a new and consistent 
organization, with occasional excitements of debate, to obtain the assent 
of the people. The required organization was provided by Jefferson 
and Madison. The required excitement was derived from the French 
Revolution, which promised and for a time seemed to carry republican 
sentiments and principles to a success and extent which would leave 
the new American Republic far behind. In this way the two successive 
Federal Administrations of George Washing-ton and of John Adams 
were gradually undermined, but not until they had been able to con- 
solidate the Federal Government, with the powers and institutions 
necessary for its permanent preservation. Adhesion to Federalism, 
in its supposed antagonism to the State governments, now became 
conservative, and the declining Federal party lost, in the popu- 
lar mind, all pretensions to be the party of progress. Adhesion to the 
Republican party, in maintaining and enlarging the powers of the 
States, in antagonism to the Federal Union, convertibly became the 
principle of progress in popular liberty. 

The struggle was long and severe. How much longer it would have 
been, had not the incident of the foreign war of 1812 occurred, cannot 
now be determined ; but that war with Great Britain was declared by 
a Republican Congress, under a Republican Administration. A minor- 
ity party always finds it practically impossible to discriminate between 
political measures of the party which it opposes. The Federalists, a 
minority, -while they did not dare, nor even desire, to embrace the cause 



60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1824. 

of the public enemy, nevertheless gave their adhesion to the policy of 
the war with so much uncertainty, querulousness, and jealousy, as to 
lose the confidence of the people. They fought their last contest in 
the canvass of 1816, when James Monroe was reelected President of tjie 
United States. From that period the popular issues which had divided 
the country ever since the adoption of the new Constitution, lost their 
vitality, just as the issues which had divided the people during the 
Revolutionary War ceased to be effective in the establishment of 
national independence. Hitherto, strong convictions of the necessity 
of partisan combination had been sufficient to induce the Republicans 
to accept nominations of President and Vice-President at the hands of 
an assembly or caucus of the members who represented their party at 
Washington. For moral strength the Republican party now relied 
chiefly on its traditions, a source that, in a republic, time is sure, sooner 
or later, to exhaust. The class of statesmen who adhered to the party 
relying on that force, exposed themselves to popular jealousy, as in- 
terested leaders. 

On the other hand, some great national ideas and sentiments were 
evolved by independent, bold, and far-seeing statesmen. These chiefly 
were the question of national protection of domestic manufacturers, 
clearer views of disseminating knowledge, more distinct ideas of alliance 
with the new American republics of Spanish America, an earnest and 
vigorous belief in the prosecution of internal improvements, with the 
necessary favor and protection of the Federal Government, and, finally, 
a jealousy in regard to the admission of new States into the Union, in- 
volving the balance of political power. 

The projectors and advocates of these various opinions had at first 
no political combination; while the ideas themselves, promulgated, and 
in the main resisted, at Washington, rapidly worked a demoralization, 
sure to end in the disintegration of the Republican party. This new 
condition of public opinion produced a high political effervescence in 
the year 1824. 

The national election was to be held in that year, and the Republi- 
can caucus had nominated William H. Crawford, of Georgia, a late 
Secretary of the Treasury, for President. Martin Van Buren, then a 
Republican Senator from New York, pledged the support of the party 
in this State to Crawford, contemplating, as was then alleged, the suc- 
cession in his own favor. Many Republican members of Congress, in- 
fluenced by the ideas I have mentioned, refused to join in the caucus, 
and withheld their adherence from its decree. A spirited opposition 
to Crawford's nomination manifested itself in most of the Northern 
and Western States. Mr. Crawford's opponents, having no combina- 
tion, were divided in preferences between John Quincy Adams, Clay, 
Jackson, and Calhoun. The State of New York then was under a Re- 



1824.] THE ELECTORAL LAW. 61 

publican administration, which had for its head the Governor, Joseph 
C. Yates. There was a Republican majority in both Houses of the 
Legislature, secured by their successful strategy in enlarging popular 
suffrage by the Convention of 1821. Yates had been elected by de- 
fault in 1822. But Martin Van Burcn was popularly regarded as the 
State leader of the party. 

The Federal Constitution provides that " electors of President and 
Vice-President shall be chosen in each of the several States as the Leg- 
islature of that State shall direct." This power of choosing electors 
had hitherto been exercised in this State by the direct action of the 
Legislature itself. The Legislature was committed by its antecedents, 
and by its leaders, to choose electors favorable to Crawford. The 
opponents of that nomination, merging all preferences, combined in 
a popular demand upon the Legislature to surrender, then and thence- 
forth, the direct exercise of the power of choosing electors ; and, 
thereafter, to restore it by law to the people. The Assembly was 
shaken, revolutionized, and declared its willingness to pass the electoral 
law. The Senate, consisting of thirty-two members, resisted firmly and 
obstinately, by a vote of seventeen. The Governor vacillated. 

Governor De Witt Clinton, the late leader of the opposition to the 
Republican party in the State, was then living in retirement from all 
public office, except that he retained, most justly, the honorary place 
of presiding commissioner in the Board of Canal Commissioners, who 
were then bringing to a triumphant conclusion the construction of the 
Erie and Champlain Canals, with which his fame is to be ever identified. 
The Republican leaders, influenced either by party spleen or by a hope 
of raising a new issue, on which they could retain discontented ad- 
herents, carried through the Legislature a resolution removing the 
honored and veteran statesman from that inconsiderable and unim- 
portant trust. The people were moved with indignation at this politi- 
cal crime. They now more earnestly than before demanded the passage 
of the proposed electoral law. The Legislature adjourned till Novem- 
ber. Public excitement became vehement ; the Governor yielded, and 
issued a proclamation requiring the Legislature to reconvene on the 
2d of August, to concede the popular measure. 

The Legislature assembled on the day appointed. The Assembly 
passed the bill. The Senate, by its majority of one, resolved that the 
Governor's call of the Legislature was, unconstitutional, and so the 
choice of electors remained with the Legislature, to be exercised at a 
future session after State elections should have been held. 

The Republican party, discarding Mr. Yates, nominated Samuel 
Young for Governor. The opposition, consisting in part of a defection 
from the Republican ranks, irretrievably hostile to Clinton, and of the 
entire mass of Mr. Clinton's friends, met by delegates in convention, 



62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1824. 

and after a vehement dispute nominated a ticket composed of De Witt 
Clinton for Governor, and his Republican rival, James Tallmadge, for 
Lieutenant-Governor. The election, held early in November, showed 
a majority of sixteen thousand for the new political organization. The 
Legislature, coming afterward, appointed electors by compromise of 
interests and preferences; and the electoral college cast twenty-six 
votes for Adams, four for Clay, five for Crawford, and one for 
Jackson. 

No candidate having a constitutional majority of all the electoral 
votes, the election under constitutional provisions devolved upon the 
House of Representatives, to choose between Adams and Jackson. 
Adams was chosen, with John C. Calhoun as Vice-President, and thus, 
in 1825, a national Administration came into power through an opposi- 
tion to the Republican party, which had held unbroken control of the 
Federal Government for twenty-four years. 

"While enlarging somewhat the sphere of my professional practice, 
I had an active though humble part in these political transactions. 
Uniting with the opponents of the Republican party, I spoke for the 
new movement, wrote resolutions and addresses, and acted as delegate 
in meetings in my own town and county. 

On the 20th of October in that year, my marriage took place 
with Frances A. Miller. She was then nineteen years of age, daugh- 
ter of my partner and friend, Elijah Miller. Of fine natural parts, 
with modesty almost approaching to timidity, thoughtful but cheerful, 
she had been matured by training, first at an academy at Windsor, Ver- 
mont ; then in an excellent school in her own county, conducted under 
the care of the Society of Friends ; and closing at the school which the 
late Mrs. Willard had recently established at Troy, New York, where, 
while accomplishments were not neglected, a course of study was pre- 
scribed corresponding in extent and fullness with the curriculum of our 
colleges. Her father had been, from her infancy, a widower, and 
his consent to the union was given on the condition that she should not 
leave her home while he should survive. I thus became an inmate of 
his family. The joyousness of this event, after a short season, was 
broken by a serious illness of my own, from which, however, I entirely 
recovered. Subsequently her health gave way, and it was never fully 
. nd permanently restored. 



1825-'28.j ADAMS AND JACKSON. 63 

1825-1828. 

President Adams, Clinton, and Clay.— A Southern Combination.— The " National Repub- 
lican " Party. — A Night-Ride with Lafayette. — Pageants in his Honor. — Visit to De 
"Witt Clinton. — Adhering to Adams. — Rejection as Surrogate. — A Resolution about Of- 
fice.— Death of Clinton. — Presidency of Young Men's Convention at Utica. 

It was understood that the new President, Mr. Adams, invited Mr. 
Clinton to accept the place of minister to Great Britain ; but he de- 
clined, from a conviction that his path of duty, as well as usefulness, 
lay through the State magistracy to which he had just been restored. • 

Henry Clay, who had cast his vote in the House of Representatives 
for Mr. Adams, became Secretary of State. The Republican party, 
while they acknowledged that Clay, Jackson, and Calhoun, like Craw- 
ford, were loyal members of their organization, yet believed, or affected 
to believe, that Mr. Adams, though he had been a consistent and uni- 
form adherent of the party from his youth, and in that character had 
successively held all but one of the highest national trusts, was a 
" Federalist." They therefore charged Mr. Clay with political incon- 
sistency and personal ambition in voting for Mr. Adams, and said that 
his appointment as Secretary of State was a reward for that act of 
" political treachery." 

The States of the South, under the influences of the institution of 
slavery, had now become sufficiently strong to induce a combination of 
all except Kentucky and Louisiana to recover the Southern ascendency, 
which had been broken by the election of Mr. Adams. This combina- 
tion thereupon charged Mr. Clay, in addition to his other offense, with 
disloyalty to the interests of the section of the Union in which he 
lived. 

On the other hand, no such maturity of opposition to slavery, and 
no such community of interest, had occurred in the North as to render 
possible a combination in support of the Administration of Mr. Adams. 
At the very first meeting of Congress, therefore, the Republican party 
was vigorously reorganized, and resumed all its accustomed union and 
activity to defeat the new Administration. This activity continued, 
gaining more and more success, throughout the whole of Mr. Adams's 
Administration. Although that Administration was conducted with the 
greatest ability, with a measure of moderation unequaled, and with 
assiduous devotion to the highest objects of national policy, at home 
and abroad, it continually gave way under the attacks of its opponents. 
Perhaps this was due chiefly to the facts that the war with Great 
Britain had closed with the brilliant victory of General Jackson at 
New Orleans, affecting the popular imagination, and awakening in be- 
half of the hero of the 8th of January, 1815, a profound sense of 
gratitude ; and that the nation, discovering how near it had come to 



64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1825-'28. 

paying its highest possible reward to him in the previous election, was 
now easily persuaded that it had been betrayed into the injustice of 
suffering his defeat by conspiracy or fraud on the part of Mr. Clay 
and Mr. Adams. 

For my own part, I adhered during that period to the Administra- 
tion, because, while I believed in none of those charges, I felt myself 
obliged to adhere, through all chances and changes, to the new politi- 
cal organization of 1824, as the party through whose agency the great 
interests of the State and nation, to which I had dedicated myself, 
could be promoted. The trial proved tedious, embarrassing, and often 
bewildering. The organization of our new " National Republican " 
party became torpid, and we continually declined in strength. There 
remained, indeed, true and faithful men in every county of the State of 
New York, with whom it was easy and pleasant to act in concert. But, 
notwithstanding the best efforts of this class, we were only able to 
save the reelection of Clinton in 1826, while our Republican opponents 
carried the Lieutenant-Governor, majorities in the State Legislature, 
and a majority of the Congressmen. Perhaps the earnestness of my 
speeches and letters, in aid of the national Administration, may have 
attracted some attention in this period of defection and decline. 

The pageant which we organized for the reception of Lafayette at 
Auburn, in 1825, was the most imposing that a village of two thousand 
could produce. We gathered, of course, all the military companies of the 
town and neighborhood, all the barouches, stage-coaches, and wagons, 
all the Freemasons, all the schoolboys and schoolgirls. We received 
the hero at the east end of the Cayuga Bridge, on a bright September 
morning. He had traveled, amid continual demonstrations, from 
the then distant banks of the Mississippi. Covered with dust, the tall, 
erect frame, with impassive countenance, seemed rather a monument 
than a man. A brigadier-general led the procession, and I, mounted 
as adjutant, brought up the rear. As Ave were entering Mason's 
Woods, three pedestrians coming from the other way were seen tum- 
bling over trees and stumps, with eyes intently fixed on the procession, 
so that no part of it should escape them. Coming upon me, the last 
figure in it, they asked, "In which carriage is he?" 
I replied, " In the barouche with six white horses." 
" Thank God ! thank God ! " said they ; ".we've seen him ! " 
We brought him under a triumphal arch, erected on Genesee Street, 
to a green bower. Colonel Hulbert, our most eloquent lawyer, ad- 
dressed him a welcome in behalf of the people, and Dr. Lansing, our 
most eloquent divine, addressed him in behalf of the Freemasons. He 
answered in words which seemed pertinent and grateful, like those 
delivered everywhere on his journey. Thence he went to Coe's Hotel, 
where the ladies received him, and where he took each one by the hand, 



1825-'28.] LAFAYETTE. g5 

saying something- in imperfect English which they did not understand, 
and yet which I am sure no one of them ever forgot. 

At ten o'clock he walked round the ballroom at the Centre House, 
saluting every member of the dancing-party, and then entered an open 
barouche, drawn by four horses, attended by the president of the vil- 
lage and myself. 

Abstaining from conversation, we left him to enjoy such sleep as he 
could get, in a night that could not be long, and was to be crowded 
with festivities. The roar of cannon announced his entrance into 
Skaneateles at midnight. Every house was illuminated, and even the 
surface of the lake reflected the blazing bonfires. There were re- 
freshments ; and then Lafayette slept until we rolled down the long 
hill into Camillus. There, too, were bonfires ; but the sexton of the 
church was caught napping, and we were amused at seeing his haste 
to set the church-bell ringing before we should get through the town. 
The day had not broken when we brought up at the village hotel at 
Onondaga Hill. Lafayette alighted, and was immediately conducted 
into the upper ballroom. There, by candle-light, he was addressed by 
Thaddeus Wood, the great magnate of the town, in behalf of the people 
of Onondaga. We were to wait an hour, so as not to come by surprise 
upon Syracuse, then a town of perhaps a thousand souls. Lafayette, 
taking advantage of this pause, requested me to join him in a walk for 
air and exercise. I conducted him along the summit of Onondaga 
Hill, and he keenly interrogated me as to the topography of the 
country. I pointed out to him the direction of Oswego, the course of 
the Oswego River, Onondaga and Oneida Lakes, the site of Fort 
Brewerton, Onondaga Castle, Oneida Castle, Oriskany, Fort Schuyler 
(Utica), Fort Stanwix (Rome), at which latter post he had commanded 
in the war, and then had become familiar with the character of the 
country, which he was now surveying in the morning twilight. He 
expressed deep interest in these observations, and adverted to the great 
military events which had occurred at Fort Stanwix and Oriskany. 

I had not even then a high appreciation of Freemasonry, nor did I 
understand what claim that order had to the prominent position which 
was conceded to it in this and in like political and social demonstra- 
tions. The mystery was cleared up, though not with an increase of my 
respect for the fraternity, when Gad Bennet, a tinsmith and master of 
the lodge, still wearing the apron of the previous day's celebration, ap- 
proached, and, overhearing Lafayette, said : 

"Yes, Lafayetty, this is a fine country ; it is a great country, and 
we owe it all to you, Lafayetty. You gave it to us, or we should not 
have had it. We are glad to see you, Lafayetty. You are a Royal 
Arch-Mason, Lafayetty, and so am I. You are our brother, and all 
Masons are glad to see you, Lafayetty." 



6Q AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1825-'28. 

We returned down the hill in our carriages, and cannon-thunders 
soon proclaimed the nation's guest to the crowds who were awake, and 
moving about the few streets of Syracuse. As we struck upon the 
canal bridge, an Onondaga Indian, who was sleeping on the railing of 
the balustrade, awakened by the noise, gave forth a grunt, and rolled 
over in fright into the canal. Committees, orators, citizens, and ladies 
with floral wreaths, were in waiting. Here we surrendered our charge, 
and took leave of him. 

In January, 1828, 1 found that my professional business had steadily 
increased. I needed no office for a livelihood ; but I was tempted to 
believe that an honorable trust, which should harmonize with my prac- 
tice of the law, might avail in increasing my professional reputation. 
My personal and political friend, Seneca Wood, Esq., was then holding 
the office of Surrogate of Cayuga County, under an appointment of 
Governor Clinton. Mr. Wood was desirous to resign. He placed his 
resignation in my hands, with a letter to the Governor, recommending 
me for the appointment. I visited Albany, and received my first 
initiation into partisan ways and usages at the State Capitol. I had 
come to regard Mr. Clinton with combined sentiments of reverence for 
the chief magistracy of the State, and of profound admiration for his 
eminent talents and learning. But he had the character of being stern 
and cold. I found him quite otherwise. He appreciated zeal and 
devotion to the political principles and interests he represented. He 
received me kindly and cordially. I have never been in a presence 
which commanded more of personal respect or inspired more confidence. 
I think, now, that his character for reserve and austerity was only 
acquired by the popular custom of contrasting him with his rival, the 
a liable, amiable, and genial Daniel D. Tompkins. The habit I had 
acquired of viewing all public characters from the standpoint of a 
citizen, anxious to bestow his suffrage conscientiously, had entirely 
removed the blind feeling of partiality Avith which, at an early period, 
I had regarded the leaders of the political cause with which I was as- 
sociated. 

Governor Clinton accepted the resignation, and sent a message to the 
Senate, nominating me for the vacant office, with a free and confident 
assurance that it would be confirmed. It was not until the nomination 
had been made that a political secret was divulged which at once con- 
vulsed and astounded the State. The interests and ambition of Mr. 
Clinton had coincided with, and were now popularly identified with, 
the interests and cause of John Quincy Adams, the President of the 
United Slates. Mr. Adams's presidential term was to expire on the 
4th of March, 1829, and Mr. Clinton's term as Governor was to expire 
at the close of the year 1828. Elections for both offices were to be 
held in November, 1828. General Jackson, as I have already intimated, 



lS25-'28.] DE WITT CLINTON. (57 

was the most popular competitor of Mr. Adams. Mr. Van Buren and 
the whole Republican party of the State had committed themselves to 
General Jackson. Mr. Adams became the subject of a " see-saw 
game " on the part of what remained of the defunct Federal party. 
One portion of that party declared themselves opposed to Mr. Adams, 
because he had left the Federals and joined the Republicans under Mr. 
Jefferson in 1805. Another portion of the Federal party gave their 
adhesion to General Jackson, under the belief that, as President, he 
would repudiate the Republican part} 7 , then under the established lead 
of Martin Van Buren. These and other political occurrences indicated, 
at that early day, a defeat of Mr. Adams in his reelection, which 
would, of course, involve the defeat of the party in our State, upon 
whose support not only Mr. Adams but Mr. Clinton had relied. At 
this precise juncture it transpired that Mr. Clinton had become recon- 
ciled with his previously inveterate political foe, Mr. Van Buren, and 
given his adhesion to the support of General Jackson. The Senators 
divided on the line of their previous associations or present convictions 
of their public duty, a portion of Mr. Clinton's adherents going with 
him into the Republican party and the support of General Jackson, 
and a lesser number abandoning Mr. Clinton and adhering to Mr. 
Adams. 

The question whether to follow Mr. Adams and thenceforth aban- 
don Mr. Clinton, or to follow Mr. Clinton and abandon Mr. Adams, was 
precipitated upon me, while my nomination lay unacted upon in the 
Senate awaiting my decision. As may well be conceived, I did not 
long hesitate. I appeared at a meeting held at the Capitol by the 
" National Republicans " of Albany, to consider the political dilemma 
thus produced. It was popularly represented to be a meeting to ex- 
press the indignation of the National Republicans against Mr. Clinton 
for his defection from their cause, and his injurious coalition with Mr. 
Van Buren. In reality, however, it was rather a lamentation over Mr. 
Clinton's separation from the cause and the friends with whom his 
fortunes and fame were believed to be inseparably identified. The 
Senate rejected my nomination as surrogate. 

I regretted, not the failure to obtain the office, but my weakness in 
desiring to be nominated for a subordinate civil place at the hands of 
the Executive power. I saw at once how much the desire or the hold- 
ing of such a place tended to compromise my personal independence, 
and I resolved, thenceforth, upon no considerations other than the safety 
of the State ever to seek or accept a trust conferred by Executive 
authority. That case occurred later, when I, with extreme reluctance, 
and from convictions of public duty, took the office of Secretary 
of State at the beginning of the civil war, and filled it until the restora- 
tion of peace. 



68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1S25-'2S. 

So far as concerned Mr. Clinton himself, he escaped a trial of the 
consequences of the change of political associations which he had thus 
made. He fell dead of apoplexy in his residence at the capital, on the 
11th of February following'. Universal grief banished from the public 
mind the agitation which recent events had begun to awaken, and he 
was mourned as (notwithstanding whatever failings and errors he had) 
he deserved to be, as, only next after Alexander Hamilton, the wisest 
statesman and the greatest public benefactor that in all her history the 
State of New York has produced. For myself, I persevered in follow- 
ing the policy of Clinton now he was dead, not less than or separate 
from that of my other political leader, Adams, while living. 

A convention of the young men of the State, favorable to the con- 
tinuance of the national and State Administration, was called at Utica; 
upon whose suggestion I do not now know, I attended as one of many 
representatives of Cayuga County. The convention consisted of three 
hundred and fifty-six members. I have since seen many representative 
bodies, legal as well as voluntary, ecclesiastical as well as political. I 
have never, however, seen any assembly which exhibited a greater 
fervor of sentiment, or more pure and elevated convictions of public 
duty. According to custom, a private preliminary caucus was held, in 
a basement-room, the evening previous to the public assembly of the 
convention. I had here my first experience in the troubles of political 
caucuses. The New York City delegation, twenty-five in number, if I 
remember right, with great unanimity insisted that its leading member 
should be elected president of the convention. Private solicitations 
and intrigues had been actively employed, during the afternoon, to win 
the rural members to that suggestion. The members from the country 
districts were of the opinion that a rural member ought to be elected 
president, to prevent the movement from losing its State character, and 
coining to be regarded as a merely formal demonstration of the young 
men from the city. This conflict of opinion was irreconcilable. Urban 
delegates threatened the defection of the cit} r , while many country 
members, highly irritated, predicted the worst disasters from the suc- 
cess of the city candidate. The debate grew angry and vehement, and 
neither party was willing to terminate it and come to a vote. Older 
and more experienced friends of the cause had been admitted into the 
caucus as spectators. Thev were alarmed by indications of a breach in 
the convention, in the attempt to give it a public organization. The 
debate mighl be overheard, and produce a scandal dishonorable to the 
character of the convention, and injurious to the cause for which it was 
assembled. At a late hour I took the floor, avowing my preference for 
the rural candidate, but, at (he same time, my confidence in the candi- 
date offered from the city, and, insisting that all should agree to acqui- 
esce, I proposed a preliminary vote, pledging the minority to acquiesce, 



1828-'29.] WILLIAM MORGAN. Q$ 

and that the convention should then adjourn for the night, and come 
too-ether at nine o'clock in the morning, prepared to decide the question 
by an immediate ballot at that hour without debate. I do not recall 
either the thoughts or language of this appeal to the patriotism and 
good sense of the convention. The resolution I offered was promptly 
accepted, and the meeting separated. The next morning when pro- 
ceeding to the hall, greatly apprehending a renewal of the stormy de- 
bate of the previous night, I met the two rival candidates for the presi- 
dency, with their more earnest friends, and was requested to delay my 
entrance until the meeting should be organized. As I entered the 
room, after that delay, I was received by the entire body standing, and 
unanimously pronouncing their vote for myself as president. 



1828-1S29. 

The Convention. — Abduction of Morgan. — Popular Excitement. — The Antimasonic Party. 
— Solomon Southwick.— Smith Thompson and Francis Granger. — Van Buren and 
Throop. — Congressional Nomination. — A Coalition and an Explosion. — General Jack- 
son's Election. — Auburn Projects. — Working for a Competence. — Buying a House. 

The convention, after a session of two days, adjourned, with the 
result of introducing new and great effect into the political canvass. 
The honor of being its presiding officer seemed to give me a prominent 
position throughout the State; and it has since been the habit of politi- 
cal writers to assign that date as the beginning of the political career 
which, with varied success, I have pursued. But I soon had occasion to 
know that the " course " of political advancement, like that of " true 
love," " never did run smooth." 

On the 14th day of September, 1826, William Morgan, an inhabitant 
of Batavia, in the county of Genesee, was arrested under a form of 
legal process for pretended petit larceny, and conveyed to the common 
jail of the county of Ontario, at Canandaigua. On the fact of his im- 
prisonment becoming known, and exciting inquiry, the prosecutor failed 
to appear to substantiate his accusation ; while three or more citizens 
of Canandaigua procured a carriage, and caused him to be conveyed 
clandestinely through the country, confining him during the night in 
the public jail at Lockport, and conveying him the next day to Fort 
Niagara on the bank of the Niagara River. Here, for a time, informa- 
tion concerning him ceased. Social and judicial inquiries afterward 
established beyond all reasonable doubt the facts that he was a member 
of the order of Freemasons, and, though of humble occupation, a sober 
and moral citizen ; that he had prepared for publication, and had in 
press, in a printing-office at Batavia, a volume containing the secrets of 



70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1828-'29. 

Freemasonry ; that the clerk's office at Batavia was robbed of papers 
under an expectation of obtaining' the manuscript ; that the printing- 
office was forcibly attacked with the same view, and finally burned 
down in the night-time, to destroy the manuscript ; that his arrest and 
confinement at Canandaigua were made with a view to secure his person, 
and that his forcible removal from Canandaigua to Fort Niagara was 
a continuation of the same plot ; and that there a lodge of Freemasons 
was held to consider his case, which resulted in an abortive attempt to 
induce the Masonic brotherhood on the Canada bank of the river to 
receive him ; and that, on their refusal, he was taken from the fort in 
the night-time by members of the brotherhood, and drowned in the 
Niagara River. The inquisition of justice in the matter was hindered 
and delayed, so that public sentiment became vehemently excited, and 
the crime of his murder was charged upon the Masonic brotherhood 
with force and effect. The judicial authorities of the State succeeded 
in bringing to justice only three or four of the persons who were en- 
gaged in this abduction, but failed altogether in bringing his mur- 
derers to punishment. The people of the district of country in which 
these outrages happened thereupon organized themselves as a political 
party, demanding the dissolution of the Masonic Society, as subversive 
of order, and dangerous to the public peace and safety. This proceed- 
ing brought about a wide and searching inquisition into the principles 
and practices of that society, which lasted several years. The new 
political party rapidly obtained a controlling majority in many of the 
counties lying west of the Cayuga Lake. 

While the organization was taking its form, the presidential canvass 
of 1828 came on, and it became necessary for the new party to declare 
its national preferences. Jackson, the candidate of the Republican 
party, was identified as being either a Freemason, or at least as having 
the support of the Republican authorities of the State, who were re- 
garded as delinquent in the investigation of the Morgan affair, and 
shielding the Masonic fraternity from popular indignation. Mr. Adams, 
on the other hand, the candidate of the National Republican party, 
being inquired of, answered that he had not been at any time, was not 
now, and probably never should be, a Mason. The new organization, 
now assuming the name of the " Antimasonic party," inclined to sup- 
port Mr. Adams ; but, in order to maintain a distinctive character, 
deemed it necessary to make a separate nomination of the candidates 
for electors, and for State and local offices. Electors were then chosen 
by the people in single districts. 

My activity in local assemblies and conventions continued during 
the summer. A " National Republican " State Convention at Utica, 
on the 23d of July, submitted to the people a ticket composed of Smith 
Thompson for Governor, and Francis Granger for Lieutenant-Governor. 



1828-'29.] THE ANTIMASONIC PARTY. 71 

The Republican party nominated Martin Van Buren for Governor, and 
Enos T. Throop for Lieutenant-Governor. The Antimasonic party, of 
whom I shall soon have occasion to make larger mention, quite generally 
accepted from Solomon Southwick the offer of his name as a candidate 
for the office of Governor. 

The National Republican candidate was an eminent and experienced 
jurist, but had had no recent connection with political affairs, and his name 
excited no enthusiasm. Mr. Granger, three or four years my senior, 
brought to the ticket great popularity, the fruit of imposing personal 
presence, graceful address, respectable abilities, and free and engaging 
popular manners. Mr. Van Buren possessed great amenity of character, 
and was sure of an interested support from the Republican party, all 
of whose members regarded him as the most skillful of political tac- 
ticians. Mr. Throop, then one of the State Circuit Judges, was my 
neighbor, chiefly known to the public for his unquestioning devotion to 
the interests of the party and the fortunes of its leaders. Mr. South- 
wick was a restless and eccentric man of an age already past. 

The Cayuga Bridge seemed, for a time, an effective barrier against 
the extension of the Antimasonic party into the region east of the 
Cayuga Lake. It crossed the barrier, however, at last, and about seven 
hundred of my fellow-citizens of Cayuga County, scattered through the 
different towns, raised the standard of the Antimasonic pai'ty in the 
winter of 1827-'28. Nearly all of them had been honored and esteemed 
associates of my own in the so-called " National Republican " party. 
They were honest, earnest, vigorous, and intelligent men. They in- 
vited me to join their new standard. I endeavored to induce them, by 
high practical considerations, to remain with the National Republican 
party ; in the first place to secure, if possible, Mr. Adams's reelection, 
and await events to determine the wisdom of a " new departure." But 
I fully agreed with them in all their convictions of the duty of vindi- 
cating the majesty of the law, and relieving the country, if possible, 
from secret societies. Thus it happened that, while they severed them- 
selves from me, our friendship and mutual confidence remained — they 
being as fully convinced as I myself was of the duty of combining all 
branches of opposition in the support of a common ticket for electors, 
Congressmen, and local officers. We agreed that, if possible, the two 
branches, the Antimasonic and the National Republican, though nomi- 
nating at different times, should present the same names for candidates. 
But prudential considerations made them insist upon holding their con- 
vention first in order of time, it remaining for me to bring the National 
Republican Convention, which should meet afterward, to accept the 
candidates of the coalition. 

The Antimasons, though rich in talent elsewhere, unfortunately 
had no men in their ranks in the county who were accustomed to speak 



72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1828-'29. 

or write on public affairs. They therefore, from time to time, came to 
me, and I confidently furnished them with drafts of resolutions, ad- 
dresses, and speeches, which were given to the public in the name and 
through the hands of other persons, of their own organization. The 
coalition, as all coalitions must be, was covered during the preparatory 
stage with the veil of secrecy. They called their convention at the 
Court-House in Auburn. We agreed that they should nominate cer- 
tain prominent and recognized National Republicans, who, though not 
Antimasons, should be free from complicity with Freemasonry. And, 
on my part, I agreed to use the considerable influence which it was as- 
sumed that I enjoyed to induce the National Republicans to adopt the 
candidates thus to be nominated. Our choice for candidate for Con- 
gress fell upon Archibald Green, an eminent, widely -known, and uni- 
versally-respected citizen, who had been a pioneer in the settlement of 
the county, had held many of its highest trusts, and was of about the 
age of sixty. He had in early life joined the Masonic fraternity, but 
had long neglected attendance on its meetings, was now in consequence 
opposed to it, and his acceptance of an Antimasonic nomination would 
be equivalent to a renunciation of the order. I drafted and put into 
the hands of the Antimasonic leaders an address and resolutions suit- 
able to the occasion, and especially laudatory of Mr. Green and the 
candidates to be associated with him. The address and resolutions were 
accurately descriptive of Mr. Green's virtues, claims, and qualifications. 
The day that the Antimasonic Convention assembled at Auburn I 
willingly availed myself of a professional excuse for a journey to the 
shore of Lake Ontario, not doubting but that the intrigue, if so I must 
call it, would be carried out. On returning, in the evening, I was ac- 
costed by all my neighbors in the streets with the salutation, " How do 
you do, Mr. Congressman?" The Antimasonic leaders hastened to in- 
form me that their convention had proved impracticable ; that it had 
refused to nominate Mr. Green because it distrusted him, and had in- 
sisted on nominating myself as a person that could be safely trusted ; 
while my standing with the National Republicans ought to render me 
acceptable to them. To fill the measure of my perplexity, and cover 
me with mortification, the proceedings of the Antimasonic Convention, 
with my own resolutions and address, so laudatory of the candidates, 
were already in type in the Cayuga Republican, and I read them the 
next morning verbatim, except for the material change that my history 
and praises of Mr. Green were appropriated to myself! The public 
were not more amazed than I was when I found myself described 
therein, not as a young man of twenty-seven, four years an untitled 
and unhonored adventurer in the county, but as " one of the earliest 
pioneers of Western New York, matured by age,''' and " covered with 
the titles of official distinctions " I had enjoyed. The game that I had 



1828-'29.] ELECTION OF GENERAL JACKSOX. f3 

played in the New York forum no longer availed me. Everybody rec- 
ognized my own habitual style in the apparently self -glorifying address 
and resolutions. I could not deny the authorship, and I even now sus- 
pect that some of my Antimasonic friends innocently disclosed it. Ridi- 
cule hastened and gave force to the unavoidable explosion. My Na- 
tional Republican associates pronounced me an intriguer and a betrayer. 
I fell from my eminence so low that the counselors who succeeded to 
my place refused even to confer with me. They would have none of 
me for Congressman, in any case, nor Archibald Green neither. But 
they would have Charles Kellogg, reckless whether he was a Freema- 
son or not, and whether the Antimasonic dissenters would accept him 
or not. The Antimasonic electors were indignant at this repudiation 
of my nomination, which they had made, as they thought, in a high 
spirit of conciliation ; and they would have none of Charles Kellogg, 
or anybody but myself or some trusted member of their own narrow 
association. 

Time, however, was running against the passions of these faction- 
ists of both classes. The National Republican Convention had been 
set for a day so near the election that I hoped there would be no time 
to organize an opposition. I remained a candidate, patiently enduring 
the odium and discord to which the position exposed me, until that 
convention assembled. Though not even allowed to be a delegate, 
and amid the hisses of many of its members, I advanced to the table 
of the convention, explained the unfortunate history of my nomina- 
tion, laid it down at their feet, and announced my declination of any 
nomination whatever. They nominated Charles Kellogg for Congress, 
and, for district elector, Christopher Morgan. The Antimasonic Con- 
vention at the last moment reassembled, and reasserted their self-reli- 
ance by nominating Moses Dickson for Congress. True to their 
national principles, as well as their Antimasonic faith, the Antimasonic 
voters in the county cast their suffrages for Christopher Morgan, the 
National Republican candidate for elector ; but they at the same time 
cast 901 votes for Dickson, their own distinct candidate for Congress ; 
and thus it happened that, while the Adams elector was beaten by only 
1,743 majority, the National Republican candidate for Congress was 
beaten by 2,447. 

Not only was the cause of the National Republican party lost in 
the county where these unhappy divisions had occurred, but it encoun- 
tered a disastrous defeat throughout the State and Union. Mr. Adams 
had sixteen electors out of thirty-six, and on the final canvass in 
Congress was found to have had only eighty-three votes, while General 
Jackson had one hundred and seventy-eight. John C. Calhoun was 
elected Vice-President. For Governor, Martin Van Buren received 
136,794 votes ; Smith Thompson, 106,444 ; Solomon Southwick (the 



74: • AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [lS28-'29. 

Antimasonic candidate), 33,345. These figures showed that, while 
an uncompromising feud between the Antimasons and National Re- 
publicans gave an imposing triumph to the Republican party, the two 
contending factions had three thousand more votes than the success- 
ful party. The result, however, was as injurious to the opposition 
as it was incurable. From that time the Antimasonic party, encour- 
aged by the increase of votes it had received, determined to make no 
coalition or compromise ; and the National Republican party, discour- 
aged by its failure, waned throughout the State and country. The 
triumphant party thenceforward received accessions everywhere from 
the irresolute and the vacillating, and opposition to it found vitality 
only in the spirited and vigorous Antimasonic organization, which was 
chiefly located in the western counties of the State. R seemed to be 
hoping too much to expect that a party arising from a single issue, and 
that of a social, more distinctly than a political nature, confined as yet 
to a small section of the country, and deriving its weapons chiefly from 
its determination to vindicate the law through the courts of justice, 
could succeed to the position of one of the two great contending par- 
ties of the Union. For myself, it was not necessary that I should 
expect, or even hope, for an ultimate and complete success of the new 
organization. I saw the National Republican party, through which I 
had so far labored since my majority, practically dissolved and in ruins, 
not again to be restored. I had only the alternative of going with 
that one which not only agreed with me throughout in the principles 
and policy, State and national, that I cherished, but the peculiar object 
of which also seemed to commend itself to the support of all indepen- 
dent and virtuous citizens. I saw, as I thought, not only the loss of 
our national system of revenue, and the loss of enterprises of State 
and national improvement, but also future disunion of the States, and 
ultimately a universal prevalence of slavery as the future fruits of con- 
fiding the destinies of the country to Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee ; 
John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina ; and Martin Van Buren, of New 
York. Against the party whose success was marked by the formation 
of their coalition I planted myself sternly, in my own independence, 
willing to combine and coalesce with all who could be rallied for the 
national safety, and indifferent to whatever delays and discouragements 
I might be called to endure. 

The rout and confusion of the National Republican party, in the 
first election of General Jackson, left me quite at liberty, during the 
year 1829, to give my attention to domestic and social affairs. R is 
now a matter of surprise to me, on recurring to the papers of that day, 
to find that I was employed often in the defense of criminals, having 
apparently obtained a reputation for astuteness and subtilty in expos- 
ing defects in pleadings and evidence. 



1828-'29.] BUYING A HOUSE. 75 

The village and the county in which I lived were, at that time, in- 
tensely moved by projects of local improvement. Among these were 
plans for connecting the lakes with the general system of inland 
navigation, and connecting Auburn with other parts of the State by 
railroads. There were also projects for colleges and other scientific 
institutions. In all these I took the active part which was assigned to 
me by my fellow-citizens. 

Politically there was little encouragement to activity. The National 
Republican organization had fallen to pieces, and the party virtually 
ceased to exist. Nearly all its more active leaders joined the trium- 
phant Republicans, with a determination to oppose and utterly destroy 
the new Antimasonic organization, which now oame to the foreground 
as the successor of the National Republican party, in opposition to the 
Republican majority triumphant in the States and the Union. The 
Antimasons contested the field in the limited district where they had 
demonstrated their greatest strength, but throughout all the other parts 
of the State of New York, including Cayuga County, the election of 
the Republican local tickets, in 1829, passed by default. 

Mr. Van Buren, on the organization of General Jackson's cabinet, 
was appointed Secretary of State at Washington, and the Executive 
office of the State devolved upon Governor Throop. 

There is an incongruity, which I cannot easily overcome, between 
the details of domestic life and the account I find it necessary to give 
of public and political events. My professional pursuits had, by this 
time, become sufficiently profitable to assure me a competence for the 
country life which, on all grounds, I preferred. But that competence 
could not reach an abundance, by reason of the drafts to which I was 
subjected. Relatives unfortunate in business had, naturally enough, 
applied to me for indorsements and loans. I cheerfully gave the re- 
quired aid, but, in so doing, depleted more than one-half the entire 
property which I possessed. These charges upon an income derived 
from the practice of the law, in the country, left me without an 
assurance of the pecuniary independence which I had already found 
indispensable to the social and political independence at which I 
aimed. 

While my residence in the family of Mr. Miller, my father-in- 
law, was in every way pleasant and desirable, the construction of 
his dwelling proved a severe trial to the health and comfort of my 
wife. 

I therefore, with his consent, bought of William Brown the neat 
house and pretty grounds directly opposite to that of Mr. Miller. I 
paid one thousand dollars in hand, and secured the payment of the 
balance within five years, by my bond and mortgage, and removed to 
that dwelling with my wife and child (Augustus), then three years old. 



76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1830. 

Impatient under renewed experience of debt, I laid aside all my gains 
with a miser's prudence and care, and extinguished the bond and 
mortgage in fifteen months. 



1830. 

Popular Elections. — The Evening Journal. — A Fourth-of-July Demonstration. — Henry 
Dana Ward. — The " Working-men." — Granger for Governor. — National Convention. — 
Thaddeus Stevens. — Judge McLean. — Myron Holley. — Elected to the Senate. 

No fault is more frequently found with our Constitution than that 
which is based on the periodical frequency of the popular elections. 
I am of a different opinion. Intelligence cannot be increased, and pa- 
triotism cannot be kept vigorous, without universal activity of the pub- 
lic mind. The elections of representatives serve this purpose admira- 
bly. Moreover, while the safety and welfare of a state do not require 
frequent changes of its rulers, yet the popular contentment and acqui- 
escence, indispensable in every state to the maintenance of peace and 
order, and more indispensable in a republic than in any other state, 
are secured by the recurrence, at regular and short periods, of elec- 
tions which afford the opportunity of change. Thus all errors or evils 
of government are endured because there is an always-renewing hope 
of relief. The first year of a new Administration at Washington, or at 
Albany, is a season of popular rest. Exhausted energies and expecta- 
tions, satisfied or disappointed, combine to produce a sentiment of pub- 
lic indifference to politics. In these periods enterprises of material 
improvement, moral and social reforms, and religious movements, en- 
gage the minds of the people. But the second year of a new Adminis- 
tration at Washington finds the popular mind restored to vigorous ac- 
tivity, and the elections held in that year are generally the beginning 
of a campaign, in which another presidency is to be decided. The 
year 1829, as has been seen, was one of relaxation and calm. The 
campaign for 1832 opened with the year 1830. The Republican party, 
now taking to itself the more radical name of " the Democratic 
party," announced with great unanimity its determination to secure 
the reelection of Andrew Jackson. The discomfited and overthrown 
National Republican party practically withdrew from the field in most 
of the Northern States, and left its vacant place to be filled by the 
new, vigorous, and enthusiastic Antimasonic party. Hitherto that 
party, within the State, had been a merely local one, practically con- 
fined to Western New York. 

In 1830 it determined to strike out boldly for wider empire. A 
consultation was held, at the beginning of the year, at Albany, with 



1830.] A FOURTH OF JULY. ^ij 

this view. I attended this consultation, and, by a speech which I 
made, won the confidence of the delegates so far as to be accepted as 
one of the leaders, in association with Thurlow Weed, Francis Granger 
John C. Spencer, Frederick Whittlesey, William H. Maynard, and 
Albert H. Tracy, all of whom were deservedly distinguished for talents 
and influence. 

Our convention appointed fifty-six delegates to a United States 
Antimasonic Convention, to be held in Philadelphia in the following 
September, and we provided for the establishment of the Albany 
Evening Journal, on the 22d of March, as the organ of the party in 
the State, to be conducted by Thurlow Weed. 

At home, the coalition of a large portion of the late National Re- 
publican party with the triumphant Republican one now called " Demo- 
cratic " displayed an intolerance which I found unendurable ; and I 
gave myself up to an effort to break it down. Adhering to all my 
cherished " National Republican " principles and policy, I addressed 
myself to my fellow-citizens, in speeches and through the press, expos- 
ing the violence which had been committed against law and order in 
the name and for the benefit of the Masonic Society, and in warnings 
against the errors and evils of secret societies generally. 

My opponents under-estimated these appeals, and visited my asso- 
ciates and myself with derision and scorn. Aware of the effect of 
demonstrations of political strength on the public mind, I induced my 
associates to challenge a trial on the 4th of July. For two months we 
made preparations for the celebration of the national anniversary, 
with the full exposition of our party faith and principles. Our oppo- 
nents made a counter-effort. Bands of music, military companies, and 
philanthropic and educational societies, as yet, were exclusively in the 
interest or under the control of the Masonic party. We obtained, 
however, not without much expense and trouble, the aid of a drummer 
and a fifer, and an old iron gun, which latter I kept carefully watched 
and guarded, on the night of the 3d, on my own premises, to prevent 
its being captured and taken away by my opponents. 

The great, the important day, " big with the fate of Cato and of 
Rome," opened auspiciously. The sun shone brightly. The salvo 
echoed through the chambers of the anxious and patriotic. A proces- 
sion of two thousand electors paraded. Mr. Henry Dana Ward, of 
New York, a scholarly gentleman, delivered an elaborate oration. \\ e 
cheered the day and drank success to our cause, not forgetting, in our 
denunciations of the Order, a contribution for the relief and support 
of the widow of William Morgan, and the clay closed with a ceremony 
as exciting as it was novel. Colonel H. C. Witherell opened a "lodge " 
at the Court-House, and initiated Sam Jones, 'a poor blind candidate, 
as "entered apprentice," passed him to the degree of "fellow-craft," 



78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1S30. 

raised him to the " sublime degree " of " master-mason," advanced 
him to tlie " honorary degree " of " mark-master," installed him in the. 
chair as " past-master," received and acknowledged him as " most ex- 
cellent master," and exalted him to the degree of " holy royal arch," 
to the edification of a large popular assembly. 

The impression made by the celebration was such as to leave little 
room to doubt that the popular sentiment of the county was revolu- 
tionized. The Republicans, called now by us the " Masonic party," 
nominated for Governor the then acting Lieutenant-Governor, Enos T. 
Throop, of Cayuga; and for Lieutenant-Governor, Edward P. Livingston, 
of Columbia County. The Antimasonic State Convention assembled at 
Utica on the 11th of August. During the summer a class of persons 
in various parts of the State, who had at first been absorbed into the 
triumphant Republican or " Masonic party," in the general calm which 
succeeded the election of General Jackson in 1828, separated themselves 
from that majority, and combined under the name of " Working-men's 
party." Antimasonry was entirely repudiated in the city of New York, 
and generally throughout the eastern part of the State. But the dis- 
contented "working-men" there might be impressed with the advantages 
of cooperation with the Antimasons of the west. To bring out the 
Antimasonic strength of the west, all that was needful was to nomi- 
nate the most popular member of that party for Governor. It was a 
more difficult affair to secure cooperation from the " working-men " of 
the east. It seemed necessary for this object to name a candidate for 
Lieutenant-Governor who resided in the city of New York, was identi- 
fied with the " working-men," and free from the reproach of previous 
connection with the Antimasonic party. Samuel Stevens, a young, 
talented, and distinguished alderman of the city, was approached, and 
gave his consent to assume that place. 

Our State Convention assembled at Utica on the 11th of August. 
In that convention two duties were assigned to me : one was, to prepare 
and report the creed of the new party, which must be presented with 
sufficient clearness and force to form a stable basis for action, and yet 
with so much moderation as not to unnecessarily excite popular preju- 
dice and hostility ; the other was, to convince the convention of the 
expediency and propriety of the nomination of Mr. Stevens for Lieu- 
tenant-Governor. He was obnoxious to its prejudices on the ground of 
being only a " working-man," and, as yet, in no way identified with the 
Antimasonic cause. Both of these duties were discharged with success, 
although the latter one was embarrassing. Mr. John Crary, of Wash- 
ington County, a former member of the State Senate, had been the 
Antimasonic candidate for Lieutenant-Governor at the previous election. 
The convention and the party generally indulged, not without much 
show of reason, a hope of success in the present canvass. The friends 



1830.] NATIONAL ANTIJIASONIC CONVENTION. 79 

of Mr. Crary insisted on his renomination, both as an act of justice to 
him, and an act of loyalty to the cause ; while of Mr. Stevens it could 
only be said that, by his silent acceptance of the nomination, he would 
virtually become an adherent of the party. The debate was stormy ; 
but the nomination was carried by a decided majority. Mr. Crary pro- 
tested, and appealed to the electors ; but his appeal was lost in the 
enthusiasm which followed the announcement of the nominations. 

A National Convention of the Antimasonic party assembled at 
Philadelphia on the 11th of September. It was attended by ninety-six 
delegates from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode 
Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, Maryland, and 
Michigan. It was in this convention that I first met Thaddeus Stevens. 
I found existing between him and myself an earnest sympathy of politi- 
cal views. An advocate of popular education, of American industry, 
and of internal improvement, abhorring slavery in every form, and rest- 
less under the system of intrigue by which the Republican party at 
that day sought to maintain itself in power, bent on breaking up the 
combination between a subservient party in the North and the slave 
power of the South, he became a personal friend and a political ally. 
That relation remained through long years thereafter. Judge McLean, 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, was an aspirant to the 
presidency, and was understood not to be unwilling to accept the sup- 
port of the new party. But we wisely decided to confine the proceed- 
ings of the convention to measures adapted to the dissemination of our 
principles. Francis Granger, our candidate for Governor of New York, 
was president of the convention. Our principles, of course, were set 
forth in an elaborate address which came from the pen of Myron Holley, 
a ripe and eminent scholar and statesman, long connected with the 
politics of the State of New York. It devolved upon me in this con- 
vention, .as it had done in the Utica State Convention, to embody the 
party creed in the shape of resolutions, and to illustrate and enforce it 
in debate. 

When the convention assembled, its application for leave to sit in 
Independence Hall was rejected. The dignity and ability manifested 
in its proceedings caused this refusal to be regretted, and it was soon 
seen that the Antimasonic party was likely to become a power in the 
State of Pennsylvania. 

Hitherto I had only regarded my political attitude and proceedings 
for the maintenance and inculcation of cherished political sentiments 
as being without considerations of personal advantage. I was now to 
experience a change in that respect. While stopping at Albany, on 
my way to attend the Philadelphia Convention, Thurlow Weed, for the 
first time, made some friendly .but earnest inquiries concerning my 
pecuniary ability, whether it was sufficient to enable me to give a por- 



30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1831. 

tion of my time to public office. When I answered my ability was 
sufficient, but I had neither expectation nor wish for office, he replied 
that he had learned from my district enough to induce him to think it 
possible that the party there might desire my nomination to the Senate. 
Giving no special thought to this matter, I proceeded to Philadelphia. 
On my return from the convention, and stopping overnight at Borden- 
town, I found by the newspapers that I had been nominated, by my 
political friends, as candidate for Senator of the seventh district of 
New York. 

The faction of " Working-men," in the counties east of the Cayuga 
Lake, gave me an earnest and vigorous support, while the Antimasons 
in the western part of the district, cheered by the hope of success, 
rallied with more enthusiasm than at previous elections, and I was re- 
turned for that office by a majority of two thousand in the district, of 
which my own county gave seventeen. This success, however, was not 
maintained throughout the State. The Democratic State ticket pre- 
vailed, and Enos T. Throop became Governor of the State by a majority 
of 8,481, and Edward P. Livingston, Lieutenant-Governor. 

Antimasonic Senators were chosen in the sixth, seventh, and eighth 
districts, and "Jackson" Senators, as they were then called, in the 
other five districts. In the Assembly, thirty of the one hundred and 
twenty-eight members were Antimasons. 

My return to the Senate involved a change in my domestic life. 
My second son, Frederick W. Seward, was born on July 8, 1830, in the 
new house on South Street, wdiich I had bought in the spring. I closed 
that dwelling for the winter, which I was to spend at the State capital, 
and in the last days of December, leaving my wife and two children 
with her father, proceeded to Albany by stage. 



1831. 

Legislative Life. — First Experience in Debate. — Militia Reform. — A Dream of William 
Morgan. — Albert H. Tracy. — William II. Maynard. — N. P. Tallmadge. — Imprisonment 
for Debt. — Calhoun and Van Buren. — General Jackson and the United States Bank. — 
Breaking up of the Cabinet. — The "Albany Regency." — The Richmond Junto. — 
National Policy. 

The Legislature of New York had not then exactly the same consti- 
tution that it has now. There were, indeed, thirty-two Senators then, 
as there are now under the constitution of 1846, but, for the choice of 
these Senators, the State was then divided into eight senatorial districts, 
each sending four Senators, one of whom was elected each year, to hold 
for four years thereafter. Senators arc now elected in thirty-two sepa- 



1831.] LEGISLATIVE LIFE. g]_ 

rate senatorial districts, to hold two years, and consequently a senato- 
rial election is held every other year throughout the State. 

The Senate of New York had acquired and maintained, under the 
first State constitution, which continued from 1778 to 1821, a very 
high prestige by reason of the elevated character of its members, not 
to speak of the greater importance which the several States had, pre- 
ceding and during the early years of the Federal Constitution. This 
prestige was rendered the more enviable because the constitution of 
the Senate, like its prototype, the House of Lords in England, was, 
under the first two constitutions of the State, a court for the " Trial of 
Impeachments," and for the " Correction of Errors," that might be 
committed by the Supreme Court and the Court of Chancery, as well 
as all inferior tribunals. This high prestige had not yet been impaired, 
and it was a flattery often addressed to me, that I had become, at so 
early an age, a member of the legislative body so distinguished and 
potential. 

The House of Assembly has also undergone a constitutional change- 
since that period. Though it consists of the same number of members, 
one hundred and twenty-eight, as before, and they hold their office for 
the same term of one year, they are now chosen in separate Assembly 
districts, and not, as then, by counties. 

In many respects I found this eminent position very gratifying. 
Although a large portion of legislative action then, as now, related to 
personal claims and local questions, yet the municipal laws involving 
the rights of the citizens, and affecting life, liberty, and property, were 
all the while undergoing modification and improvement. The fiscal 
policy of the State was a profound and important study. Education 
and internal improvement were subjects worthy the consideration of 
generous and enlarged minds. Even the broader and more comprehen- 
sive questions of general policy, and those arising out of unsettled 
debates on the construction of the Constitution of the United States, 
came down to the State Legislatures for deliberation and discussion, 
which exerted a great influence upon the ultimate decision of Congress. 
The judicial responsibilities of the Senate especially fascinated me. I 
listened to great men, who argued great questions of law and equity, 
and I cast a vote, as a judge, in determining controversies and estab- 
lishing principles fundamental in the administration of justice. The 
personal associations of the place were attractive. I had risen above 
the local jealousies of provincial towns and communities, but, while 
party spirit was not less earnestly exhibited by my associates in the 
Senate, it was tempered generally with moderation and courtesy. 

Only one sadness overclouded this neAv and elevated position. 
Every other member of the Senate, in my view, had the knowledge 
and ability which the station required. On the other hand, I had a 
6 



32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1831. 

painful sense of incompetency. It seemed to me that while the people 
had exercised due deliberation and judgment in preferring the thirty- 
one Senators by whom I was surrounded, I had been sent there without 
popular thoughtfulness or reflection. At first it amazed me to see my 
associates on every side of the House rise, and, without embarrassment, 
submit projects of laws and debate political questions without showing 
any want of firmness in their posture, or embarrassment of speech, 
while my own knees smote each other and my tongue clave to the roof 
of my mouth whenever I thought of taking the floor. Reflecting on 
this difficulty, I did not fail to perceive that either I must debate and 
act to the extent with which my immediate constituents would be satis- 
fied, or that my election would prove, not merely a failure, but a re- 
proach ; and that the difficulty in the way of such success might be 
found to be chiefly in the beginning. I considered what subject I 
could choose with the best hope of treating it intelligibly, without pro- 
voking a debate, which I should not have courage or ability to main- 
tain. 

The popularity of the militia system, which had come down to us 
from the Revolution, was now at its lowest ebb ; and it was proposed 
to render the system a merely nominal one by requiring a paper enroll- 
ment, with a single annual parade. This was opposed to a principle 
which I had combated with zeal and perseverance from my earliest 
experience of public affairs. 

When, in 1861, the Executive Administration at Washington found 
themselves confronted by a gigantic rebellion, with only fifteen or 
twenty regiments to meet it, and obliged, in the first instance, to sustain 
itself by calling out the militia, it was an occasion of some self-satis- 
i'action that the first labored duty of my official life at Albany had been 
to direct the attention of the country to the utter defectiveness of the 
militia system, and to the necessity for revising it and adapting it, in 
view of an exigency which, so long before, I had foreseen, and which 
now involved the fate of the republic. 

I prepared an amendment to the bill, wrote a short speech in sup- 

I of the amendment, committed it to memory as well as I could, and 
delivered it, or as much of it as I could remember, but scarcely under- 
ling, when i sal down, what the Republican or Masonic Senator 
who replied to me had said. Certainly, I thought at the time that he 
had spoken better than I had, and probably had the right side of the 
question. Having nothing further to offer, my amendments were of 
course laid upon the table, and I think they might be lying there yet 
if the Senators, taking pity on my embarrassment, had not paid me 
the courtesy of directing them to be printed, a motion which implied a 
willingness to hear from me again. 

During this initiatory legislative experience, my acquaintance 



1831.] MAYNARD AND TRACY. §3 

among the people of Alban}' and with the visitors from various parts 
of the State became pleasant, although my party associations exposed 
me to much prejudice and depreciation. The representatives of our 
new and yet small party were continually reminded by the members of 
all older parties and factions that ours was an illegitimate one, that it 
was a political "infection," local, though contagious; that its aims and 
its principles were so unnatural and absurd that they could not be 
honestly conceived or entertained, but were assumed from sinister con- 
siderations altogether. Especially was it the pleasure of the adherents 
of opposing factions to represent the entire tragedy, out of which the 
Antimasonic excitement arose, as a fiction, which Thurlow Weed and 
his associates were impudently attempting to palm off upon an unso- 
phisticated community ; that William Morgan, instead of having been 
murdered by Freemasons at the Niagara River, was now living in 
Smyrna, supported by the funds of the Antimasonic leaders ; that the 
body washed up on the shore at Oak Orchard was not his, but that of 
Timothy Monroe ; that he was not abducted at all ; and, finally, that 
there was no William Morgan — that he was only a myth ! 

I amused my new associates by giving them the experience of a 
dream, which was engendered doubtless under the warping influences 
of these sarcastic misrepresentations. I imagined that, in my new 
capacity as a Senator, I was entertained at dinner by our late candidate 
for Lieutenant-Governor, Stevens, in New York City, and surrounded 
by my new political friends ; that I was called from the dinner-table 
into a parlor, which seemed to be a private one. A stranger entered, 
who was short and square-framed, with a full, round face, having a 
parcel strapped upon his back. He met and accosted me with con- 
gratulation upon my preferment. I asked who he was. He replied : 
" Do you not know ? I am William Morgan." I answered, horror- 
struck : " I thought you were dead ! How is it that you are alive and 
here ? Get out of my sight ! " He hung his head, abashed, and as he 
coweringly retreated he said, " How strange it is that Weed and 
Whittlesey have never told him ! " 

William H. Maynard was then in mature life. He had great talents 
and extensive information. His character for integrity and fidelity 
commanded the respect of all parties, and secured him the general con- 
fidence of the people. 

Albert H. Tracy was a subtile and ingenious writer and speaker. 
He had come into the Senate the year before as an Antimason, under 
an excitement which left it possible for none other to obtain a popular 
vote in the western part of the State. For some considerable period 
after my acquaintance with him in the Senate, he betrayed no want of 
zeal or confidence in our new political association. But he hesitated, 
and finally fell from the confidence of the party when it became neces- 



84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1831. 

sary for us to take ground against the national policy and measures 
with which Mr. Van Buren, the leading Republican manager in the 
State, was identified. These were the leaders of our small minority. 

Among the majority, Nathaniel P. Tallmadge manifested all that 
vigor, earnestness, and ability in debate, which distinguished him after- 
ward in his brilliant career in Congress. 

N. S. Benton of Herkimer, subsequently so long distinguished for 
his uprightness, fidelity, and ability, in the fiscal administration of his 
State, was a busy and active though not popular leader ; while Henry 
A. Foster, of Oneida County, displayed, if less tact, yet great forensic 
power. 

The Legislature, upon the complaint of Antimasonic citizens, of the 
failure of justice in the trials for conspiracy and murder in the Morgan 
case, had directed that one of the Justices of the Supreme Court should 
preside on a further trial at Lockport. William L. Marcy had presided 
on that occasion, and conducted the trials with such a degree of firm- 
ness, impartiality, and ability, as to win the approbation, not only of 
his own party, but of the Antimasons throughout the State. In conse- 
quence of this success, he was appointed by the Legislature a Senator 
in Congress, and thus began the career in the field of national politics 
which, although considerably interrupted by his return to official posi- 
tion in the State, constitutes the most important part in his political 
life. 

The Legislature this year made a great advance in the cause of 
humanity, by abolishing imprisonment for debt. The act passed re- 
tained imprisonment only as a punishment for frauds committed by 
debtors, and forever prohibited the incarceration of debtors who, though 
unfortunate, were not guilty of dishonesty. In the constitution of 
1821 a large mass of official patronage was reserved to the central 
Executive power in Albany. Deeming it important then, as I had 
before never failed to do, to secure a decentralization of the political 
power of the State, I introduced and urged an amendment of the con- 
stitution, providing that the mayors of all the cities in the State should 
be elected by the people. This principle, some years afterward, was 
incorporated in the constitution of the State. 

( hi the suggestion of my early instructor, Dr. Nott, I exerted 
myself with much diligence to procure from the archives of foreign 
governments the documents tending to illustrate the colonial history 
of the State. Although this effort failed at the time, it was some 
years afterward crowned with success. 

In the Court for the Correction of Errors I delivered opinions in 
several of the causes. 

The Legislature of the State of New York, although constitutionally 
separated from all connection with national matters, nevertheless sympa- 



1831.] BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 85 

thized continually, and often, perhaps, too vehemently, with parties en- 
gaged in directing the affairs of the Federal Government. We have 
seen that, at the close of President Monroe's Administration in 1824, 
Federal politics sank to the level of a mere personal contest for the 
Executive succession, in which the parties were Crawford, of Georgia ; 
Adams, of Massachusetts ; Jackson, of Tennessee ; Calhoun, of South 
Carolina ; and Clay, of Kentucky. Neither the choice of Mr. Adams by 
the House of Representatives in 1824, nor the election of General Jack- 
son in 1828, had the effect of closing this personal scramble. All that 
had been gained thus far was, that Mr. Adams had been, with the 
utmost labor and difficulty, advanced to the high station, and dismissed 
at the end of his term, to make way for the elevation of General Jack- 
son, for whom a reelection was vehemently demanded ; while Mr. 
Crawford had disappeared from the arena. But there still remained 
Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay, while Mr. Van Buren had entered the field 
as the legitimate successor to Mr. Crawford's pretensions. 

The friends of Calhoun and Van Buren yielded to the demand of 
General Jackson for a reelection in 1832, and contented themselves 
with competition for the succession at the end of his second term. Mr. 
Clay, on the other hand, aspired to be elected in 1832, and thus was 
opposed, not only to General Jackson himself, but to the two rival 
aspirants for the succession. 

The strong will of General Jackson was equal to that of Cromwell. 
The Republican part}', which had triumphed in his success, delighted in 
his prowess, not, indeed, in breaking merely images, but in breaking 
down institutions which came in conflict with popular prejudices and 
passions. The charter of the Bank of the United States was to expire 
in 1836. The system was the invention of Hamilton ; but, while all 
parties had heretofore admitted the necessity and the efficiency of the 
institution, a doubt as to the constitutional power of Congress to estab- 
lish it had existed from the first, and had not been put at rest by 
the authoritative decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. 

The existing institution was obnoxious to the State banks, and 
especially those called the safety-fund banks of the State of New- 
York, which desired to secure for themselves the pecuniary profits de- 
rived by the Bank of the United States from the deposits, transfers, 
and management of the public funds. The Republicans of New York, 
under the lead of Mr. Van Buren, encouraged President Jackson in his 
premature demonstration against the bank, and thus raised a popular 
party issue for the approaching presidential election. Mr. Calhoun and 
his friends, if not agreeing, at least were silent. Only Mr. Clay stood 
a defender of the bank. 

The denunciation of the bank contained in President Jackson's 
message of 1830, and a similar denunciation made by Mr. Benton in 



86 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1831. 

the Senate of the United States, furnished to the Republican majority 
in the Legislature of New York, in 1831, an occasion which they quickly 
seized, and they passed a joint resolution declaring that, in the opinion 
of that Legislature, the charter of the bank ought not to be renewed, 
and about the same time they nominated, in caucus, General Jackson 
for reelection. Not at all sympathizing with the movers of that pro- 
ceeding in their designs, and entirely unconvinced of the expediency of 
the measure, I opposed the resolution with what ability I possessed. 

A temporary gratification was enjoyed, later in the year, by those 
who, like myself, looked with disfavor upon these political machinations 
of the rival candidates for the presidency, by an explosion of President 
Jackson's cabinet, under circumstances which were calculated to excite 
scandal and disgust. President Jackson had called Martin Van Buren 
to the office of Secretary of State, while he had conferred the offices of 
Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of the Navy, and Attorney- 
General, upon Messrs. Ingham, of Pennsylvania ; Branch, of North 
Carolina ; and Berrien, of Georgia, three avowed friends of Mr. Calhoun, 
and understood to favor his nomination at the earliest possible day for 
the presidency. The office of Secretary of War was filled by John H. 
Eaton, of Tennessee, a personal friend and devotee of the President. 
General Jackson, discovering that the wives of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, the Secretary of the Navy, and Attorney-General, did not 
exchange visits of ceremony with the wife of the Secretary of War, 
called upon the Secretaries to redress that grievance. When it was 
answered that the objection of those ladies was, that a cloud was rest- 
ing on the character of Mrs. Eaton, and that, in any case, the question 
which the President had raised was a social one, and not at all a politi- 
cal or official one, he persisted in demanding that the offending ladies 
should reciprocate courtesies and hospitalities with Mrs. Eaton, as a 
public proof of the harmony of his cabinet, under the penalty of the 
retirement of their husbands from office. Mr. Van Buren, however un- 
happily for himself in other respects, was fortunate on this occasion in 
being unmarried, so that he escaped the censure of the President. The 
three cabinet officers whose wives had offended, accepted the penalty 
and retired from office, leaving the President at liberty to constitute a 
new cabinet, which, as he said, should be a unit. Mr. Van Buren was 
appointed minister to Great Britain. Mr. Eaton was appointed minis- 
ter to Spain. An alienation occurred between Mr. Calhoun on the one 
side and the President and Mr. Van Buren on the other. This aliena- 
tion was afterward to produce great and serious results. 

An unusually candid State historian, Jabez D. Hammond, has taken 
notice of the fact that Erastus Root, in the preceding year, on taking 
the chair as Speaker of the Assembly, was the first presiding officer 
who, in an inaugural address, recognized his partisan obligations. It 



1831.] "STATE RIGHTS." gf 

is perhaps a proof of the low level to which the public sense of patriot- 
ism had fallen in this period, that this proceeding- was imitated by a 
President of the Senate, and even the Governor of the State, in 1831. 

The history of that period would be imperfect if I should omit to 
state that, from the adoption of the Federal Constitution down to this 
time, the partisan transactions in the several States were generally 
conducted by a small number of prominent and active politicians, who 
were understood not only to determine the political course which the 
Executive of the State should pursue, but also to exert an overpower- 
ing influence in directing the political course of the Legislature. 
Whatever party prevailed, it had such an irresponsible committee 
always at the State capital. At first it was called a " Junto," and by 
this name the cabal which sat at Richmond always continued to be 
called. The similar Republican cabal which established itself at Albany 
came, after the year 1821, to be known under the name of the " Albany 
Regency." 

It may be easily conceived how these two irresponsible bodies, one 
exercising its strategy at Richmond, the capital of the then first State: 
in the Union, and the other at the capital of the State of New York, 
just rising to that eminence, when combined together, constituted a c< 
alition capable of exerting power throughout the Union. 

I do not know who was before myself in taking notice of the power 
of this coalition in the political transactions of 1824 and 1828. I 
it then, and my jealousy was excited by the fact that it seemed to me, 
even at that early day, to indicate a long period of national rule, in 
which the anomalous institution of slavery would be protected and 
strengthened, inasmuch as the support of slavery would be a condition 
on which Virginia was sure to insist ; while a concession in its favor 
would be the only concession in the power of the " Albany Regency " 
to make. I think those who may take the trouble to study my politi- 
cal conduct at that time will find evidence of this jealousy in all that I 
wrote, spoke, and did. 

The student of general history will take notice that General Jack- 
son not only denounced a renewal of the charter of the Bank of the 
United States prematurely, and thus made opposition to that institu- 
tion a partisan issue, but also that he vetoed the bill for the construc- 
tion of the Maysville Road, upon grounds which denied to the Federal 
Government power to construct works of internal improvement in the 
several States, thus offering to the public another distinct political 
issue. 

Thus General Jackson's Administration, and with it the Republican 
party, advanced rapidly in the line of the policy of " State rights." 
They thus became a party of obstruction, while their opponents had no 
such cohesion or combination as would enable them to assert the more 



33 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1831. 

enlightened and liberal policy which the early statesmen of the repub- 
lic had adopted, and which in our own day has, though in the midst of 
many national calamities, been effectually restored. 



1831. 

Oration at Syracuse.— Railroads and Canals.— Visit to John Quincy Adams— Baltimore 
Convention.— Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Chief-Justice Marshall.— William Wirt 
for President.— Red-Jacket.— Samuel Miles Hopkins.— A Warning from Virginia. 

Ox the 4th of July I pronounced, at Syracuse, a carefully-studied 
speech, in which, while I did not fail to set forth the peculiar principles 
of my own party, I exposed and denounced the tendency of the times 
toward the dangerous doctrine of nullification, which had then already 
been boldly avowed by Mr. Calhoun and his adherents in the slave 
States, without being authoritatively rebuked by any party, its organs 
or leaders. If I remember right, this was my fifth exercise of that 
description, and each one of them, as well as my commencement oration 
at college, was mainly devoted to the same important theme. Perhaps 
I need to say, in explanation of the frequency of my speech in this 
way, that the day of the popular extension of the press had not yet 
arrived, nor had the da} r of extended reports of debates in legislative 
bodies and political assemblies. The politician and leader addressed 
the people in the pamphlet form, borrowed from England, and in the 
-ith of July oration, which originated with the Revolution. Until 1830 
.'very public man felt it necessary and becoming to speak out his senti- 
ments on the 4th of July, and the practice, though it has fallen gener- 
ally into disuse, was still maintained in the Southern States until the 
late rebellion. I cannot but think that it was a good practice, and 
might wisely be adhered to. 

The first railroad constructed within the United States was the 
branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad which extends from Balti- 
more to Ellicott's Mills. It was opened this year. In the same year 
the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, a worthy rival of our own New York 
canals, was opened from Georgetown to Harper's Ferry. My earnest 
advocacy of internal improvements made me distrust the policy of 
obstruction which, as I have shown, General Jackson's Administration 
had adopted. 

When the Legislature had adjourned I gratified a long-cherished 
wish by visiting John Quincy Adams, then in retirement at Quincy. 
In making this visit I had not only the motive of giving to that emi- 
nent man assurances, little as they might be worth, of my constancy 
in the support of the principles of which he had been the exponent 



1831.] JUDGE McLEAN. 39 

and advocate, but also of learning from actual observation how far, in the 
capacity of wisely maintaining republican institutions, the State of 
Massachusetts had been carried by her excellent system of universal 
education in advance of the State of New York, which had adopted 
that system only within my own recollection. Both motives were 
gratified. I found Mr. Adams at home, alone, and intensely engaged 
on a polemic paper against Freemasonry. When I used some words 
of condolence or of sympathy with him, in regard to the cruel injus- 
tice of which he had been the object during his Administration, he heard 
me through and made only this answer, " I have become callous, Mr. 
Seward — I am callous." His vigor and resolution astonished me. He 
was at that moment an Antimasonic candidate for Congress, in his 
district, and he did not affect any want of determination to become a 
candidate for the presidency. Long years afterward, in times of politi- 
cal depression and anxiety, I was accustomed to recur to this interview 
with the second Adams, and to derive fresh courage and vigor in the 
protracted contest with slavery. Mr. Adams vouchsafed me his friend- 
ship at that time, and it continued through his life. 

I attended, as a delegate, the National Antimasonic Convention, 
held at Baltimore on the 26th of September. The convention was 
respectable in talent and numbers. Its proceedings were peculiarly 
grave and dignified. John C. Spencer presided. John McLean, former 
Postmaster-General, and then Justice of the Supreme Court, residing 
in the State of Ohio, had some time before this been quickened by 
aspirations for a nomination to the presidency. Some kind of commu- 
nication on that subject had passed between him and my friend Thad- 
deus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, who had given to leading men of the 
party an assurance that Judge McLean would condescend to accept our 
nomination for the presidency. All that was wanting to secux-e for 
him a unanimous nomination was a letter expressing his willingness 
to accept it, which we were assured one of our members would receive 
from him. 

Mr. McLean was an exceedingly popular man, and it seemed to us 
that his name, identified with the Antimasonic party, would secure it 
consideration and respect throughout the Union. But — 

" The best-laid schemes of mice and men 
Gang aft agley." 

The expected letter of Judge McLean was taken out of the post- 
office at Baltimore. It announced that he could not accept the nomina- 
tion for President, and it fell as a wet blanket upon our warm expecta- 
tions. Nor was the affliction rendered more comforting by the reason 
which was assigned, either in the letter or outside of it, that the writer 
had learned that it was Mr. Clay's intention to be a presidential candi- 



(JO AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1831. 

date. The convention had turned its back upon its oldest and ablest 
and most distinguished champion, John Quincy Adams. It felt that it 
could derive no strength or prestige from a nomination of one of its 
own well-known and practised leaders. It needed a new name, not 
before identified with its history, and a high name at that ; and no such 
star shone forth from any quarter of the horizon. 

But the convention was an able one. Its leading members, John C. 
Spencer, Thurlow Weed, and others, were not only energetic but in- 
ventive. While more youthful and inexperienced members, like my- 
self, were studying the parts assigned to us in the presentation of the 
claims of the party, its principles and policy, those more experienced 
and practised gentlemen set themselves to work, inasmuch as we could 
not find a candidate, to make one. They respectfully waited upon the 
illustrious Chief-Justice Marshall, of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, who was then at Baltimore, and upon the distinguished and 
amiable William Wirt, who had been the Attorney-General in Monroe's 
Administration, and who then was residing in the city. They opened a 
correspondence with Charles Carroll, surviving signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. 

In the evening previous to the public meeting of the convention 
we were gratified with assurances that we might expect the attendance 
of those great men at our convention the next day. Accordingly, the 
two former came, and the day closed with a letter which Mr. Wirt con- 
fidentially addressed to the convention, in which he declared himself 
willing to accept the nomination upon the principles we had avowed, 
if we should think it desirable. 

No occasion in the progress of the Antimasonic party had ever so 
highly excited my pride or my enthusiasm as the sanction thus given 
to our cause by those two pure and eminent patriots, jurists, and states- 
men. 

But it proved easier in this case, as it had in others, to find a new 
candidate than it was to bring the convention to accept him. Mr. Wirt 
had been a Mason, and a large party in the convention were unwilling 
to assign him the place of standard-bearer upon a conversion which 
they thought sudden and interested. Others were of opinion that, 
notwithstanding Judge McLean's declining, we might safely force the 
nomination upon him. It was in the maintenance of these opinions 
that I found Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, unreasonable and im- 
practicable. It was assigned to me to combat them in private caucus. 
We debated the subject until midnight, and adjourned under an appre- 
hension that the convention would explode the next day by a refusal to 
nominate Mr. Wirt, or a fatal division on that question. 

I lodged that night in a room with Mr. Stevens. When I awoke in 
the morning, filled with anxiety which the last night's debates had left, 



1831.] RED-JACKET. 91 

I was surprised to find that my fellow-lodger was entirely calm and 
undisturbed. I remonstrated against his pertinacious adhesion to Mr. 
McLean, and so far prevailed with him as to obtain an assurance of his 
acquiescence in the nomination of Mr. Wirt, if that should be the 
choice of the convention. We repaired to the hall, and in an harmoni- 
ous and general agreement made the nomination of that gentleman 
unanimous. 

These proceedings soon secured the cordial assent of the party 
throughout all the States, and Mr. McLean never afterward appeared 
as a candidate for its consideration or favor. 

The State elections which occurred in November, 1831, excited very 
little interest. The Antimasonic party held its own only in the sev- 
enth senatorial district, while a general combination of the Freema- 
sons of all parties gave to the Republican or " Jackson party " large 
majorities in other parts of the State. 

Eminent citizens who had before belonged to the National Republi- 
can party, and who still adhered to Mr. Clay, made arrangements for a 
National Convention, by which he should be nominated for the presi- 
dency. 

I now found that my official, professional, and political duties rendered 
it impossible for me to remain, with any constancy, in my new home at 
Auburn. I therefore returned, with my little family, to the dwelling- 
of Judge Miller, which, with his leave, I then began to enlarge and 
embellish on the plans which have since been carried out. 

It was in the close of this year that the preparatory steps were 
taken toward the extension of the projected line of railroads from 
Schenectady through the centre of the State to Buffalo. 

The Oneida missionary, Kirkland, Fenimore Cooper, and others, of 
an humanitarian or poetical character, had deeply impressed public opin- 
ion, at home and abroad, with an idea of the chivalry of the Indian 
race. I had occasionally seen Indians, belonging to the several tribes 
which anciently constituted the Six Nations ; but they were all, if not 
mendicants, vagrants, ignorant and debased. One snowy day in Janu- 
ary word came to me that Red-Jacket, the last renowned chief and 
orator of the Senecas, was at the village hotel. Mr. Miller, my father- 
in-law, an early settler of the country, had seen Red-Jacket at the 
beginning of the century, and during the negotiations by which those 
Indians ceded their possessions in the State of New York. Mr. Miller 
was a gentleman of imposing presence and dignified bearing. I at- 
tended him, thinking that whatever of character Red-Jacket had would 
be brought out in such an interview. We had not long sat down in 
the bar-room or office of the tavern when a large, robust Indian en- 
tered the room, clad in part in our own costume, but with a blanket 
over his shoulders, without covering on his head, and with a medal sus- 



92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1831. 

pended on his breast. He advanced to the bar and took a dram, and 
then took his place in the centre of the room. Some of the specta- 
tors, discomfited by his glare, rose and walked around the room, sur- 
veying the Indian central figure. He looked down upon them com- 
placently, and said : "lam Red-Jacket. You may look ! " This was 
his only greeting. 

The late Samuel Miles Hopkins was a most careful observer of men 
and manners. His long life was, in fact, contemporary with the with- 
drawal of the Indians from the State of New York. A more benevo- 
lent and humane man I never knew. When I related to him the story 
of my visit to Red-Jacket, his abrupt reception and contemptuous 
bearing, Mr. Hopkins said to me : " We may theorize as we please, and 
do all that we can for the Indian ; he will never be civilized. Men 
of every other race are practical. They will conform to the necessities 
of their condition, and to the customs of civilized 'life. But the Indi- 
ans have now been our dependents and prot'eg'es two hundred years, 
and yet no one has ever seen an Indian in our prisons, convicted of any 
crime but one of force ; and no man has ever seen an Indian hold a 
white man's stirrup or blacken his boots." The reflections which I 
made upon these incidents, and others occurring in my experience with 
the Indian race, early reconciled me to the policy of the removal of 
the Indians from the white settlements to reservations provided for 
them at the West, which was at that time adopted by the administra- 
tion of the General Government, and has been firmly pursued ever 
since, against much popular distrust and complaint. 

The year 1S31 will be memorable, in the history of the country, for 
being the one in which the nation received its first practical and sol- 
emn warning against the error of perpetuating African slavery. A 
savage outbreak of negro slaves occurred at Southampton, Virginia, 
and spread terror and consternation throughout the State. Although 
it was suppressed, and the revolutionists were executed, it left it no 
longer a matter of doubt that, if the Government should not provide 
seasonably for the removal of slavery, it would, sooner or later, be 
brought about by the violent uprising of the slaves themselves. It was 
this instruction which first stimulated me to inculcate, on all proper 
occasions and in all proper ways, the necessity of a peaceful reform of 
that great evil. 

It seems strange, at this day, that the country was indifferent, not 
only to the warning I have last mentioned, but also to another that 
occurred at the same time. Though less fearful, it was not less signifi- 
cant. Good, earnest, and patriotic men, throughout the whole coun- 
try, and especially in the slaveholding States, set on foot a plan for 
the ultimate colonization of the African race in Liberia, on the conti- 
nent from which their ancestors had been brought. On the other 



1832-'33.] RAILROAD COMPANIES. 93 

hand, fugitives from the slave States made their way through the free 
States, and established a colony under the protection of the British 
Government in Canada. Although these two attempts at African 
colonization were very feeble, and served, perhaps, for the time, rather 
as safety-valves for the escape of a dangerous element in our society, 
and so did not at all disturb the system of slavery, yet they indicated 
a force antagonistic to it, which might even then have been seen to be 
irrepressible. 

The result of the State election of 1831 disappointed the sanguine 
expectations of the Antimasonic party ; but it at the same time showed 
that they polled an increased number of votes in the district where 
the chief contest occurred. This circumstance, taken in connection 
with the triumphant success of the party in Vermont, and the large 
increase of popular strength in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and some other 
States, furnished sufficient encouragement to continue the strongest 
possible efforts in the presidential and gubernatorial contests to occur 
in the succeeding year. The nomination of Clay, made in December 
by the National Republican Convention at Baltimore, on the other 
hand, showed that, unless the Antimasonic party should give up their 
candidate (which they could not do, inasmuch as Mr. Clay was content 
to remain an adhering Freemason),. there could be no hope of effect- 
ing a combination of all the opponents of General Jackson. There is, 
however, always some degree of uncertainty in calculations of politi- 
cal events, even for the shortest periods/ In any case duty, as well 
as necessity, for the time required perseverance in the Antimasonic 
cause. 



1832-1833. 

Legislative Session.— Banks.— Railroads.— Female Convicts.— The Canal System.— Debate 
on United States Bank.— Van Buren rejected.— Court of Errors.—" Citizen" Genet- 
Visit from Aaron Burr. — His Reminiscences.— A Long Chancery Suit.— The Cholera.— 
Jackson reelected. — The Nullification Movement. 

The sessions of the Legislature of New York which immediately 
precede a presidential election, like the sessions of Congress, are occu- 
pied less with public business relating to State or local interests than 
with partisan politics. In 1832 my position was less embarrassing than 
in the previous year. I took an active part, though not a pretentious 
one, in the debates which occurred on questions of taxation, revenue, 
management of the public funds, and other matters of State adminis- 
tration. Among these were the charters, or acts of incorporation, for 
railroad companies, which now became one of the most important sub- 
jects of legislation. In the theory concerning railroads which I held 



94 ' AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1832-'33. 

I bad no following in any quarter. I regarded them simply as public 
highways, like the older forms of thoroughfare, to be constructed ex- 
clusively for the public welfare by the authority of the State, and sub- 
ject to its immediate direction, as the canals of the State had been. 
And I held that it was right that, while the use of them by the people 
should be as free as possible, it should, at the same time, be subject to 
such charges as would not only keep them in repair, but afford suffi- 
cient revenue to allow of the extension of the system throughout the 
State. I held the same theory in regard to works of material improve- 
ment by the Federal Government, applying what is called the princi- 
ple of " liberal construction " to the Constitution of the United States. 

In opposition to this principle the opinion universally prevailed 
then, as it does now, that -the construction of railroads ought to be left 
to private capital and enterprise ; but, as there was no sufficient private 
capital and enterprise to be so employed, the Legislature ought to in- 
corporate voluntary associations with powers adequate to combine the 
necessary capital, and provide for their remuneration by the profits to 
be derived from the use of the thoroughfares, in the shape of tolls or 
transit charges. The associations thus invited naturally sought the 
advantages of monopoly and of high transit-tolls, with long terms for 
their enjoyment. Yielding the individual opinion, before expressed, 
on the general policy of incorporation, I labored to exclude from rail- 
road charters, as far as possible, the privileges of exclusive right of way, 
of high tolls, and of long duration of charters, and insisted, whenever I 
could, upon the private liability of the stockholders. 

While willing to encourage banking by increasing the number of 
chartered banks, I insisted on the principle of private liability of stock- 
holders, and upon the keeping inviolate the safety-fund, derived from 
the contributions of all the banks, for the indemnity of bill-holders. 

Finding that, while the number of male convicted felons in the State 
penitentiaries exceeded twelve hundred, the number of female convicts 
was only seventy, and that all, though occupying separate cells, were 
imprisoned in the same penitentiaries and subjected to a common dis- 
cipline, I joined my generous and enlightened associate in the Com- 
mittee on Stale-prisons, in proposing and advocating the establishment 
of a separate prison exclusively for female convicts, and under the 
superintendence of persons of their own sex. This humane measure, 
though it failed at first, ultimately became incorporated into the peni- 
tentiary system of the State. 

The State had already completed the great Eric and Champlain 
Canals. Before the invention of railroads was adopted, it was manifest 
that the benefits and profits of the two great works of improvement 
would be increased by the construction of branches or tributaries into 
distant portions of the State, and thai these portions of the State could 



1832-'33.] JACKSON AND THE BANK. 95 

justly claim a right, by the construction of such branches, to share the 
benefits of inland artificial navigation. Prominent among these pro- 
posed branches were : the Chenango Canal, to connect the waters of 
the Susquehanna with the Erie Canal and the valley of the Mohawk ; 
the Black River Canal, which proposed to connect Lake Ontario, through 
the valley of the Black River, with the Erie Canal ; the Oswego Canal, 
which should unite the Erie Canal with Lake Ontario at Oswego ; the 
Seneca & Cayuga Canal, by which navigation from the Erie Canal was 
opened into those two important lakes ; the Chemung Canal, which, by 
connecting the Susquehanna with Seneca Lake, would open a way to 
the coal-fields of Pennsylvania ; and, finally, the Genesee Valley Canal, 
which would extend similar communication to the sources of the Genesee 
River, at the base of the Alleghany range of mountains. In my mind 
the construction of each of these proposed canals was only a simple 
execution of one entire plan of inland navigation, which either was, or 
ought to have been, contemplated in the construction of the two profit- 
able canals which had been already built, and I never doubted for a 
moment that the system, as a whole, would defray the entire cost of its 
construction. Unfortunately, these several proposed tributaries, while 
being urged upon the Legislature simultaneously, were presented sev- 
erally, and in rivalry with each other, by the citizens of that part of the 
State which was most nearly concerned in their construction. Thus a 
deep apprehension of the ability of the State to complete the system 
was excited, and this produced, on the part of the Legislature, an oppo- 
sition to the construction of any one. The Chenango Canal, which 
promised the least, and which I believe has yielded the least, was the 
first one presented, and the one which was pressed with greatest pos- 
sible urgency. In the Legislature of 1832, as in the year previous, I 
gave my support to that project, honestly and earnestly, although, of 
course, it was not unpleasant to me to find that the support thus ren- 
dered by my political associates and myself, in the Legislature, was 
securing to the Antimasonic party a liberal consideration in the Che- 
nango Valley. The majority, however, defeated the measure. 

Both Houses of Congress were known to hold majorities favorable 
to a renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States. The 
bank — though, as has been mentioned, its charter was not to expire 
until 1836 — presented a petition for renewal, misconstruing the Presi- 
dent's reserve on that subject, in his message, so far as to suppose that 
he would either approve a renewal, or suffer it to pass without objec- 
tion. The President was not misunderstood, however, by his friends, 
constituting the majority in our State Legislature. Mr. Dietz, a plain 
lay member, introduced a denunciatory resolution into the Senate. It 
was with much reluctance that the majority gave time for debate. Mr. 
Maynard, our leader, however, made a strong and able speech in oppo- 



96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1832-'33. 

sition, and I availed myself of the occasion to make an elaborate 
and exhaustive argument. We received support in this opposition 
from some Administration members of the Senate, and from Mr. Granger 
and others of our friends in the Assembly, but all without avail. The 
resolution passed. The act of renewal passed Congress, was vetoed by 
the President, and failed ; and thus the issue of a Federal Bank, or no 
bank, was not only brought directly before the people, but was brought 
directly home to the people of the State of New York. On that issue 
all the capitalists, who were interested in our own combined system of 
safety-fund banks, were brought in to the support of the dominant 
party, now most generally spoken of as the " Jackson party." 

It did not contribute to improve the position which was held by the 
minority on this issue, that the bank appeared in the political arena by 
zealous advocates, who were charged, in Congress and in the press, with 
having their interest derived from, or quickened by, fees or loans. 

In the Senate of the United States a majority was obtained by the 
union of Mr. Clay and his friends, Mr. Webster, then prominent as a 
leader of the opposition in the North, and Mr. Calhoun, a candidate for 
the presidency, and his friends, who already carried their peculiar politi- 
cal tenets to the extreme of nullification. The rejection of Mr. Van 
Buren as minister to the court of St. James, by means of this coalition, 
produced the effect which, in common with discreet friends of the oppo- 
sition, I had anticipated. Mr. Van Buren, who, if he had been left to 
the gratification of his tastes and fondness for society abroad, might 
have passed out of the thoughts of the people, was pronounced by his 
partisans not merely a martyr, but a martyr to his patriotic and per- 
sonal devotion to the " hero of New Orleans," and came home to im- 
part new inspiration to a part} r that was already sufficiently emboldened. 

I closed my legislative labors by preparing this year, as I had done 
in the last, the expose of the legislative and political situation, which 
the Anthnasonic members of both Houses submitted to the people. I 
had need to do little more. My speech on the United States Bank 
question, and this address, were favorably accepted by the minority 
throughout the State. 

The Court of Errors proved still more agreeable and insti'uctive 
than in the previous year. In listening to the arguments of such emi- 
nent lawyers as Abraham Van Vechten, Daniel ( !ady, David B. Ogden, 
George Griffin, Henry R. Storrs, Elisha Williams, George Wood, Ben- 
jamin F. Butler, and John C. Spencer, I found models worthy of all 
emulation, and I especially learned how far impersonal and un impas- 
sioned reasoning surpasses in effect all attempts marked by fancy, 
humor, or sarcasm. Nor do I doubt that the commingling of juridical 
functions with legislative duties was effective in elevating the senato- 
rial character. There are generally some greater men in the Senate of 



1832-'33.] AARON BURR. 97 

the United States than in the Senate of New York, and such states- 
men in the former body at that period maintained of course a higher 
standard in debate. But, on the other hand, I have at no time seen 
the senatorial dignity and decorum so well upheld in the national 
Senate as it was at that time in the body to which I belonged. 

My occupations at the State capital brought me to the acquaintance 
of Edmond C. Genet, who figured in the period of Washington's Ad- 
ministration as a turbulent minister of the then newly-born French 
Republic, and who defied General Washington and divided the country 
in his attempts to embroil the Government of the United States in the 
civil wars of France. When dismissed from office here, an offer for his 
head was made by the Directory of Robespierre. He wisely, there- 
fore, determined to remain in the United States, married into the Clin- 
ton family in this State, and became a vehement partisan of Jefferson 
and George Clinton. Having a cause pending in the Court of Errors, 
he sought my acquaintance, and treated me with extraordinary courtesy 
and politeness. It is due to him to say that he did not change this 
demeanor when, under conscientious conviction, I read an opinion, 
which was sustained by the court, adverse to his suit. 

My first chancery cause began with the beginning of my px*ofes- 
sional life, in 1823. It was a defense of freeholders and bona-jide pur- 
chasers of a military lot, under a title derived from a soldier, to whom 
it had been patented by the State as bounty-land. The bill was filed 
by a lawyer in New York, named Church, and was based upon title 
which bore strong marks of forgery and fraud. Mr. Church conducted 
his suit so negligently that I succeeded, in a year or tAvo, in ruling him 
out of court. The complainant revived the suit by pleading excuses for 
his default, then employing Gilbert L. Thompson, a new solicitor. Mr. 
Thompson was no more effective than his predecessor, and I again ruled 
the cause out of court. It was now nine years old, when the complain- 
ant came back again, now represented by Aaron Burr, who had returned 
from his long exile and disgrace in Europe, and resumed the practice 
of 1-aw in New York, and had already obtained an unenviable fame for 
success achieved by suspicious practices in desperate causes. Mr. Burr 
desired to be let into court, and to reinstate the cause. He appeared 
at Albany, and, by a courteous note, applied for an interview, which, 
of course, I could not refuse. He opened the interview with expres- 
sions of sympathy in my political opinions, and then easily digressed 
into reminiscences of the Revolutionary War, of the disastrous attack 
upon Quebec, of the battle of Monmouth, of the military family of 
Washington, of his generals, Greene, Gates, Lafayette ; of Talleyrand, 
of Dr. Franklin, and even of his own great rival, Hamilton, whom he 
had slain. The interview was held in my family, on a Sunday. He 
suffered no passage in it to occur without addressing some pleasing 
7 



98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1832- , 33. 

compliment to my wife, and all the while held one or both of my chil- 
dren on his knee. At last he came to the object of his visit. I 
thought I was wary, as well as firm in declining his request that I 
would facilitate his application to reinstate the chancery suit. He 
made his motion, with an affidavit, which detailed the proceedings at 
our interview in a manner which put me quite in the wrong, while I 
could not successfully impeach it, and so Mr. George Crowder was 
reestablished in court, with all the advantages he had twice lost. Tt 
cost some delay and much effort to procure, from time to time, persons 
in New York City competent to give perjured testimony of conversa- 
tions held with my clients, on their farms in Cayuga, in which they 
confessed away their title and their rights. And so Mr. Burr suffered 
the same misfortune as his predecessors, and was twice ruled out of 
court, like them, and twice came back again, through the same means 
of affidavits, based upon gentle and seductive interviews with myself. 
I do not think that I derived any advantage from the political sym- 
pathy and support he professed in these interviews. But his conversa- 
tion was fascinating, and in one sense instructive, though on most sub- 
jects prejudiced and insincere. He represented Washington as being 
entirely without independence of character and without talent, and 
completely under the influence of Alexander Hamilton. Burr said that 
Washington did not trust himself to write a billet of invitation or 
acceptance of a dinner, and therefore employed Hamilton to do it. 
He said Washington was formal, cold, and haughty. On the other 
hand, he especially admired Franklin, whom he represented as all 
suavity, courtesy, and kindness. He described him as more eminent in 
his time as a genial wit and humorist in the social circle than as a 
philosopher, and he placed Franklin always in the same category with 
Talleyrand. While he conceded to Hamilton great talent, he repre- 
sented him as a parasite of Washington, unamiable and ungenerous 
toward all others. When I referred to the histories of the Revolution, 
and especially to Marshall's " Life of Washington," as differing from 
his own representations, he replied that the histories were all partial, 
interested, unreliable, and false. " I was myself present," said he, 
"with the army at a skirmish which it had with the enemy at Mon- 
mouth, New Jersey. Of course, I well knew what occurred there. I 
have read accounts of that battle in a dozen different histories, and, if 
it were not that the date of the battle* and the place where it was 
fought were mentioned, I should not recognize in the description that 
it was the battle of Monmouth at all." He was severely satirical upon 
Jefferson, who, lie said, he verily believed would have run away from 
Monticello if he had heard that he (Burr) had approached as near it as 
Alexandria or Georgetown. 

I closed my professional business in the Court of Chancery in the 



1832-'33.] A POLITICAL COMBINATION. 99 

year 1850. The last argument I made in the court was in that year. 
It was on the final hearing of the Crowder cause, and I am happy to 
say that the decision was in my favor. 

The Legislature had adjourned on the 26th of April. The Court of 
Errors had appointed to hold a term early in September, in New York. 
The cholera made its first visitation in the United States in the interval, 
preceded by a universal panic, which was but too well excused by the 
great mortality that followed. I was on my way to New York when I 
met the painful intelligence that William H. Maynard had succumbed 
to the disease in that city, and that the court was dissolved. The 
event, which awakened universal sadness, was an occasion for me of 
excessive concern and sorrow. I was in the Senate of New York, one 
of a minority of seven. Only Mr. Maynard, Mr. Tracy, and myself, 
took part in the debates. Mr. Tracy was eccentric and unreliable as a 
leader. I often needed protection and aid in my attempts to maintain 
the attitude which was forced upon me, in fact, by the entire party in 
the State, of opposition to the Federal and State Administrations. Mr. 
Maynard often led the way, and always, with consummate ability, or, if 
it was left to me to lead, he came with equal ability to my defense and 
support. I was thenceforward to stand alone. 

It is needless to enlarge upon the story of the canvass. Our nomi- 
nations throughout the State were judiciously made. Our State Con- 
vention adopted the nominations of William Wirt and Amos Ellmakcr 
for President and Vice-President, and submitted to the people the 
names of thirty-six electors who, if chosen, would give effect to that 
nomination. The ticket had at its head the amiable and virtuous 
Chancellor Kent, the most eminent member of the National Republican 
party in the State, and John C. Spencer, not less eminent as an Anti- 
masonic leader. Half the electoral candidates were, in like manner, 
chosen from each of the branches of the opposition, and all were men 
of distinguished character and worth. For Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor the convention nominated our former candidates, Granger 
and Stevens. 

The " National Republican " Convention followed a few days later, 
ratified the nomination of Henry Clay for President, and John Sergeant, 
of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President, and recommended to the people 
the support of Granger and Stevens for Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor, together with the same electoral ticket that had been recently 
submitted to the people by the State Antimasonic Convention. 

In the combination thus effected, it was plain to everybody that 
the National Republican party had accepted the gubernatorial candi- 
dates of the Antimasonic party. But the question immediately arose, 
and was pressed with vigor by the party supporting Jackson, which of 
the two presidential nominations the electors, if chosen, would vote 



IQQ AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1832-'33. 

for — Wirt and Ellmaker, or Clay and Sergeant ? The question was 
earnestly discussed, but, so far as I know, no public explanation was 
ever given. Perhaps I know all on that subject that was known by 
any one who was not a member of one or both of the State Conventions. 
In common with most intelligent persons in the State, I thought the 
chances about equal that the combined opposition might carry the 
State. I expected that, in that case, the electoral votes would be cast 
for Wirt and Ellmaker, unless it should appear from the results of the 
elections in other States that, being so cast for Wirt and Ellmaker, 
they should not be sufficient to secure their election, but would secure 
the election of Clay and Sergeant if cast for thern. Political secrets 
lose their value with time, but I am sure I am betraying no secret in 
this case, whether worth anything or not, since none was ever confided 
to me. The electors were not to be brought to a test. The election 
resulted in a majority of thirteen thousand for the national and State 
Administrations. This result showed that, while the Antimasonic party 
had stood up with its former majorities in the west, the coalition had 
been ineffectual in the eastern counties. In securing this general result 
the Administration party derived special advantage from a movement 
which they made just previous to the election, pledging themselves to 
the people of the Chenango Valley to adopt the construction of the 
Chenango Canal, and give it effect at the next session of the Legislature. 

My disappointment in the result of the election within my own State 
was only relieved by seeing that the cause had been even more signally 
defeated in most other parts of the Union. Only six States dissented, 
in the electoral colleges, from the reelection of General Jackson. 

There was, of course, as is customary, an earnest and thoughtful 
inquiry into the causes of this great failure. It was said that the result 
was due to the ill-conceived rejection of Martin Van Buren by the op- 
ponents of General Jackson in the Senate ; that it was due to the un- 
fortunate issue joined with him on the renewal of the charter of the 
Bank of the United States ; and due to the unhappy differences which 
divided the opposition ; and due to the determination which one-half 
the people were understood to have made, that they would maintain, 
under General Jackson's Administration, the protective laws then in 
force ; and due, on the other hand, to the determination the other half 
were supposed to have formed, that that protection should give way to 
free trade, or at least to a revenue tariff. I looked upon the matter in 
a light different from all these speculations. It seemed to me that, so 
far as the popular mind was concerned, it had discovered, early after 
the election of 1824, that it would have been fitting in that election, as 
an expression of popular loyalty to the country, that General Jackson, 
who had closed with a brilliant victory the War of 1812 with Great 
Britain, should be elected President of the United States ; that, accord- 



1832-'33.] THE "PLANTING STATES." 101 

ing to the popular judgment, this error was corrected by his election in 
the year 1828 ; that, according to the same popvilar judgment, an in- 
terested opposition appealed from the judgment of 1828, and demanded 
a reconsideration, and that the result of 1832 was simply the reaffirmance 
of the popular judgment of 1828. It was this view of the subject that 
determined me to persevere in the political principles and sentiments I 
had adopted. It was certain that perseverance would be hard enough, 
and for a time, at least, must be maintained alone. It was clear enough 
that the Antimasonic party, by this fatal defeat, encountered after such 
long and strenuous efforts, could not be rallied again to challenge po- 
litical power in the nation, or even in the State. It remained only to 
be content with the partial success it had had, in vindicating the laws 
and in exposing the evils and dangers of secret societies. 

Nor did this overthrow of the National Republican party, in a con- 
test in which it enjoyed a virtual alliance, in this State, with the Anti- 
masonic party in the day of its strength, warrant any expectation that 
it could be successful at a future election, when the Antimasonic party 
should have retired from the field. Nevertheless I thought I saw, in 
the early future, that the question of protection to American industry, 
the question of managing national revenues, the question of increasing 
the power and extending the sway of slavery, and, above all, the ques- 
tion of preserving the integrity of the national Union, would remain 
open, and that I should be able to render more effective service to my 
country, on all those great national issues, by preserving our independent 
attitude, and not falling in with the mass to support the triumphant 
and dominant party. 

The national events which succeeded the reelection of General Jack- 
son in 1832 were of such magnitude and seriousness as to cause those 
occurring on the smaller theatre of State politics to seem unimportant, 
if not trivial. Flushed by the great popular triumph, the President 
gave out, in his next message, an intimation of distrust of the security 
of the Government deposits in the Bank of the United States. These 
deposits had risen to an immense sum under the operation of the tariff 
law of 1828, and of the sales of public lands in the new States and Ter- 
ritories. Thus accumulated, they were waiting the day when they 
could be lawfully applied to the discharge of what remained of the 
national debt, and it was already seen that a large surplus of treasure 
would remain after that debt should be extinguished. The slaveholding 
States, then popularly called " the planting States," because their great 
staple was cotton, within the last twenty years had come, with great 
unanimity, to the conclusion that the system of protecting American 
manufacturing industry was exclusively beneficial to the Northern or 
free States, and destructive of the prosperity of the cotton-growing or 
planting States-. It mattered not that the North and South were ex- 



102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1832-'3S. 

changing their original grounds on this great and vexed question. 
Massachusetts and all the Northern States now insisted on upholding 
the "American system," as it was called ; in fact, the tariff protecting 
and fostering manufactures. South Carolina, on the other hand, at the 
head of the planting States, denounced that policy vehemently, falling 
back on the ancient legislative resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, 
which declared the national Government to be only a compact among 
the States, in which any State, when aggrieved, may lawfully declare 
null and void any exercise of Federal authority, and may even lawfully 
secede from the Union in case of such grievance. A convention of the 
people of South Carolina was held, which adopted and proclaimed an 
" Ordinance," in which they pronounced the tariff laws of the United 
States unconstitutional and void, and absolved themselves from the 
obligation of those laws. This bold and high-handed proceeding was 
promptly met, by General Jackson, with a proclamation in which he 
maintained the binding obligation of those laws, denounced the ordi- 
nance of South Carolina as seditious and treasonable, and announced 
his determination to execute the laws and maintain the integrity of the 
Union. 

Mr. Clay's popularity consisted largely of two elements : one, that 
he had been the leader of the Administration party in Congress dui'ing 
the War of 1812 ; and the other that he was, above all others, the patron 
of the "American system" or protective tariff. Mr. Clay was now 
elected to the Senate from Kentucky. When, early in the congres- 
sional session of 1832-'33, he saw the integrity of the Union menaced 
by the South Carolina ordinance of nullification, Mr. Clay, in the prac- 
tice of that versatility for which he was so preeminently distinguished, 
conceived the purpose of averting the danger by a legal compromise, 
in which the ground of protection should be modified so as to remove 
the complaint of the planting States. Thus, " nullification," which cer- 
tainly it is now proper to call "secession," when it first broke out vio- 
lently was met, on the part of the Executive, with a defiant declaration 
of war, and on the part of Mr. Clay, in the Senate, by a bill of com- 
promise, by which it was provided that duties, discriminating for the 
purpose of protection, should altogether cease, and that the existing 
customs should be reduced in the next six consecutive years, until thev 
should uniformly stand at the rate of ten per cent. 

How painful the reflection is, that the way of patriotic duty is un- 
certain, like the navigator's path on the ocean — exposed just as much 
to winds and tempests, or unseen or misunderstood currents. Doubt- 
less there is a purely logical line of policy for preserving and maintain- 
ing the American republic, and, to a certain extent, each of the two 
great parties is animated by a patriotic desire to find and keep that 
line. On the other hand, we cannot but see that it devolved, at the 



1832-'33.] SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICATION. 1Q3 

close of the Revolution, upon one class of citizens to construct, organize, 
and put in operation, the Federal Government. This class necessarily 
became a party, and they must establish the necessary institutions and 
adopt the necessary policy. The class of citizens left inactive and un- 
employed were impelled, by a natural instinct, to question and oppose 
the dominating party, and so became themselves a party. Differences 
of opinion, with the lapse of time, became wider and more radical, until 
each reached an opposite pole. The Federalists feared that the States 
would sever the Union, unless it was fortified by the assumption of the 
State debts, by a Federal Bank to collect and disburse the revenues, a 
protective tariff, and a mint. These institutions being established, the 
Federal Government became vigorous and effective. The entire debt 
of the nation and of the States was on the eve of being paid, and uni- 
versal prosperity prevailed. The opposition party, during the period 
of these achievements, were acquiring strength and boldness in assailing 
these beneficent institutions and measures. They sustained Jackson's 
arm while he struck down the Bank of the United States, and they sus- 
tained South Carolina in her attempts to arrest the Government and 
dissolve the Union, for the purpose of compelling the relinquishment 
of the policy of protection. How could a patriotic citizen support 
General Jackson and the Republican party in his crusade against the 
Bank of the United States ? How could a patriotic citizen withhold 
his support from General Jackson in his suppression of the South 
Carolina rebellion ? It was in consequence of this distraction of the 
public mind that Mr. Clay thought it wise to concede protection, for 
the purpose of demoralizing nullification. For my own part, I sought 
to mitigate party spirit. I gave my best abilities to quiet the dispute 
about the Bank of the United States — to animate the Legislature and 
the country to support the President in repressing insurrection ; and, 
while I could not follow Mr. Clay in his line of compromise, I was 
silent and acquiesced when Congress adopted that measure. 

The passage of Mr. Clay's bill inspired Congress with new courage. 
Having put the incipient rebellion in the wrong, they came with great 
unanimity and courage to the high proceeding of arming the President 
with all the necessary power to suppress it. This act was called the 
" Enforcement Law." The combined measures proved effectual. 
South Carolina rescinded her ordinance, and secession, baffled in this 
first attempt, retired to gather new strength and wait for a more pro- 
pitious occasion. My satisfaction with this result was much impaired 
by the discovery that the leaders of the Republican party, while they 
adhered to the President in this particular transaction, nevertheless 
practised a studied reserve on the abstract questions of the rights of 
the States to nullify laws of Congress and to secede from the Union. 

In addition to these labors I performed my customary task of pre- 



104 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

paring an address, in which, joining with my associates, we gave a 
review of the proceedings of the Legislature, and of the State and 
Federal Administrations. At no period in our history has any party 
ascendant in the State or the nation been stronger than the Republi- 
can party then was. Seldom has any political party been weaker than 
that to which I belonged. Perhaps, however, the historian may ulti- 
mately find that the small and then despised band of patriots with 
whom I acted were, even then, preparing the way and gathering the 
recruits for that great party which, ha the culminating struggle, res- 
cued the Union in its supreme contest, and established it on the im- 
movable basis of universal equality and freedom. 



1833. 

First Voyage to Europe.— The Letter-Bag.— A Lost Sailor.— Liverpool and New York.— 
Chester.— Scenes in Ireland.— The Merchant's Widow.— Emmet's Cell.— Emigrants to 
America.— Scotland and Scottish Memories.— Edinburgh.— A Grumbling Legend.— 
London Sights and People.— Seeing the King.— Malibran.— An American Charge- 
Joseph Hume.— A Day in Parliament.— Cobbett.— Peel.— Hay.— O'Connell.— Stanley. 
—American Reformers— Indians and Quakers.— Paganini.— Thoughts on leaving Eng- 
land. 

My father, at the age of sixty-five, although retaining all his intel- 
lectual vigor and much of his characteristic energy, had become a 
valetudinarian, and determined on a summer voyage to Europe. I 
cheerfully attended him, at his request. We sailed from New York on 
the 1st of June. One cannot, without difficulty, conceive the inferior- 
ity of the commerce and travel of the period to that of the present. 
New York, which, counting its extensions on Long Island and in New 
Jersey, has more than a million and a half of people, had then a popu- 
lation of only two hundred thousand ; and Liverpool had not more. 
The only railroads in the world were the Liverpool & Manchester, a 
small section of the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Mohawk & Hudson, 
between Albany and Schenectady. No steamship had yet crossed the 
ocean. The travel between the United States and Europe, with the 
exception of an occasional merchant-vessel, was monopolized by a 
weekly line of sailing-packets. Our ship, the Europe, belonging to 
this line, was deemed a monster, as she had a tonnage of six hundred. 
She carried twenty cabin passengers and sixty -four in the steerage. 
Like all other ships, she had a letter-bag, and when we were approach- 
ing our destined port these bags were emptied on the cabin-floor, and 
the letters, five thousand in number, were assorted by the cabin-passen- 
gers according to their address. It was not surprising to me to find 
that far the largest proportion had very circumlocutory addresses for 
parishes in Ireland ; and that not a small number were directly ad- 



1833.] LIVERPOOL AND NEW YORK. 105 

dressed to his Majesty King William IV., of the United Kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland. 

Our voyage was the unusually short one of eighteen days. An 
occasional calm gave me the opportunity of a bath in the sea, or an 
excursion by small boat to study marine phenomena, a study in which 
I profited much by the aid of a fellow-passenger who was a dis- 
tinguished naturalist. Small as the volume of interoceanic emigration 
then was, incidents occurred which awakened a deep interest and sym- 
pathy with that subject. A widow woman brought her child to the 
ship's surgeon, to have him dress its face, wounded by a burn. I in- 
quired her story. Her husband, a mechanic, had emigrated two years 
before to New England. A fire occurred, in which his house and shop 
were destroyed, and he lost his life. The wife was carrying home the 
bereaved child. 

We had scarcely left port when the first-mate, an experienced 
sailor, directed my attention to one of the ship's crew, a dull-looking, 
clumsy Englishman, of perhaps twenty-five years, saying that he had 
applied in New York to be employed as first-mate, and, failing in that 
application, had shipped as a common seaman, and that he was not 
even qualified for that. After being out two or three days, the mate 
directed this seaman, with others, to go aloft and furl a sail. He 
climbed to the top of the ratlines, and was unable to go higher. The 
mate mischievously insisted, and thus obliged the man to expose his 
ignorance and his inability. He did not even know one rope in the 
rigging from another. He was permitted to descend amid the derision 
of the passengers and crew. A day or two later the sailor was seen 
toiling amid the ropes above the ratlines, and, when we asked what 
he was doing, we received for answer that he had gone up on leave to 
try to perform the same task in which he had before failed. He slipped 
from his foothold in the ropes on which he was standing, fell upon a 
yard arm below, and thence dropped lifeless into the sea, the ship then 
going at the rate of nine knots an hour. Among the large crowd of 
plain and humble people who came on board when we entered the dock 
at Liverpool was the sister of that unfortunate young man. She had 
come down from her country home to meet him who had thus per- 
ished in his emulous attempt to become a sailor. 

I compared the magnificent stone docks at Liverpool with the mean, 
rickety, wooden slips and quays of New York. The painful contrast 
still remains unchanged. I thought I found the scientific institutions, the 
charities, and the cemeteries of Liverpool superior to those of x\merican 
cities. They have no such superiority now. In the library of the Athe- 
nasum I turned over the pages of a British magazine, published during 
our Revolutionary War. It excited a smile when I read an account of 
the " rebel Congress " at Philadelphia, and learned that that treasonable 



106 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

assemblage had beer brought about through the " agitation of a few 
leaders," among whom John Hancock and Samuel Adams were the 
two " most destitute of principle." I dined with William Brown, 
founder, I think, of the house of Brown Brothers & Company, which, 
although he no longer lives, has since lost none of its influence, 
wealth, or hospitality. 

I visited Chester, with its noble cathedral, its painted windows, 
quaint walls, and monastic statuary, and its ancient Roman castle and 
Caesar's Tower, now reduced to the " base uses " of a modern armory. 
I paid the usual fee to the housekeeper, and was shown, wondering, 
through Eaton Hall, the country-seat of the Marquis of Westmin- 
ster, little thinking then that at a later period I should come to num- 
ber its proprietor and his family among my personal friends. 

We crossed the Irish Channel. Of course the passage was rough, 
and the steamer narrow, mean, and uncomfortable. I believe that 
English coast-navigation has these discomforts everywhere. The Irish 
passengers made advances to me to enlist my sympathy in their hearty 
hatred of the English. I found the Irish porters as noisy, and the 
Irish peasantry as poor and loquacious, and the public edifices and 
streets of Dublin as majestic and melancholy, as they are usually rep- 
resented. I remember even now the disgust with which I looked upon 
the beautiful Parliament-House of Ireland converted into a banking- 
house. Among the crowd who were waiting in the vestibule for the 
bank-doors to be opened, I was shown a poor woman. She was a mer- 
chant's widow, left entirely destitute. She became mad with the idea 
that her husband had left a large deposit with the bank for her support. 
Every morning she presented herself, demanding the sum so necessary 
for her comfort, and went away astonished and sad at seeing everybody 
get what he asked for, while she, being no less entitled, was always 
refused. 

I had already seen the Mersey and the Dee, and corrected my false 
estimate of the English rivers. The Liffey, now chiefly used for sew- 
erage, was altogether disgusting. I attended guard-mounting at the 
Castle, among a crowd of many thousand spectators, and met there a 
son of one of the jurors who convicted Robert Emmet. I attended 
him, with much of the sympathy that we bestow upon the memory of 
martyrs, to the cell in which he, the most chivalrous and the most 
unfortunate of the patriots of Ireland, was confined, the court-room in 
which he was tried, and the scaffold on which he was executed. 

I saw a curious theatrical entertainment exhibited on cart-wheels, 
in which one of the audience, a simple-minded countryman, interrupted 
the performance by expostulating with the clown on the folly of his 
wearing so grotesque a dress, and playing the buffoon for so wretched 
a compensation. 



1833.] SCOTLAND. 107 

My visit to the tombs of Dean Swift and Stella, of course, was not 
omitted. 

The rural districts in Ireland, seen from the top of the coach, in- 
stead of exhibiting', as I had expected, beautiful villas and neat and 
comfortable cottages, seemed the abode of poverty and wretchedness. 
In the suburbs, the dwelling-houses of the peasantry were built of 
stone, and covered with thatch ; but farther in the country they were 
grouped into hamlets, and were constructed of mud, with mud roofs, 
and only a bar separated the different compartments occupied by the 
family, the cow, and the swine. The most cursory glance at a scene 
like this was sufficient to disclose all the evils of " absenteeism," and 
to show that the only remedy was emigration. Indications of the use 
of that remedy were all around us. Placards offering passages to 
Canada and the United States covered the walls in the streets of 
Droghecla and Belfast, and the deck of the Maid of Islay, a mere 
tug, which received us at Belfast, was crowded with squalid men, wom- 
en, and children, with their few and miserable cattle and poultry, bent 
upon throwing themselves upon the shore at Glasgow, even if they 
should get no farther in the path of exile. In this visit to Ireland, 
made less than forty years ago, the population of that unhappy coun- 
try was counted at eight millions. The effectiveness of emigration as 
a remedy for social evils is seen in the fact that the Irish nation is now 
only four millions. All this while a convict-ship lies at anchor in the 
harbor of Dublin, to receive those to whom the privilege of emigra- 
tion is denied, except through the gateway of crime and conviction. 

My admiration of the Scottish people is excited anew when I re- 
call the incidents of my brief visit to that country. x\waking on 
board the steamer at the quay of Glasgow, it was a pleasant surprise 
to see that every vessel on the river and every inn on shore bore a 
name which reminded me of the genius of Scotland's last great poet 
and novelist, Scott — the " Lady of the Lake," the " Lord of the Isles," 
" Fitz-James," " Waverley," etc., etc. Even more honorable to the dis- 
crimination of the Scottish people was the spirit which had dedicated 
a noble statue to the memory of General Sir John Moore, who fell at 
Corunna, and another to James Watt, the humble Scottish mechanic, 
who, although he let the invention of the marine steam-engine escape 
to our countryman, Fulton, nevertheless brought the invention of the 
land-engine to a condition of perfect adaptation to the wants of man- 
kind ; and a third, more colossal than either, to their great and severe 
reformer, John Knox. I might be tempted here to describe the city of 
Glasgow, with its streets crossing each other at the central cross, its 
dilapidated, ancient, and lofty structures occupied by the poor, and its 
new, smaller, and more convenient dwellings occupied by the rich ; its 
Roman Catholic Cathedral, the only one in Scotland, perhaps, saved 



108 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

from the vandalism of the Presbyterian reformers ; and its memorable 
battle-field of Langs] de. But a citizen of the modern town, compact, 
elegant, and extended over a district of five or ten miles square, would 
scarcely recognize a feature of his own home in the diminutive Glas- 
gow which I saw in 1833. 

I may record it as honorable to the Scottish people that, although, 
under the influence of religious feeling, they abandoned their fair and 
chivalrous queen, after the catastrophe at Langside, they seemed to 
have come back now, when all religious asperity has passed away, to 
be unanimous in vindicating her memory from the suspicions and re- 
proaches raised against her by her enemies. 

I visited Greenock, practically the port, and Paisley, a large and 
important manufacturing suburb of Glasgow ; examined the Grand 
Canal of Scotland, which unites the Frith of Clyde with the Frith of 
Forth ; the rock of Dumbarton with its castle ; traversed the beautiful 
little Leven Water ; revived my historical and poetical reminiscences of 
Scotland by an examination of Bothwell Castle, and Loch Lomond, with 
its yew-covered islands ; and Loch Katrine, with its lofty shores, the 
Trosachs, Callander, and Stirling. I wonder, even now, as I recall that 
tour through the picturesque but barren hills and valleys, at the social 
caprice which planted the most intellectual and enterprising people of 
Europe in a home so cold and sterile. If I could revisit Stirling, I should 
like now to look at the old ruined palace which the Regent Mar built 
during the minority of James VI., and see whether I could now decipher 
the grumbling legend, even at that time almost illegible, in which the 
builder recorded his protests against the censorious comments of his 
neighbors upon his larceny of the materials for the structure from the 
abandoned neighboring Abbey of Cambuskenneth : 

" Esspy . speik . furth . I . cair . nocht 
Consider . well . I . cair . nocht 
The . moir . I . stand . on . oppin hicht 
My . faultis . moir . subject . ar . to . sight 
I . pray . at . lukaris . on . this . luging 
With . gentle . e . to . gif . thair . juging." 

The geologist reads the history of our globe in the strata deposited 
in successive desolations. How often have I thought that the traveler 
reads the history of nations and races in the desolations of successive 
dynasties, conquests, religions, and states ! I suppose it was all right. 
But it saddened me to see that noble old Edinburgh is losing its own 
proper national pride, its proper pride as the capital of a great nation, 
and the glory of a great and unique people, in its modern loyalty to the 
British throne, more zealous than even London itself. 

I lingered long at Edinburgh ; left with regret, and gave up with 



1833.] LONDON SIGHTS AND PEOPLE. 109 

reluctance, at last, the study of its traditions, in its dilapidated castle, 
deserted Holyrood, Allan Ramsay's House, St. Giles with the pulpit of 
John Knox, the dark and vaulted tavern-cell in which Burns celebrated 
his revels, and Salisbury Craig, with its noble promenade, and the 
house of Jeanie Deans, embowered, as it ought to be, in shrubbery and 
roses. 

I passed through Berwick-on-Tweed into England, looked upon 
Alnwick, the home of " the Percy's high-born race," examined the col- 
lieries at Newcastle, stopped at York and studied its noble and well- 
preserved ancient cathedral. I admitted the justice of a monkish 
legend, which still embellishes its walls, although I did not see the 

poetry of it : 

" Ut rosa phlos phlorum, 
Sic est domus ista domorum." 

In London the stage-coach stopped at the Saracen's Head. I do not 
now remember where that fierce sign-board was displayed. But after 
a drive of two hours, through streets almost impassable, we found our 
bankers, Baring Brothers & Company. They recommended me to take 
lodgings near Hyde Park, which, they said, were three miles distant. 
" Three miles ! " said I ; " that's out of town. That will never do." 
We compromised on Mrs. Wright's Hotel, Adams Street, Adelphi, just 
out of the dust and smoke of the city proj^er, and from which most of 
the monuments are accessible. 

It is a trait of the English character that intellectual power, in 
any department, is accompanied by mediocrity or meanness of art. 
The English drama, developed by Shakespeare, draws the visitor from 
every part of the world to the theatre. Covent Garden and Drury 
Lane were dark and mean forty years ago, and they are so now. It 
is a memory which I would not willingly part with that I heard Mali- 
bran in " Sonnambula " at Covent Garden. 

My American pride was humbled at our recejDtion by the charge 
d'affaires who had been left by Mr. Van Buren. The legation was 
at the West-End, on the first floor over a fashionable tailor's shop. 
The charge was a young man of middle stature and dark complexion. 
He spoke English with a marked French accent, and had forgotten, 
if he ever knew, how to give his hand with the cordiality customary 
among our countrymen. He was attended by an American youth of 
twenty, who lounged, during our interview, in a damask-covered arm- 
chair. Our conversation with our representative was cold and formal. 
The charg'e seemed to have no interest in matters at home, while 
prudence forbade all allusions to political affairs in the country to 
which he was accredited. 

The notes I then made might have served, on my late visit, as a 
guide-book through Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, St. 



HO AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

Paul's, the bridges over the Thames, and the tunnel under it, the docks 
and Windsor Castle, the Royal Academy, the Zoological Gardens, and 
Newgate. 

Among the passengers across the Atlantic were a successful Mas- 
sachusetts country merchant, named Baker, and his wife. We sepa- 
rated at Liverpool, and I saw them no more until we met again on 
my return-voyage from Havre. They had made a tour as I had, and 
we compared notes. They asked me, " Did you see Windsor ? " 
" Yes." 

"The chapel?" "Yes." 

" The palace ? " " Yes." 

" The pictures ? " " Yes." 

" The forest ? " " Yes." 

" Did you see the king ? " " Yes." 

" How did you see him ? " I replied that I had paid a crown to 
a beadle, for which I obtained leave to stand at the foot of the stair- 
case in the vestibule, and stared at the king as he came down from 
his pew in the gallery. 

" Did the king salute you ? " " No," I replied. " I was ashamed 
of my own impertinence in staring at him, and bowed from mortifica- 
tion." 

" Oh ! " said Mr. Baker, " we saw the king better than that. He 
was especially gracious to us." 

" And how did you come to see the king?" 

" Well, we learned at the tavern at Windsor that the king was to 
ride out in the forest at four o'clock, and that he would be in an open 
barouche, with outriders. So we took a hackney-coach, which was also 
an open barouche, stipulating with the coachman that he should point 
out to us the king's coach. There were a few private carriages on the 
road at the same time. As we came near the place where we were to 
pass, T saw that the persons riding in these carriages bowed when the 
royal carriage passed them, and his majesty returned the courtesy. I 
was so fearful that I might lose the sight of the king that I rose and 
stood bolt upright, staring at him. The king, thinking from this ex- 
traordinary demonstration of respect that I was some friend or sup- 
porter deserving special consideration, rose from his seat and stood 
bolt upright, looking at me. I bowed quite down to the floor of the 
carriage, and the king, not to be outdone in courtesy, bowed equally 
profoundly to me." 

"Well," said I, "we have both proved the truth of the adage that 
cats can look upon kings." 

It was my fortune in London to make the acquaintance of Joseph 
Hume, a man of great industry and worth, the leader of the Radical 
party, if there was such a party, in Parliament. Mr. Hume gave me a 



1833] A DAY IN THE HOUSE OP COMMONS. HI 

place under the galleries in the House of Commons. I saw and heard 
Cobbett. He made a complaint to the House of a breach of faith 
practised by some unknown member of a committee to which he be- 
longed, in exposing testimony which ought to have been kept confi- 
dential. Knowing the vehemence which characterized him, I was sur- 
prised at the prudence which he exhibited. He spoke very distinctly. 
When he alluded to the publisher of the testimony, who was not a 
member of the House, his epithets were severe and coarse. He called 
him " a spy." When, however, he reflected upon the delinquency of 
members of the committee, his language was calm, guarded, and quali- 
fied. Just the reverse of this was the language of the members of the 
House who replied to him. They were respectful toward all outsiders, 
intemperate and abusive toward him. He replied to all at once, amid 
a storm of disapprobation, so coolly and clearly that it was evident 
that, though sadly in the minority, he was a man of vigor and power. 

Although the English people are continually disturbed by the ap- 
prehension that they are to become Americanized, an incident which I 
am going to relate will show that political changes proceed much less 
rapidly there than in our own country. The House of Commons (then 
recently reformed) had passed the bill making important alterations in 
the government of the national Church in Ireland. The bill was then 
in the House of Lords, which threatened its rejection. The popular 
party were insisting that the king should create peers enough to pass 
the bill. There was a motion pending that the House be called next 
week to express their solicitude for the fate of the bill in the House of 
Lords, and adopt an address to the king if it should be necessary. The 
motion was sustained by Sir John Wrottesley, in a modest and well- 
conceived speech. A member, not yet of middle age, tall and slender, 
neatly-dressed, replied, giving vigorous battle against the resolution. 
He dissected the mover's argument and showed that its facts were 
doubtful and its assumptions unreasonable. He demanded: "Would 
not this measure be justly regarded as a menace to intimidate the 
Lords ? And would not this be an unprecedented as well as unwar- 
ranted attack upon the constitutional independence of a coordinate 
branch of the Legislature ? " He appealed to the House of Commons, 
jealous of its own rights, " not to strike that fatal blow." Becoming 
impassioned and cheered by the favorable reception of his speech, he 
called upon the mover to withdraw the resolution. It seemed as if the 
bold demand would be sustained by the whole House. This speaker 
was Sir Robert Peel. His speech was simple, plain, and practical, with- 
out pretension to learning or authority. 

Its effect was destroyed in a moment by a much shorter speech pro- 
nounced by Colonel Hay (I wonder whether this is the present Sir John 
Hay ?). " I think," said he, in a blunt wav, " that when a bill is under 



112 . AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

consideration in either House of Parliament, so vitally important to 
the interests, and so deeply interesting to the feelings of the country, 
it is the duty of the members of this House to be at their posts. We 
know members are not here now. We know they ought to be here. 
And I hope, therefore, the mover will not withdraw his resolution." 
This speech, warmly cheered by the Whigs, restored the equality of the 
debate. 

A member who sat in the centre of the hall, and had a sturdy frame, 
and a broad, Irish countenance, arose, and the House was hushed at 
once. 

" I hate," said Daniel O'Connell, " all kinds of hypocrisy. A re- 
formed Parliament professes to be the friend of Ireland, and of reform- 
ing the oppression under which my country labors. This bill will do 
but little toward effecting that reform. But it is all that ministers 
have offered. Although it is only an installment of what I want, I 
don't want it thrown out of the House of Lords, because it is all that 
I can get. I want now to see the members of this reformed House of 
Parliament here, that their sincerity may be tested. It has been said 
that there is no precedent in the history of the Commons. How could 
there be a precedent, when, for the last century, the Commons have 
been only a department of the House of Lords, their nominees and 
representatives ? They dared not vote against their masters. I am as 
much opposed to this bill as anybody. But I don't want to see it 
thrown out ; I want to see whether the people are not stronger than 
the enemies of the people ! " 

Cries arose from all sides of the House, sufficient to stifle a less 
resolute speaker, " Why did you vote against the bill, if you want it 
to pass ? " 

" That," replied O'Connell, " is a different thing altogether. I voted 
against the bill because I wanted a better bill. I hate all political 
hypocrisy. I voted against the bill ; but inasmuch as the Government, 
as a matter of grace, has proffered it, I want to see the responsibility 
of its defeat fall where it ought." 

Taunts and reproaches of the speaker for his inconsistency seemed, 
for a moment, to reconcile the friends and the enemies of the nation. 
The debate was continued by prosy and dull speakers on both sides; 
but their speeches revealed the fact that while the Tories, in opposition, 
deprecated the measure vehemently, the Liberal ministry and their sup- 
porters were timid. Only independent and radical members gave the 
measure an earnest support. 

At last a member, apparently about thirty, who sat opposite to Sir 
Robert Peel, obtained the floor. He seemed too young to grapple in 
such a debate. His voice was musical, but feeble ; while his manner 
was graceful and self-possessed. Lord Stanley, Colonial Secretary, 



1833.] PARLIAMENT AND CONGRESS. 113 

afterward the distinguished premier, Earl Derby, presented clearly the 
true state of the question. He said, with great frankness and courtesy, 
that the ministry, of which he was a member, was embarrassed by the 
motion. If the Lords should reject the bill, the ministry positively 
would resign; and he ventured to express no strong hopes that the 
Lords would pass the bill. 

This failure of ministerial support, for a measure which the mover 
had introduced with a view to their advantage, brought upon the 
speaker a vehement attack froth independent members. It was then 
that Lord Stanley rose, and, while he vindicated the ministry from all 
inconsistency, exposed with scathing severity the inconsistency of the 
assailants, and with keen satire rebuked O'Connell as " an agitator, 
seeking not the peace or the advantage of Ireland, or the welfare of 
the kingdom, but confusion and disorder, destructive to both." O'Con- 
nell replied, more vehemently and contemptuously than before. The 
House divided ; the motion fell. I am not able now to recall the 
result in the House of Lords. It is apparent, however, that, whatever 
that result was, it left the state of the Church in Ireland substantially 
the same as before. 

Sir Robert Peel might be compared, as a parliamentary speaker, 
with Mr. Fessenden. Lord Stanley had the versatility of Clay, with 
the chasteness of Calhoun. Daniel O'Connell, with the fervor of Thomas 
Addis Emmet, had all the boldness and vigor of Stephen A. Douglas, 
but without his indiscretion. 

I do not now know how it happened, but when the chamber was 
cleared, in order to the division, I fell into an anteroom, in which the 
members, as fast as they came out, sat down to dine in groups. I 
found them social and communicative. On a subsequent day, I visited 
the House of Lords, but the Lord Chancellor was not on the wool-sack ; 
the House was thin, and the debate without interest. It was said that 
the Marquis of Westminster was to give a dinner that evening ; and 
this accounted for the early rising of both Houses. 

Such was the limited observation that time allowed me then to be- 
stow upon Parliament. But it was enough to satisfy me that dig- 
nity, decorum, as well as earnestness of attention, all are promoted by 
the arrangement of the chambers so as to bring the members in close 
proximity to each other. Neither then, nor at any time since, when I 
visited the House of Commons, have I witnessed such listlessness as 
generally prevails in the House of Representatives, when the subject 
of debate is uninteresting, or such confusion as prevails there when 
debate becomes loud and vehement. This difference must, in part, 
result from the use of seats and desks, which cause the members to be 
spread over so broad an area. But I think there is another reason. In 
England the Government is actually carried on in the House of Com- 



H4- AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

mons, Its measures are opened and decided there. The spectators, 
as well as the press, go there, to learn what the Government proposes 
to do, and to see it done. 

But, in the United States, the Government is carried on by the 
Executive Department. The press and people have its acts before 
them ; and they attend the two Houses of Congress to hear those acts 
considered and discussed. Nobody knows, beforehand, in London, 
what the decision of any question by the House of Commons will be. 
But I think that, since we have the aid of the telegraph, the people of 
Boston and the people of San Francisco know what the result of any 
motion, resolution, or law proposed in Congress will be, hours, days, 
and even weeks, before the vote is taken there. 

One of the social enigmas which have always puzzled me is the pro- 
clivity which political reformers in our county have to go to England 
to promulgate their theories and develop their measures. I suppose 
that they have two reasons for this : one is, the greater safety with 
which a subject, unpopular at home, can be discussed there ; and the 
other, that reformers who find fault with the Government of their own 
country can easily enlist followers in a foreign and unfriendly land. 
We had Americans at that time who were busily engaged in present- 
ing to the English public the argument for American emancipation. 

Eliot Cresson, an agent of the Colonization Society, was canvassing 
Great Britain and raising funds there for its enterprise. William 
Lloyd Garrison went to England as agent for the New England Anti- 
slavery Society, which insisted on immediate abolition of slavery. 
These two agents opened a debate in London on the merits of their 
respective societies. Into this debate I declined to enter while in Eng- 
land. 

A citizen of Onondaga County, who, I believe, was partly merchant 
and partly schoolmaster, had brought to London four Onondaga Indi- 
ans, whom he called " chiefs," and who, perhaps, might have been so 
if their tribal state had not been abolished fifty years before. He con- 
tracted with these Indians, stipulating three conditions : 1. That they 
should keep sober ; 2. That, although they spoke English, they should 
sing Indian war-songs and dance Indian war-dances ; 3. That they 
should be content with their being supported at his expense, while he 
should have the profit to be derived from their exhibition. The Soci- 
ety of Friends, always interested in the cause of humanity, took no- 
tice of this transaction ; and, just as the adventurer was about to real- 
ize his fortune, they drew the Indians aside and heard their complaints. 
The exhibition was arrested by a habeas corpus, sued out by the 
Friends, and a subscription was raised and the Indians sent home to 
America, while the exhibitor was left to beg for contributions from his 
■countrymen to get home himself. 



1833.] ENGLISH, SCOTCH, AND IRISH. H5 

At Drury Lane, as at Covent Garden, I found, not the drama, but a 
musical entertainment — Paganini's performance on the violin. I knew 
that this instrument had vast depths and variations of sound. But it 
is impossible for any one to conceive the riches which he brought out 
from its strings. 1 think it is agreed that he has had no equal. I had 
gone to England, however, imbued with almost filial reverence for the 
high attributes of the parent-country. It was a disappointment that I 
found no Garrick, or Kean, or Siddons, presenting the tragedies of 
Shakespeare. The legitimate drama has been receding there and 
everywhere else since that time, while the opera has been everywhere 
coming into its place. Are we not to suppose from this that now, 
since reading has become universal, the drama, with its studied articu- 
lation and its scenic aids, is too tedious a form of instruction and 
amusement ; and that henceforth music, with its quickness of ex- 
pression and subtile sympathy with the passions, is to become the uni- 
versal entertainment ? If so, the change will be no greater than the 
changes which the stage has undergone since the time when the Greeks 
enacted their poetic tragedies, or the Romans entertained themselves 
with gladiators at the Colosseum, or the monks in the middle ages pre- 
pared the way for the modern stage by their presentations of religious 
" mysteries." 

Of course, like every other tourist, I tried the " Whispering Gal- 
lery " at St. Paul's, and ascended the ball to obtain a view of the city. 
Of course, the city was covered with a dense cloud of fog and coal-smoke. 
But, when I had come down, half a crown secured me admission 
to a panorama which presented clearly the vision that had been denied 
to me. Of course, I was not alone in seeing these sights and witness- 
ing these wonders. Although I had presented only a few letters, and 
had little time to secure the advantages which the delivery of those 
few offered me, I was all the while making acquaintances, which, 
though casual, were pleasant and instructive. I met a Russian trav- 
eler, and struck hands with him in the dome of St. Paul's, and my Ger- 
man acquaintances made in the theatre were intelligent and critical. 

And now I was to leave England. It was an occasion of sadness 
and regret that, of all the wonders which the country contained, and 
all the instructions that it offered, I had seen so few and gathered so 
little. I did not venture to think that I had correctly learned or even 
understood anything. I did store away some thoughts for future ref- 
erence and examination : 1. I thought it worthy of reflection whether 
Ireland would ever acquiesce in British rule and conform to British 
laws, so long as the United States should keep open an asylum for the 
Irish exile. 2. I thought it doubtful whether the people of Scot- 
land, educated and trained in the sentiments of John Knox, would 
ever hazard the danger of licentiousness in a republic. 3. I thought 



HQ AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

that, while the English people were divided into reformers and Tories, 
there was no real party of progress there ; that, while the Tory grew 
more inveterate all the while, the reformer held back in fear from every 
advance he made. 

I have never been one of those among my countrymen who have 
thought, or have affected to think, that, as a people, we cherish an affec- 
tion for, or sympathy with, the parent British nation. On the other 
hand, I have seen and known and felt that, whether it was for good or 
evil, we are always jealous and dissatisfied with the British nation. It 
was an object of inquiry with me on my first visit to England, as it has 
been ever since, to study how far this discontent of ours is reciprocated 
there. It seemed to me then that, little as we loved the English na- 
tion, they loved us still less. Certainly, in establishing the republic, 
and demanding its universal acceptance, we made a bold claim on the 
respect and confidence of mankind — a claim which might well have 
shocked our British brethren, even if it had been made with less of 
pretension and presumption. In England, during the time of my first 
visit there, political opinion, as well as the policy of the Government, was 
as yet determined only by the upper class. The middle class had only 
begun to organize itself. The lower class was without a voice. Cer- 
tainly the upper class, under the circumstances, could not be expected 
to love us, even if we had been humbler than we were, and loved the 
British nation more than we did. A change of temper toward us in 
Great Britain was only to be effected by the reflection upon Great 
Britain of the experiences of her own people, who should emigrate and 
become absorbed in the United States. 

That emigration had then only just begun. Not only did the exiles 
whom we received, by their teachings and correspondence, produce no 
impression in our favor upon public opinion in Great Britain, but it 
may be remembered that, at that day, these emigrants were received 
with distrust and jealousy by our own countrymen. So slow is the 
process of political change, and so difficult is it to solve any political 
problem until it has been subjected to the development of time and 
experience. 



1833. 

Crossing the German Ocean. — Traveling through Holland by Canal. — Dutch Towns and 
Thrift.— Amsterdam and the Hague.— Broeck. — The Children's Patron Saint. — Meeting 
an Army. — A Woman's-Bights Question.— Dusseldorf and Cologne. — The Bhine. — 
Coblentz.— Bingen.— Mayenee. — Frankfort. — Heidelberg. — Among the Swiss Moun- 
tains. — Young and Old Republics. — A Tavern Adventure. — Berne. — Lausanne. — Ge- 
neva. — An Unhappy Man. — St.-Gervais. 

What a romance was this journey that I was making ! I was alter- 
nating drives and walks, through green fields and shrubbery, in July, 



1833.] THE DUTCH CANALS. \\^ 

with summer voyages in northern seas. A trip by steamboat on the 
German Ocean, with its customary roughness and privations, was made 
an amusing one for me by the manifest reserve of the English and the 
phlegmatic and grotesque ways of the Dutch passengers. With what 
wonder did I look upon the rich landscape reclaimed from the sea, on 
both sides of the Meuse ! Rotterdam, with its lofty, narrow dwellings, 
canals traversing all its streets, its markets filled with flowers, even 
more than fruits and meats, its busy merchants dressed, though neatly, 
in fashions which had become obsolete elsewhere, its unbonneted mar- 
ket women and children, making the pavements resound with the clat- 
ter of their wooden shoes — all was unique and peculiar. But the 
cholera was in Rotterdam. It was one of the caprices of that disease, 
when it first appeared in the West, that it clung to the banks of canals 
and marshes. Sixty persons died of it in the day we were at Rotter- 
dam. I knew seventy -two persons to perish of cholera in a day, at 
Syracuse, on the Erie Canal, and nearly as many at Seneca Falls, on 
the Seneca Canal ; while there has never been a death from cholera 
at Auburn, which is elevated two hundred and fifty feet above those 
places. 

I have never enjoyed any form of travel so much as that of the 
canals in Holland. The canals are deep, and the water clear. The 
small boat, divided into two apartments, calls, like a stage-coach, at 
every village ; and you may rest on your journey at any place, and 
resume it at any hour afterward. Coffee-gardens solicit you at every 
stopping-place, and the banks of the canal are lined with tasteful villas, 
each of which has a kiosk, or tea-house, projecting over the water. 

The Dutch canals, unlike ours, do not have a towpath under the 
bridges. Of course, on approaching a bridge, the rope is cast off, and 
reattached after passing it. An attendant, generally a female, is in 
waiting at the bridge to render this service, who places on the boat's 
deck a little wooden box in which the passengers are expected each to 
deposit a stiver. When we were passing under a bridge we deposited 
the perquisites in the box, and gave it to the captain, who, instead of 
giving it to the woman, or even placing it on the bank, to my great 
disgust threw box with money and all into the canal. Just as I was 
raising a loud complaint against this discourteous proceeding, the 
woman's dog dived into the canal, brought out the box and delivered 
it to the woman. These painstaking Dutch people seem to teach the 
dog to do anything. They draw carts for marketmen and fishermen. 
But in these occupations they are not always steady-going, often 
stopping to bark and bite. 

On the banks of the canal, outside of the villages, are smooth, grav- 
eled roads, ornamented with shade-trees. The fields and meadows of 
Holland have a neatness unknown elsewhere ; and it is not without 



US AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

reason that the landscape artist chooses for his study the sedgy brook, 
the willow-trees, the cattle, and the poultry of the farmyard of a Dutch 
farm. And so, in this leisurely and idle way, we traversed the country 
of the Lowlands. I saw Delft ; spent two days at the Hague ; saw its 
wonderful Chinese collection, and its great museum ; looked through 
the Palace in the Wood ; and then Amsterdam, an illustration that a 
Venice can be reproduced by an enterprising race in a northern clime, 
with all its commercial success and effect, but without having a par- 
ticle or a trace of the beauty, splendor, or poetry, of the original. 
Nevertheless, men and nations do not live for beauty alone, and Am- 
sterdam is a marvel. Built on dikes, with the narrowest streets, the 
tall houses incline toward each other at their roofs, and no carriages 
are allowed to rattle at speed through the streets, for fear of shaking 
the tenements down. The Spanish, the Portuguese, and the French 
nation went about the world — after the discoveries of Columbus and 
Vasco de Gama — making conquests and Christianizing the natives, 
and establishing empire. The Dutch, on the contrary, went East and 
West with equal zeal and perseverance, content to make money. 
Spain, Portugal, and France, have saved little or nothing of empire, 
and effected little in the way of proselytism. But Holland has saved 
nearly all her acquired territory, besides laying up wealth which makes 
her a capitalist among the nations. Great Britain has only just now 
learned the secret from Holland, and begun to apply it in India. 

We saw Leyden and we visited Scheveningen. 

A year ago they showed me at Salt Lake, in the Tabernacle, their 
new organ, which they claim to be second only to that at Boston ; and 
at Boston they boast the largest organ in the world, except the one at 
Haarlem. That great one I saw at Haarlem, with its eight thousand 
pipes and sixty-eight stops. I could not perceive that it gave any 
finer effect than another instrument to the prescribed psalms and 
hymns of the ordinary service. But certainly it poured out the an- 
thems, with which the worship began and ended, with a grandeur of 
volume that I have never known to be approached. I wonder whether 
the good Lutherans at Haarlem still deny to strangers the loan of a 
chair to sit in during divine service, as they did then ? The chairs were 
very common and cheap. I think that I could buy at Richardson's 
shop a sitting as good and as large as those which graced the Cathedral 
of St. Peter at Haarlem, for fifty cents. 

Everybody who visits Holland ought to see Broeck, a suburb of 
three hundred villas, six miles out of Amsterdam. The travelers, with 
their vehicles, stopped outside of the town. Its streets are only foot- 
paths, but each villa is embosomed in a parterre of flowers and statuary. 
No carriage or animal is allowed in its narrow streets; the wants of the 
inhabitants are supplied only by canals. No sound of hammer or shut- 



1833.] UP THE RHINE. HQ 

tie disturbs the repose. A motto, expressive of welcome or benedic- 
tion, is over every door. Alas ! no door was open to me ; nor did 
I meet, in Holland, anybody for whom the golden hinges had 
turned. 

The Museum at Amsterdam is inexhaustible in richness and variety. 
Only one people in the world have been able to shape out, in imagina- 
tion, a patron saint for children. That is the Dutch people ; and their 
creation is Santa Claus. I think that only the people who could de- 
velop a Santa Claus could produce the expressive, grotesque, and hu- 
morous art of the Dutch school. 

The Royal Palace, not now inhabited by the king, was interesting 
chiefly for its pictures, furniture, and statuary, reminding you of the 
brief and brilliant reign of Hortense and her husband, the unenter- 
prising and unambitious Louis Bonaparte. 

But I must not linger longer in reminiscences of Holland. We 
struck across the country, by diligence, from Amsterdam through 
Saardam and Utrecht to Nimeguen, on the right bank of the Rhine. 
At that place we found an army, waiting command to march against 
the seceding province of Belgium. War, however, was avoided, wisely 
as well as fortunately. There is only one political experience to which 
Belgium, with its ambitious and flourishing cities, Brussels and Ant- 
werp, could not reconcile itself, and that is, subjugation to Holland 
with its cities of Amsterdam and the Hague. 

Of course, the state of war required an examination of passports, 
and a close inspection of baggage. The former matter was easily 
settled ; but, when the Dutch officer demanded my trunk, I pointed it 
out to him, as it lay on the top of the huge diligence. He directed a 
young woman, who seemed not loath, to bring it down. Shocked at the 
idea of seeing such low and severe labor put upon a woman, I remon- 
strated ; but she ascended the ladder. I rushed upon it to bring down 
the baggage myself. She contended with me, and I was soon obliged 
to give up to her superior strength, and the superior argument, which 
I came at last to understand, that she had a professional title to the fee 
for the service. It is of no use to contend with these German women. 
They are as tenacious of the rights of their sex as our own woman's- 
rights women in America, only they take a different view of what 
those rights are ! 

The tour up the Rhine, by steamer, was then the most attractive 
feature of travel in Europe. Small but strong steamers, adapted to the 
shallow and powerful currents, navigated the river every day ; while 
their movement was so slow as to allow a distinct and leisurely contem- 
plative view of every hill, crested with its ruined tower or castle, and 
every dark and shaded valley, with its busy hamlet and terraced banks. 
Sitting on the deck, with a collection of legends in my hand, I studied 



120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

the history of each villa, and castle, and ruined monastery, until the 
whole voyage seemed to me only the changes of a varying but not alto- 
gether incoherent dream. 

I looked in at Dusseldorf, whose school of artists was just then lay- 
ing the foundation of its fame ; at Neuburg, the very prototype 
of our own Newburg on the Hudson ; at Cleves ; then stopped, for a 
night and a day, at ancient, archiepiscopal Cologne. They told me that 
the cathedral, begun in 1248, was still in process of construction, and 
that, with the contributions of the pious, it would yet be completed. 
Contrary to what I supposed, I have lived to see it done ; and I think 
it, perhaps, the last that will be completed in Europe. I am coming 
to think it probable that these great ecclesiastical structures of Eu- 
rope will yet be surpassed in America, where no church or religion 
enjoys any special political privileges. 

Here for the first time I found myself in the land of the vine. The 
famous vineyards of Rudesheim, Johannisberg, and others, lay around 
me. I have never been quite able to understand why the manner of 
culture differs so much in the different climates propitious to the grape. 
In Italy, and the south of France, and Palestine, they leave the vine 
much of its natural shape and proportions, training it on trellises, or 
leaving it to spread over the trees. But on the banks of the Rhine the 
vines are planted about four feet apart, and are never suffered to grow 
more than five feet in height, nor to mingle their tendrils with each 
other. They say they produce more perfect fruit. Perhaps they ripen 
better under this discipline in a cold climate. Nevertheless, a cultiva- 
tor in Italy once told me he was satisfied that the German culture was 
better than the Italian, and said that a grape-vine ought to be so low 
that you can step over it, instead of being so high that you can walk 
under it. 

Coblentz, with the stupendous fortifications of Ehrenbrcitstein, 
gave us our first evidence that we had entered Prussia. Then, passing 
the ruined castle of Lahnstein, I surveyed the then principalities of 
Hesse and Nassau. I know not whether I was more interested in the 
little town of Bingen, known to everybody by that most pathetic of all 
songs, "Bingen on the Rhine," or in the vine-clad ruins of the castles 
of Ehrenfels and Rheinfels, whose legends revive the always attrac- 
tive pictures of chivalry. Mayence, even then, might have interested 
me by its garrison and its trade. But I was interested more in the 
dwelling-house of Faust, and the palace which Napoleon occupied on 
the way to his disastrous campaign in Russia, not to speak of the tomb 
it the wife of Charlemagne. At Mayence I changed from the river 
back to the diligence, stopping at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and after- 
ward at Darmstadt, the capital of the then Hesse-Darmstadt. Its little 
court was then abroad, and the town was as dull as I suppose it is now. 



1833.] IN THE SWISS MOUxXTAINS. 121 

I admired much the little town of Heidelberg, its elegant bridge em- 
bellished with statuary, and the river Neckar, covered with barges. 
Nor did I forget to look into the house, still standing, in which Luther 
slept when on his way to the Diet at Worms. 

We were now rising the mountain-slope into Switzerland. The 
country was fertile and beautiful. The crops seemed equally luxuriant, 
whether of grapes, Indian-corn, hemp, tobacco, oats, clover, or wheat. 
But I remarked everywhere that the labor was chiefly performed bj" 
women. The men had gone to the armies, or to plant new fields in the 
United States. Carlsruhe, surrounded with walnut-groves, was the 
beautiful capital of the grand-duchy of Baden, having in the back- 
ground the Black Forest, and, as we ascended the mountain, we con- 
templated with interest the ruined castle in which Richard Cceur de 
Lion was imprisoned on his return from the crusades. Here I began 
my pedestrian exercise, being able generally to keep in advance of the 
diligence. Reaching the summit I traced the now miniature Rhine up 
through a long, smiling valley, until I caught a view of the turrets of 
Basle. I was able to distinguish at once between the mountaineers of 
Switzerland and the peasant inhabitants of Germany. 

The accounts of disaffection in the canton of Basle toward the 
Swiss Republic led me to fear an immediate revolution. But this 
calamity was not to happen so soon. Is it true that no republic can 
exist except it embrace distinct and several republican states or can- 
tons ? Is it true that, originally, these cantons or states must all be 
independent of each other until they are federalized, under the press- 
ure of a common danger? And is it true that such confederations 
must always encounter the shocks of secession and anarchy resulting 
from a pertinacious adherence to the doctrine of state rights ? It is 
so, at least, in Mexico ; it has been so in the United States ; and it was 
so in Switzerland. 

The Protestant visitor at Basle will not fail to see the tomb of 
Erasmus. I followed a tributary of the Rhine through the cantons of 
Soleure and Berne to Berne. It was obvious that the people of Switz- 
erland were very poor. The mountains were crowned with ruins, but 
these structures had generally been perpendicular, high towers ; not 
chateaux, like those which bordered the Rhine. The villages were 
dwarfed, old, and not cleanly ; the farmhouses dilapidated, generally 
consisting of one long, low stone or wooden building, whose roof 
covered not only the family dwelling, but also the barn, with stables 
for horses, cattle, and swine. The peasantry had as yet that marked 
uniformity of costume which only railroads obliterate. 

The scenery became exceedingly picturesque, the road, for leagues 
in extent, traversing declivities too sharp to allow dwellings. For the 
first time in Europe, I found the native forest and heard the stroke of 



122 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

the woodman's axe, as I heard the music of waters in the deep ravines. 
The dwellings are isolated, with only a patch of cultivation. Some- 
times the dwelling would be in a dingle, of which the eye would ob- 
tain a glimpse at the angle of the road. At other times it would be 
on the hill, hundreds of feet above our heads. The horses of all 
vehicles, like those of our own diligence, had bells to warn the travelers 
of their approach. 

At night we rattled rapidly down a long, winding hill, at the 
foot of which we came to a solitary, rude stone structure of two 
stories. Leaving the horses in the basement, we climbed a ladder to 
the first floor. There were well-dressed ladies and gentlemen, but no 
servants visible. They were, in fact, a party who had come in before 
us, just in time to order their supper. One of the gentlemen was very 
active, arranging the table. To him I applied in English, being able 
to speak no other language, for coffee. He replied, out of a phrase- 
book, " You — shall — have — coffee ; — coffee — is — good — at — all — times." 
I thought this waiter a more accomplished garpon than I had before 
found. At length supper was served, smoking hot, on two long tables. 
The other party seated themselves at one, and our party of the diligence 
at the other. Poultry, venison, coffee, tea, wine, for every taste. My 
garpon served me assiduously and exclusively, and when, in answer to 
another inquiry from the phrase-book, I assured him that I was entirely 
content, he laid aside his apron, assumed his fashionable coat, and took 
his seat with the other party, to the infinite amusement of the joint 
assembly of travelers, who had all found themselves indebted to a 
Parisian gentleman for a good supper, as well as a good joke, at mid- 
night, in an auberge in the Swiss mountains. The way I discovered 
the joke was in his continually looking at me archly, and repeating the 
words, " Coffee — is — good — at — all — times." 

Our night-ride was silent and cold. But, when the day dawned, we 
were slowly and carefully descending, by terraces, the declivity of 
Weissenstein, having on one side the rugged face of that mountain, and, 
on the other, scattered, scanty pasturages spreading out before a cottage 
which seemed inaccessible. Now we were in a valley, surrounded by 
mountains, and when we turned an abrupt angle one of the three beau- 
tiful lakes of Morat, Neufchatel, and Bienne, spread itself out at our 
feet. In the Lake of Bienne we caught a view of the little Island of 
St. -Pierre, which Rousseau selected for his retreat in exile from France. 
Passing the summit beyond Bienne, I obtained a comprehensive view, 
which embraced the Jura, as well as a long range of the Italian Alps. 
Mont Blanc was there, but lost in the clouds. 

I am sure I shall never forget Berne, encircled as it is by the Aar. 
The palace of the Federal Government of Switzerland is there ; the 
fountains, full of health and cleanliness, are there ; the clock is there, 



1833.] GENEVA. 123 

which gives you a dramatic performance of a cock crowing, a cavalry- 
march, a parade, and a waking warder, every day at noon. 

Fribourg and Avenches exhibited to me their antiquities, then 
peculiarly interesting to me, because — if the expression is not an 
anachronism — all antiquities were new to me, especially the triumphal 
arch erected in honor of Vespasian. Lord Byron, before me, had 
celebrated, in " Childe Harold," the monument of Julia Alpinula, an 
" unhappy daughter of an unhappy land." 

I arrived late at Lausanne, and, though I found a good bed at the 
Lion d'Or, how restless I was, when attempting to sleep on the shore 
of the Leman Lake, without yet having had a glimpse of its beauties ! 
The canton of Vaud is, I think, the largest of the Swiss cantons. The 
city of Lausanne contained then only about ten thousand inhabitants; 
and, though its streets were narrow and rough, yet it had been rendered 
very attractive by the villas of persons of wealth, learning, and refine- 
ment, from all parts of Europe. The view from the shore gives you 
the Alps, as well as the Jura Mountains. 

While I remained at Lausanne, the Federal troops marched out, to 
suppress the insurrection threatened at Basle. Although they were 
only a militia force, they were well disciplined ; and an examination 
which I then gave to the militia system of Switzerland confirmed me 
in the opinions of militia reform which at that time I was assiduously 
attempting to inculcate upon the Legislature at home. 

But, though I found Switzerland in advance of the United States 
in its system of military defense, I found a compensation in the fact 
that the Government had copied the penitentiary system then recently 
adopted by the State of Pennsylvania. Of course, I did not leave 
Lausanne without visiting the garden where Gibbon wrote the con- 
clusion of his splendid history ; and the chateau of Bon Repos, where 
Voltaire dwelt, and enacted his own tragedies, before going to reside 
at Sans-Souci with Frederick the Great. Recurring to the last in- 
cident inclines me to review the opinion, uncharitable to Dickens, 
which I formed when he, in the United States, recited his own in- 
imitable novels. Since Shakespeare acted parts in his own plays, and 
Voltaire in his, I am inclined to think, now, that the dramatist ought 
to be a good, if not the best, actor. 

The first acquaintance I made at Geneva was a Pole, more grave and 
serious even than his countrymen of the present day habitually are. He 
was now fifty-three years old. When young, he went to attend the nup- 
tials of a very near friend. After the marriage ceremony, a scene of 
animated gayety came, in which this gentleman laid his hand on a mus- 
ket, supposed to be unloaded. The weapon discharged in his hand, 
and killed the bride. The bridegroom remained always afterward un- 
married, and the unhappy actor in the affliction became a wanderer. 



124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

Except for its environs, Geneva was not then particularly beautiful. 
The Rhone, which flows in swift rapids through the city, is disfigured 
by wheels and laundry -apparatus. The town, at that day, maintained 
its strong fortifications, and kept its gates closed with as much jeal- 
ousy, at night, as Peking in China. This inconvenience mattered less, 
as Geneva is without trade, and chiefly occupied in the manufacture of 
watches. I was glad to see that Geneva, although its population was 
chiefly French, had not been demoralized by its compulsory submission 
to the arms of republican France, in 1798, and consequent incorpora- 
tion into the French Empire under the first Napoleon. 

I wonder if there has been any persecution for political, moral, or 
religious opinions, from which Geneva has not furnished an asylum ? 
One spends days there in following the footsteps of Calvin and Vol- 
taire ; and, when I was there last, it was filled with " Communist " and 
" Imperial " exiles from France. 

On leaving Geneva, one abruptly enters the Sardinian territory. I 
remarked then, as I have on a later visit, that you leave the Protestant 
Church behind you in Switzerland ; and the Catholic Church univer- 
sally prevails on the Italian side of the border. Chapels, crosses, 
shrines, and crucifixes, admonish you to devotion everywhere. The road 
to Mont Blanc follows the course of the Aar. At that day the dili- 
gence stopped at Sallenches ; and thence the tourist proceeded in a one- 
horse cart or chaise. But now the stage-road has been extended to 
Chamouni. I spent a night at the baths of St.-Gervais, situated in a 
ravine which Rip Van Winkle might have mistaken for his home in 
the Catskills. I turned from the music of the concert in the evening, 
to be entertained by an English gentleman, who had intimated a will- 
ingness to patronize, in that European company, the poor young 
American who could speak no French. He complimented me by ex- 
pressing his surprise to hear me speak English as well as an English- 
man ; assured me that he was gratified at being informed that there is 
an organized Episcopal Church in America; and condescended to hope 
that I might prove correct in a belief that the Christian religion can 
continue to exist in our country without a church establishment con- 
nected with the state. In one opinion that he expressed I am induced 
to think him correct. When, in answer to a question, I told him that 
the population of New York was two hundred thousand, he replied it 
was a great city, but it would be a long time yet before it would be 
as large as London. 

I retired early to slumbers, to which I was lulled by the notes of 
the harp and the piano within ; the dropping of the rain, and the dash- 
ing of the mountain-cascade, without. 



1833.1 CHAHOUNI. 225 

1833. 

Chamouni. — Mont Blanc. — En Venture. — Politics in the Coupe. — Paris. — Scenes of Revolu- 
tionary Changes. — The Tenants of the Tuileries. — Lafayette in the Chamber of Depu- 
ties. — Trying the Guillotine. — Napoleon's Old Soldiers. — The Orleans Family. — The 
Pantheon. — La Chapelle Expiatoire. — Josephine's Cottage. 

I was earliest awake of all the inhabitants of St.-Gervais, except 
the chamois. But, though the rain had ceased, the weather was cloudy, 
and Mont Blanc refused to accept my homage. As I advanced up- 
ward in the mountain-road, I noticed that the only cereals cultivated 
were wheat and oats ; that large stores of hay were gathered for the 
winter ; while every cottage had a little orchard of dwarf apples, pears, 
or plums. The cattle were dwarfish also. The peasants of both sexes 
were clothed in woolen habits ; and the women and children industri- 
ously worked at their knitting and sewing while watching their cows, 
sheep, and goats, at pasture. I met not less than a dozen persons of 
both sexes of various ages, who were deformed with the goitre, a disease 
peculiar to mountainous districts. I think I cannot be mistaken, also, in 
thinking that idiocy prevails more in that mountain-region than in other 
parts of Europe. It was strange in those solitudes to see the truthful- 
ness of church-architecture preserved amid so much poverty. It was in 
the hamlet of St.-Servoz. The church had its rude Gothic arches of wood, 
its turrets of coarse masonry. Its images were the work of some village 
sculptor, and its pictures the daubs of an untrained hand. It was the 
Catholic Church, as distinct from all others, as it is seen in Rome. At 
length I surmounted the last summit, and, climbing upon a steep rock, 
looked down upon the lovely narrow valley of Chamouni, some eight or 
ten miles long, and not more than a mile wide, depressed between the 
Aiguilles and the group of mountains known as Mont Blanc. On the 
declivities of the mountains, at my right hand, hung the glaciers, which 
have remained there forever. Still, Mont Blanc, although immediately 
above that line of glaciers, was invisible. 

The valley of Chamouni, far more elevated than the Leman Lake, 
is three thousand feet above the sea. Of course, I climbed the Mont- 
anvert, and descended from it with spiked staves upon the treacherous 
Mer de Glace. It was then majestic, and well deserved its name. When 
I revisited it, nearly forty years afterward, the mountain-sides and 
valleys had been stripped of their forests, and the soil exposed to 
cultivation. The Mer de Glace was shrunk, and seemed little more 
than a congealed torrent in the deep ravine. It was not until I 
reached St.-Martin, at nine o'clock at night, on my way back from 
Chamouni, that the clouds rolled away and gave me a full view of 
Mont Blanc, its snows lighting my way. 

Returning to Geneva, I attended a concert of the National Music 



126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

Society, constituted under the patronage of the state, and heard the 
opera of " Fra Diavolo." I had the satisfaction to learn, before I left 
Switzerland, that the revolution which was breaking out at Basle when 
I passed through that place had been entirely suppressed. 

The special voiture was a pleasant mode of travel, which, I suppose, 
has disappeared before the march of railroads. The voiture has four 
inside seats, and two seats in the glass coupe in front. It is drawn by 
three horses, with one or more additional ones, obtained at post-houses, 
when necessary. The carriage traveled by day, and stopped at fixed 
distances for meals and lodging. My father and myself occupied the 
coupe ; and our fellow-travelers within were a young married pair of 
Belgians, and two very accomplished Genevese girls, going to join their 
parents, who had recently taken up their residence in Paris. 

Our route across the Jura Alps was over a military road, which had 
been constructed by Napoleon. As we traveled slowly, I walked nearly 
half-way to Paris, accompanied sometimes by other members of the 
party, more often alone. We stopped at Genlis and Dijon ; walked on 
the banks of the then dry canal of Burgundy ; rested at Auxerre, Joigny, 
and Sens ; admired, as everybody must, the vine-clad Cote d'Or. 
While I found the landscape in France had not been exaggerated, it 
was painful to contrast the poverty and rudeness of the villages and 
hamlets with those of our own country, or of England. One might 
easily read the recent history of France in the monuments we passed. 
In one town, an inscription on the H6tel-de-Ville records its erection 
in the reign of Louis XVI. An inscription in another bore the date of 
the consulate. A gateway at Auxerre is surmounted by a group em- 
blematic of the restoration of the Bourbons ; while on all sides and 
everywhere all the public edifices present the motto just then adopted 
by Louis Philippe, commemorating the recent expulsion of Charles 
X., " Libert'e et Ordre publique." 

On one of these walks I had got so far in advance of the carriage 
that 1 turned back to see whether any accident had befallen it. The 
coachman, who had been one of Napoleon's veterans, said he had 
stopped through fear that the young Englishman was lost. I said, 
mildly — 

"I am not an Englishman." 

" What are you, then ? " 

I replied, "An American." 

"Oh," said he, "that's all the same thing." 

" No," said I, " America is a quite different country from England." 
He still insisted it was all the same. I said, " Where do you think 
America is ? " 

" Oh ! I don't know," he answered, "where it is, but somewhere on 
the borders of England." 



1833.] PARIS UNDER LOUIS PHILIPPE. 127 

As we approached Paris I asked him who he supposed was ruling in 
Paris now. 

" I don't know," said he ; " Louis Philippe was king when I left 
Paris three weeks ago. God knows what they've got there now ! " 

These episodes amused my fellow-passengers, but did not excite them 
so intensely as one which occurred in the coupe in relation to American 
politics. My father, who, I think I have mentioned, had trained me up 
in the Jeffersonian school of politics, had always distrusted the wisdom 
of my deviations from that path. He had seen, as I had, the disastrous 
defeat throughout the Union, in the previous year, of all the combina- 
tions in which I had been engaged to defeat the reelection of General 
Jackson, and the success of Martin Van Buren, and his political associ- 
ates in New York. He took advantage of a long morning ride, as we 
sat together in the coup&, to discuss the new situation, which, in truth, 
I saw in no very different light from that in which he presented it, as at 
present unpromising and hopeless. Dwelling, like all of that school of 
politicians at that day, on the impregnability, if not the immaculateness, 
of the Republican party, and upon the imprudence of longer fighting 
against it, he said that this temporary separation of mine from political 
transactions at home would give me pause for change, and earnestly 
recommended to me, on my return to the United States, to declare my 
adhesion to the triumphant party. At first, I expressed my dissent 
from this advice, and parried the argument with which he supported it 
with the calmness which filial reverence commanded. But, finding his 
earnestness increase to vehemence, I became earnest also. The con- 
versation waxed louder, until all the passengers within became alarmed, 
and the French coachman thought it his duty to interpose. As none 
of them spoke English, we gave up the attempt at explanation, when 
we found that, besides an understanding of that language, our audience 
required an introduction into the mysteries of a system of politics en- 
tirely above their comprehension. 

Paris was not then the most splendid city in the world, as it became 
under the reign of Louis Napoleon. Its spacious and shaded boule- 
vards, indeed, were attractive, but all the other streets were low, nar- 
row, rudely paved, and worse lighted, and thronged with vagrants and 
mendicants. Even the boulevards were then disfigured, bearing marks 
of the recent revolution. Everything here, as I had already noticed in 
the country, reminded me of the frequency and violence of political 
changes. 

It may not be remembered that the site of the celebrated column 
in the Place Vendome was originally occupied by an equestrian statue 
of Louis XIV. That of Napoleon, which succeeded it, was thrown 
down in 1814. Louis Philippe, at the celebration just held, of the 
anniversary of the Revolution of 1830, had restored the statue to its 



128 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

place, with great pomp and ceremony, and again conferred the name 
of Napoleon upon the street. In looking upon that splendid work of 
art, which was constructed of the captured cannon, and recited, in its 
bass-reliefs and inscriptions, the victories of France in -the most memo- 
rable of her German campaigns, I could not but pity, as a weakness, 
the affectation which the founder showed in the inscription upon the 
base of the column, " Erected by Napoleon, Emperor Augustus." It 
would seem, from this, that the emperor fed his ambition with aspira- 
tions to imitate the conquering Octavius, just as his less talented and 
equally unfortunate successor, Napoleon III., stimulated his ambition 
by his studies of the life of Julius Ca?sar. Napoleonism was manifestly 
the popular rage in Paris at this time. One might, even thus early, 
have forecast the second empire. Everybody that came to the Place 
Vendome bought pictures and descriptions of the column. 

" What is the price ? " said I. 

" Un sou." 

" Who strewed these immortelles over the pedestal?" asked I. 

" Tout le monde," was the answer, and so indeed it seemed. 

At an early day I sought Galignani's reading-room, for American 
newspapers. Is it worth while to reproduce here the comments I then 
made, in Paris, on that morning's reading ? 

The angry controversies, the malicious political warfare, and the reckless 
party spirit, which distinguish our journals, and which at home excite more or 
less interest among all our citizens, sink into insignificance, except as a subject 
of regret and shame, when they reach us on this side of the Atlantic. I know 
nothing which does our country so much injury abroad as this everlasting 
obloquy, heaped upon the heads of patriots and statesmen of whom any nation 
might be proud. I am sure, could any one of our citizens who is in the habit of 
speculating so coolly upon the dissolution of the Union, and the establishment 
of other confederacies or states, but hear the alarm expressed, in every European 
country, by the friends of free and liberal government, and witness the exulta- 
tion of tories and loyalist?, whenever anything occurs which indicates the disso- 
lution, which to him seems so tolerable, ho would feel a degree of remorse and 
shame which would go very far to recall him from the fatal delusion. It is not 
until one visits old, oppressed, suffering Europe, that he can appreciate his own 
government; nor is it until he learns, from the lips of patriots here, the con- 
firmation of what ho has so often heard at home, that he realizes the fearful 
responsibility of the- American people to the nations of the whole earth, to carry 
successfully through the experiment which, with the prayers and blessings of 
the good and wise, is to prove that men arc capable of self-government. And 
if he, in the folly of his heart, and under the excitement of supposed cause of 
complaint against the General Government, and false views of the importance 
of a member of the confederacy, dreams that a Northern or a Southern, an 
Eastern or a Western confederacy, or the independence of Massachusetts, or New 
York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Carolina, or Georgia, would still be enough to ac- 
complish this great purpose of proving the capability of man for self-govern- 



1833.] THE TUILERIES. 129 

ment, he would find that it is only as a whole, one great, flourishing, united, 
happy people, that the United States command respect abroad. Dissolve the 
Union, how or where we may, the experiment, so far as the rest of the world, 
if not ourselves, are concerned, is ended ; the members of it sink below the 
level of the South American states ; the cherished hopes of universal restora- 
tion of power to the governed are lost forever, and the chains of tyranny, now 
half broken and ready to fall off, will be riveted too strongly to be broken 
forever. 

I devoted a day to the Louvre, which had only shortly before given 
back to the despoiled nations the treasures of art which Napoleon had 
stolen from them. And I visited the Tuileries. It was not so much 
the magnificence of that palace as its historical associations which in- 
terested me. It seemed the central scene of the Revolution, begun in 
1789, and, alas ! not yet finished. I remembered how it became the 
prison of Louis XVI. and his queen, after their short season of revelry 
and dissipation at Versailles ; how they escaped from it to the frontier, 
and were brought back in humiliation and shame by their exasperated 
subjects ; how they were removed from it when its security as a dun- 
geon failed ; how they found a temporary refuge only in the halls of 
the National Assembly, and thence passed through the prisons of the 
Temple to the guillotine. I thought how Napoleon, at first, cautiously 
made it an official residence as consul, and afterward inaugurated it as 
the imperial palace. I thought of the divorce of Josephine, who graced 
it as no other woman could ; of the marriage of Maria Louisa ; the 
birth of the King of Rome ; the hopes that it excited ; the defeat of 
Napoleon, and the downfall of the empire ; the short and hurried but 
eventful hundred days during which the restored Bourbons were ex- 
pelled, and the expelled Napoleon restored to the proud residence of 
kings ; then the setting of Napoleon's star forever ; and the successive 
revolutions which had caused the Tuileries again to receive tenants, 
chosen in a moment of popular excitement, and holding their possession 
at the fickle will of that versatile people. Louis Philippe occupied the 
palace then. When I next saw the Tuileries, after a lapse of twenty- 
seven years, the court of a second empire was there. In 1871 I saw 
it once more. It was in ashes, and I found a republican Government 
of France installed in the same palace at Versailles from which the 
populace of Paris had brought away the captured king and queen to 
occupy the Tuileries at the beginning of the great drama of revolution. 

Who can look at the ruins of the Tuileries, when this throng of 
reflections crowd upon his thoughts, without interest ? Who that 
gives time to these reflections can for a moment doubt that, however 
unfit the French people may seem, however incapable of self-govern- 
ment the French nation may have proved itself, yet the age of monarchy, 
and even the period of imperialism, have passed ? 
9 



130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

I shall hardly oe believed when I say that, in my first visit to Paris, 
I questioned the wisdom, not less than the taste, of the monumental 
boasting which pervaded that capital. Yet the notes I wrote censured 
the egoism of the monument in the Place Vendome, and deprecated 
further retaliation than Paris had yet suffered, in being compelled 
to restore the horses of St. Mark ravished from Venice, and the other 
trophies of Napoleon's Continental victories. One of these humiliations, 
more painful than all the rest, I saw on my last visit to Paris, in the 
Place de la Concorde. It may be remembered that the Place de Greve 
was the scene of the most atrocious of the cruelties of the Revolution. 
Every trace and relic of those cruelties having been removed, the Place 
de Greve received appropriately the name of Place de la Concorde ; 
and at its several corners the first Napoleon erected graceful monuments, 
emblematical of the chief external cities of France, Marseilles, Rouen, 
Havre, and Strasbourg. When I came there in 1871, I found a black 
drapery drawn over the name and statuary of Strasbourg. 

Paris has one consolation in this respect. When I first saw the Arc 
d'Etoile, which Napoleon had designed to be the most majestic of the 
monuments of Paris, it was in an unfinished state, and spoke less of 
the victories of Bonaparte than of his disappointed ambition. Louis 
Philippe was now completing it, according to its original design ; and 
the public sentiment required that it should be embellished with illus- 
trations of the achievements of its illustrious founder. I know not by 
what good fortune the monument escaped serious detriment from the 
German bombardment, and Communist violence, in the culminating 
calamities of France. 

In the Chamber of Deputies I inquired first for the seat of Lafay- 
ette. This great advocate of liberty in the two hemispheres had just 
separated from Louis Philippe, whom, as he suggested, France called 
to her throne. The breach occurred on the refusal of Louis Philippe 
to support a revolution in Poland, which refusal, Lafayette always rep- 
resented, was a violation of a promise that the king gave as a condi- 
tion of accession. Lafayette was then at the height of a popularity 
a third time renewed. Though infirm, he never failed to ascend the 
tribune when any profound political question was discussed. It was 
affecting, on such occasions, to see him painfully drag a feeble and 
trembling frame, worn by age and accident, hacked and marred like an 
• lid suit of iron armor. But when lie had reached his ancient post he re- 
sumed at once his vigor and his benevolent smile. That smile and that 
peculiar utterance of his are indescribable. He preserved entire the 
chivalry, the courtesy, and the tact, of the ancient regime. But he 
combined with it the directness, the simplicity, and the sincerity, that 
we imagine to be characteristic of the ideal republic. Sometimes a 
modern parliamentarian, with a self-sufficient air, would select some 



1833.] THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES. 131 

Revolutionary incident, and, separating it from its true connections, 
would shape an argument from it for some untenable or objectionable 
measure or principle. It was then that Lafayette would reinvest the 
incident, thus seized upon, with its true historical connection and col- 
oring, and thus by a simple narrative destroy the subtlest sophistry. 
Thiers was then in the ministry ; and it was amusing to see the great 
historiographer of the Revolution, in a debate of that kind, succumb 
before its great general, its living monument, Lafayette. While advo- 
cating a treaty of amity and commerce with the United States he re- 
marked : " It will be said that on this point I show myself an Ameri- 
can. Gentlemen, that is a title of which I am proud ! It is a title 
dear to my heart. But no one will ever, I believe, venture to tell me 
that it has made me forget that I am a Frenchman." 

I noticed in the Chamber a man sitting opposite the tribune, seem- 
ingly as old as the structure itself, his silver hair falling back on a 
black habit, which was girt up with a large tricolored scarf. This was 
the old messenger who had done the errands of the Legislature of 
France under all its changes of name and constitution since the com- 
mencement of the Revolution, preserving all the while, as such inferior 
officers are accustomed to, a due esprit cle corps. He delighted in 
speaking of " the good Monsieur de Robespierre." The only disease of 
his advanced age was his inclination to sleep, during this dull adminis- 
tration of the juste milieu. He slept even when Mauquin spoke. But, 
whenever Lafayette rose to the tribune, the old messenger started in- 
stantly from his slumbers, as animated as a cavalry -horse when he hears 
the bugle-call. Sweet recollections of- youthful days revived ; and 
through the whole debate he eagerly inclined his hoary head to catch 
every word of the speaker. 

I think it is only the French who pass gracefully, as well as quickly, 

" From grave to gay, from lively to severe." 

We found the house of the public executioner. He politely told us 
that we could not appreciate the guillotine's excellence without trying 
it ; and for that purpose it would be necessary for him to procure three 
assistants with one sheep, which would involve an expense of fifteen 
francs. We paid the money and saw, to his satisfaction as well as our 
own, the working of the instrument which had executed the fearful 
Revolutionary judgments upon Louis XVI., his heroic queen, Robes- 
pierre, the inventor of the machine itself, and a thousand other vic- 
tims. 

They still preserve at Mount Vernon the keys of the Bastile. I 
found a fountain, in the shape of an elephant, upon the site of that 
odious prison. 

A visit to the Hotel des Invalides was as instructive as it was inter- 



132 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

esting. The inmates of this great military charity were allowed to in- 
dulge all the esprit de corps of the actual service. I was allowed to 
enter all the rooms in the absence of their proper tenants, and to see 
the soldiers at their rations. No visitor could enter the ward where 
retired or decayed officers were dining. But soldiers and officers, all 
alike, were delighted with the opportunity to tell the praises of their 
great chief. They told me that Napoleon had planned to convert the 
large and beautiful court which lies between the Hotel des Invalides 
and the Seine into a garden, and to have contrasted its foliage by 
thousands of marble statues of illustrious soldiers of France. This 
I thought at the time apocryphal ; but I came to believe it true after- 
ward, when his remains were deposited there, in conformity to his dying 
request that he might be buried " on the banks of the Seine, in that 
beautiful France he loved so well." 

The Palais Royal, like the Tuileries, might serve as a text for a 
homily. In the centre of Paris, a monument of its builder, Cardinal 
Richelieu, the cradle of Louis XIV., and covering sixteen acres of 
ground, this splendid palace, with a reservation of a portion of the 
upper chambers for a private residence, was converted, by Philippe 
Egalite, into a great bazaar ; and filled with merchants, shopkeepers, 
cafes, barber-shops, theatres, tailors, hatters, valets, and boot-blacks. 
Confiscated with its rents by the republic, on the execution of its pro- 
prietor, and afterward appropriated by the empire, it was restored in 
the time of Louis Philippe to his family ; again seized by the second 
empire, and bestowed as a princely home on King Jerome, with suc- 
cession by the Prince Napoleon. 

It was in 1871 reduced to ashes by the violent rage of the Com- 
munists. At my first visit it had, for an American, one pleasing feat- 
ure : its walls were graced with a series of elaborate paintings, pre- 
senting marked incidents in the history of the Orleans branch of the 
Bourbon family. Among these was one which commemorated the re- 
ception of Dr. Franklin at the Palais Royal ; and another, the return 
of the then King Louis Philippe, in 1814, from his exile in the United 
States. 

Louis Philippe was possessed, as everybody knows, of immense 
wealth. He was a man of exemplary morals, fine talents, and exten- 
sive learning. He was, moreover, a careful manager of his estates and 
revenues. His opponents, I know not how justly, called him mean 
and penurious. In every country the throne is popularly regarded as 
the fountain, not only of honors, but of wealth. The virtue of a king 
is measured, not even by what he saves for the state, much less what 
he saves for himself, but by what lie gives to his subjects. All political 
questions aside, I think Louis Philippe would have fallen before the 
complaint of avarice. Having, in later life, formed an interesting ac- 



1833.] NOTRE-DAME AND THE PANTHEON. 133 

quaintance with the Orleans princes of this day, it is not without pleas- 
ure that I have reverted to the account which I wrote in 1833 of the 
Orleans family : " The king has done much to reform the grossest out- 
rages against decency and public morals in the management of the 
Palais Royal, although enough is yet seen, from every window of the 
state apartments, to shock and disgust its inmates. The queen is 
above suspicion and reproach of any sort, universally respected and 
beloved. The young princes also are popular ; they attend the public 
schools and colleges, and they compete there with the plebeians — an 
emulation in which, to their great credit it is said, they ably sustain 
themselves, by force of talent and application." 

I should like to know who invented, and how long ago, the table 
of the zodiac. In Notre-Dame I found it adorning the portal of the 
church. What a curious and yet speaking conceit it was, that the cir- 
cumference contained only eleven of the signs, while that of Virgo 
was transferred conspicuously to the centre ! Many years afterward I 
found the table of the zodiac distinctly presented among the hiero- 
glyphics on the ceiling of an ancient Egyptian temple. It varied from 
the modern table only in having some other figure substituted for 
Libra. 

Notre-Dame seems an enduring provocation to the Republican 
party. It suffered great devastation of decorations and relics in the 
Revolution of 1793; so again in 1830, when the Archiepiscopal Palace 
was demolished. In 1871 I found it protected by a military guard 
against the Communists. The delirium of revolution has left no 
monument so significant as the Pantheon. When founded, it was the 
church of St.-Genevieve, and dedicated to religion. The republic 
seized it, and, under the name of the Pantheon, inscribed upon its 
lofty pediment : "Dedicated, by a (/rate/id country, to its illustrious 
men." 

Marble sarcophagi, filled with the dust of statesmen, scholars, and 
warriors, were heaped up in its vaulted basement. Surrounded by 
these, but separated from them and from each other, when I visited 
the Pantheon, were two wooden coffins, elaborately carved, but even 
then falling into dust. One of these contained the ashes of Voltaire ; 
the other the remains of Rousseau. I have since read that both the 
coffins have been despoiled of their sacred treasure. 

On the restoration of the Bourbons the edifice was again conse- 
crated by the Archbishop of Paris, as the church of St.-Genevieve. 
Public worship was celebrated there until 1830, when its Christian 
name was again abolished, and the heathen name of Pantheon restored. 
Christian worship was excluded from it, and the temple reverted to its 
republican use, a Westminster for France. 

I think no one who sees Paris fails to visit the Chapelle Expiatoire, 



13-i AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

which covers the remains, real or supposed, of Louis XVI. and Marie 
Antoinette. On each side of the choir is a monumental altar. On one 
of these is inscribed that affecting piece of composition, so marked by 
Christian resignation, faith, and charity, the will of Louis XVI.; on 
the other, that no less touching memorial, the last letter of Marie An- 
toinette to the Princess Elizabeth. 

When Paris is tranquil its people seem most humane and gentle. 
So far as I could learn, the whole French people regarded the violent 
fate of those monarchs with horror. It was a common expression that 
the Revolution was a season of universal madness. Perhaps it is ow- 
ing to the strong influence of this sentiment that this little chapel has 
never been disturbed. 

In my wanderings through Paris I looked upon a scene which, al- 
though it has since been entirely obliterated, I shall never be able to 
forget. In the Rue Chartreuse I passed through a wooden fence, pick- 
eted with Roman fasces, up a long, narrow, shaded avenue, into a cot- 
tage-house of octagon form, one story high, with only three or four 
rooms, and surrounded by a neglected garden. It seemed to have been 
long closed; its walls, porches, and piazza, exhibited faded frescoes of 
consular emblems and ornaments. It was the dwelling which Napoleon 
occupied with Josephine before his political career began ; and the 
perishing adornments reminded me how the imperial system here, as in 
Rome, affected assimilation to the consular regime. At the end of the 
little garden was a small marble bust of Napoleon, the base of which 
bore this inscription : " In hac minima jam maximus plus quam 
maxima concepti." I looked in vain for the picket fence and its in- 
closure in my subsequent visits to Paris ; they were gone. 

The Jardin des Plantes was, I think, the model of institutions de- 
voted to the cultivation of natural science, which have since become 
common in European capitals. No wonder that Paris, combining its 
admirable system of lectures with institutions of this kind, became a 
school for all nations. 

Paris had already a national opera ; and its theatre surpassed the 
English staffc then not less than now. 



1833. 

A Visit to La Grange.— Lafayette's Affection for America.— nis Family.— His Conversation 
and Habits. — His Description of the devolution of 1830. — Views of French Polities, Past 
and Future. 

"I hasten to welcome you on your arrival in Fiance, and I hope, 
with my family, to have the pleasure of receiving you at La Grange. 
Meanwhile, I expect to be in Paris on Wednesday next, for only one 



1833.] A VISIT TO LAFAYETTE. l' 6i) . 

clay, and will receive you there at my own house, or will wait upon you 
at your hotel, as may be agreeable to you." This was General Lafa- 
yette's note received by post a few days after we came to Paris. 

We repaired to his house in the Rue d'Anjou, St.-Honore, early on 
Wednesday, so as to anticipate his coming to our lodgings. A servant 
seated us in the antechamber, as expected guests. We waited there, 
however, nearly half an hour, but not without receiving from the gen- 
eral an apology for the delay. When he came in, he said that the 
gentleman whom he had just dismissed was a Polish general officer, 
" who always comes to converse with me, when I come to town, on the 
condition of his unhappy country." Pressing my hands warmh', he 
said, " I am happy to see you again ! " 

Did the venerable guest of the United States actually remember the 
young militia adjutant, who attended him in his progress from the 
Cayuga Bridge to Syracuse in 1825 ? Or did he benignantly assume 
that, in the general acclamations with which he had been received in 
the United States, he had met every citizen who could by any possi- 
bility come to Paris ? 

He conducted me at once to his bedroom. This apartment, as well 
as the antechamber, was furnished in the simplest fashion. On the 
wall hung a copy of the " Declaration of Independence." The ante- 
chamber was graced only with two busts — one of Washington, the 
other of Lafayette. He walked .with difficulty, owing to an old fract- 
ure. His complexion was fresh, and he seemed more vigorous and 
animated than when in the United States. After inquiring concerning 
my voyage and health, he said, " And how did you leave all my friends 
in America ? " I replied, " The question is too broad." I could answer, 
however, for the continued health and usefulness of those who had 
given me letters to him. 

He renewed the invitation to visit La Grange. When I expressed 
a desire to decline it through a fear of trespassing on his kindness, he 
declared that he had a right, and his family had a right, to a visit from 
every American who came to Paris. I must go to La Grange. He 
would not have a doubt left upon it. He adverted to the then recent 
political convulsion in South Carolina, but took care to refer to no one 
of the politicians who had been prominent in the conflict. He said the 
suspense suffered by the friends of republicanism in Europe, on that 
occasion, was dreadful, and his own position exceedingly embarrassing. 
The reactionists of every country in Europe exulted in the anticipated 
overthrow of the United States, upon whose stability the liberals of the 
whole world had staked their all. 

He expressed himself in language of the highest friendship con- 
cerning many statesmen, living and dead, who had belonged to dif- 
ferent political parties. 



-»X36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

It was only when seeing Lafayette at home that one could come to 
realize the truly paternal character which he held toward the American 
people. His affection and solicitude were for the whole nation, and 
he seemed unwilling to dwell on the party controversies with which it 
is disturbed. 

While listening to him I yielded for the moment to a belief that, if 
he could remain among us, his teachings and example would inspire 
us with mutual forbearance, and lift us to higher purity of purpose. 
Doubtless this was an error. Political controversies seldom or never 
yield to such soothing and redeeming influences. Even Lafayette, if 
among us, would retain only so much influence as he could exert by 
casting it on the side of one political party or the other. Nor is the 
case different now. We have " Moses and the prophets ; " if we will 
not hear them, neither would we "be persuaded though one rose from 
the dead." 

It was with not less of surprise than of gratification that I listened 
to the general, while he told the events of the three days' Revolution 
in 1830, with as much simplicity as if the recital concerned only a vil- 
lage commotion. 

"It has been said," he remarked, "that I made Louis Philippe 
king. That is not true ; it is true, however, that I consented he should 
be king ; and, without that consent, he could not have been. It was 
not without hesitation that I gave that consent. But what was to be 
done ? The people had achieved a revolution. In the Chamber of 
"Deputies there was a large majority of Liberals " (Lafayette called them 
Whigs) ; " there were many Republicans among them, but such a horror 
of republicanism existed in France, resulting from the terrible scenes 
of the republic of '93, that nobody was willing to renew the experi- 
ment so soon. It was the earnest desire of all to have the revolution 
ended, because, although the people had behaved with the greatest 
moderation and prudence thus far, yet painful apprehensions were en- 
tertained that turbulence and anarchy would ensue, and the bloody 
scenes of '93 be reenacted if a government should not be immediately 
established. 

"What was to be done ?" repeated Lafayette. "The only one of 
the Bonaparte family whom it would be practicable to call to the throne 
was the Duke de Reichstadt. He was a valetudinarian, a minor, in the 
hands of the Austrians, who had educated him. Naturally, it was be- 
lieved that he was imbued with the principles and prejudices of that 
court. Besides, the name of Bonaparte awakened recollections of a 
military despotism. The throne of a new Bonaparte must be rendered 
secure by a return to the principles and policy of the empire, and thus 
there were insuperable objections to a restoration of the Napoleonic 
dynasty. We could not safely proclaim a republic ; we had no reliable 



1833.] LAFAYETTE AND LOUIS PHILIPPE. 137 

republican army ; nor could a government of this form at that time 
secure popular confidence ; and we knew well that, so soon as it should 
be established, we should have all Europe combined against us. Louis 
Philippe preoccupied the attention of all the actors in the Revolution. 
I was little acquainted with him ; I knew that, in his youth, he had 
been a republican ; that he possessed talents and information ; and, 
although a little too fond of money, yet that he had hitherto conducted 
himself with dignity and propriety, especially in America. The gen- 
eral sentiment indicated Louis Philippe ; but it was agreed that before 
he should be created king he should be sounded ; and that he should 
be bound to a constitutional monarchy, which should be so framed as 
to constitute a distinct advance toward a republic. I left the people at 
the H6tel-de-Ville and visited Louis Philippe. The first thing he said 
to me was, ' General Lafayette, what is to be done ? ' I said, ' You 
well know that I am a republican, and that I think the Constitution of 
the United States the best government ever devised by man.' ' I 
think so, too,' replied Louis Philippe, ' and any person who should be in 
America for two years, as I have been, must be convinced that the 
American Government is the best possible one. But what shall be 
done ? You know,' continued he, ' the prejudices and fears that the 
people entertain against the republic. We cannot depend on the army. 
Half the troops are Carlists ' (friends of Charles X., just dethroned), 
' and we shall have all Europe down on us as soon as we proclaim a 
republic.' 'I answered,' continued Lafayette, 'I am aware of all 
this ; and I think, therefore, that insomuch as it is most desirable to 
consummate the revolution, and give quiet to France, it is best to 
establish at present a monarchy, with as many limitations as are possi- 
ble, and to surround it with republican institutions, which will prepare 
the way for establishing a republic as soon as it can be done with pru- 
dence.' Louis Philippe declared, ' These are indeed my own thoughts 
on the situation.' 

" I returned to the H6tel-de-Ville, and announced to the people 
there that the sentiments of the Duke of Orleans accorded with our 
own ; and, as you know, he was then made king. We made him swear 
to a charter containing two fundamental principles : one, the responsi- 
bility of the Government to the people ; the other, universal suffrage. 
He pledged himself that laws should be passed to begin the work of 
general education immediately. I did not wish to accept the office of 
lieutenant-general of the kingdom ; but it seemed necessary, to satisfy 
the people, and attach them to the Government ; besides, by declining 
it, I should furnish ground for a suspicion that I wanted to be king 
myself. I therefore accepted it ; and for a short time all went on 
well. Louis Philippe promised to support Italy, and the liberal cause 
throughout Europe. Excited by our example and success,'' said La- 



13S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

fayette, " the republican cause asserted itself in Poland, Belgium, and 
Italy. It met the resistance we had anticipated, and looked to us for 
support. Louis Philippe had not courage to support it, as he had prom- 
ised. I remonstrated. He shrank from it, and finally abandoned the 
repriblicans of those countries to their fate. Then he became very 
desirous that I should resign. His supporters entertained, or affected, 
apprehension that the office I held might, in the hands of my successor, 
prove dangerous ; but they were unwilling to deprive me of it. I was 
more desirous to resign than they were that I should. Louis Philippe 
had already begun to lay the foundation of a new Bourbon dynasty, 
which should be perpetual ; instead of wielding the government in 
such manner as to bring in the republic, as he had promised me to do. 
In this I would have no part. I was a citizen of the United States, a 
republican. My name was associated with the cause of liberty and 
republicanism wherever that name was known. I never sought or 
held office merely for the sake of office, under any government. I 
could not now retain it without lending my sanction, whatever might 
be its worth, to the principles of the new dynasty. I therefore re- 
signed. Louis Philippe has since said that he made no preparatory 
engagements with me concerning the principles of his government. 
As soon as I learned this reliably, I sent him word that I should no 
longer ffo to the Tuileries." 

La Grange adjoins Rosoit, a village of two thousand inhabitants, 
and distant thirty miles from Paris. The chateau, three stories in 
height, is built on the three sides of a square, and at each angle is 
flanked by a circular tower. It is surrounded by a moat, with military 
drawbridges. The front wall is covered with an ivy which was planted 
by Charles James Fox. Two small brass cannon guarded the staircase. 
They were trophies, taken .from the royal troops, in the three days' 
revolution, by the people of Paris, and presented to General Lafayette. 
The staircase was decorated with flags, tricolored and American. I 
was received by the general, Madame Maubourg his daughter, and two 
of his grandsons, in a parlor still more plainly furnished than the one 
in Paiis. [t contained busts of Washington and Franklin, and some 
American maps, and also portraits of all the Presidents of the United 
States. The library was filled with American books ; the sleeping- 
rooms had only pictures of American battle-scenes, on land and sea, 
Mount Vernon, John Hancock's house, and Quincy. Other members 
of the family soon appeared, and I had a welcome from all at La 
Grange. The general said : " I did not visit Colonel Burr, when he 
came to Paris ; he had lately conspired against one of my friends, Mr. 
Jefferson ; and had killed another, Colonel Hamilton." In making this 
remark, he indicated not the least consciousness of the mutual an- 
tagonism of those eminent statesmen. He spoke again and more freely 



1833.] THE FAMILY AT LA GRANGE. 139 

of Louis Philippe ; and alleged that the king had distinctly engaged 
to him that the new monarchy should be surrounded by republican 
institutions, and be only temporary, so as to prepare the way for a 
Republic. " But," said Lafayette, " the king has chosen to build up a 
dynasty ; and so he has made a bad choice. Had he fulfilled his en- 
gagements, he might have been king twenty -five years ; but, in trying 
to make his dynasty perpetual, he will lose all. In the former case, 
the Revolution of France would have ended in four acts ; now it will 
be five. Louis Philippe and his dynasty are sure to come down some 
time, and that not far off. I do not think they have twenty years to 
reign." If this prophecy was at fault in anything, it was in limiting 
the Revolution of France to five acts. It has already passed through 
five, and the end is not yet. 

At dinner we had the entire family, twenty-two persons. The 
general sat opposite the centre of the table, Madame Maubourg and 
Madame Perier at either end. The viands and the wine, with the ex- 
ception of champagne and Madeira, were the products of La Grange. 
Lafayette entertained the party with an account of his progress through 
the United States, with vivid descriptions of the country. " I never 
think," said he, " of Niagara Falls, without feeling a wish to buy Goat 
Island, and live there." Madame Maubourg described to me the Castle 
of Olmiitz, and her stay there, with her mother and sister, during her 
father's imprisonment. She told, in the simplest manner, but with 
touching effect, how the agent of the Prussian Government came to the 
prison and offered Lafayette his release, on condition that he should 
renounce republicanism. " I will subscribe no declaration," said La- 
fayette, " inconsistent with my duties as an American citizen." After 
an hour and a half, we retired to the drawing-room, where the evening- 
was spent in cheerful conversation on books, music, art, and political 
events. Precisely at ten o'clock each member of the family, old and 
young, kissed the general, and he retired. In taking leave of me for 
the night he said, " We breakfast at ten o'clock." I found my bed- 
room, in the upper story of one of the towers, daintily prepared ; the 
curtains were dropped, arm-chair and slippers before the fire, and the 
bed-coverings turned down. 

'When I came to breakfast every one inquired if I had been out. 
The general, they said, always rose at six. All the gentlemen, and 
some of the ladies, had been abroad on the plantation. From break- 
fast we repaired to a bower on the lawn. Mdlle. Clementine, a daugh- 
ter of George Washington Lafayette, conducted me to an artificial 
lake, shaded by evergreens, where we passed an hour in rowing. The 
general met us on our return. He walked with us over the j)lantation, 
which contained eight hundred acres. It was in fine order, and man- 
aged with perfect economy. All the animals w r ere carefully housed ; 



140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833. 

even the acorns were stored for the swine. He had another larger 
farm in the south of France, on which his son resided. Regular daily- 
accounts of both were kept at La Grange, and were examined and 
posted every Saturday, the domestic expenses being carefully super- 
vised and regulated by the daughters. 

The morning closed with Lafayette's exhibition to me of his mu- 
seum of American presents. Among these he seemed especially 
pleased with a vase presented to him by the officers of the Brandy- 
wine, and a volume published in New York in commemoration of his 
reception in the United States. This exhibition ended with a visit to 
the beautiful barge presented to him by the Whitehall boatmen of 
New York as a trophy of their victory over the Thames boatmen in 
New York Harbor. It bore an inscription, which recited the wager, 
the names of the victors, and the fact of its presentation to him. He 
had built a house over it, and inclosed it with an iron network, protect- 
ing it even from the touch of visitors. "Tell the Whitehallers I 
have their boat safe," said Lafayette, " and it will last longer than I 
shall." 

I took my leave of the general and his family that night at ten 
o'clock, preparatory to a departure at six the next morning. I was 
surprised, while taking my coffee before daylight, by a summons to his 
bedroom, where I found him, in a white-flannel undress, engaged with 
his correspondence, of which he showed me a letter he had just re- 
ceived from Madame Malibran. I said to him, " We constantly cherish 
a hope that you will come back to the United States." 

" My dear sir," said Lafayette, " it would make me very sad to 
think I should never see America again, but you know how it is. I 
am confined to France for two or three years by my office, as a mem- 
ber of the House of Deputies ; and in that time what may happen 
only God knows ! " With these words he threw his arms around me, 
and, kissing me affectionately, bade me good-by. 

He died during the next year. I think it a subject of great satis- 
faction that I thus enjoyed a personal and even intimate acquaint- 
ance with Lafayette, so heroic an actor in our Revolution, and the 
only one of the patriotic movers of the great Revolution in France 
who survived the first four acts of that yet unfinished drama, and who 
throughout all those vicissitudes was consistent with his own character 
and principles. 



1833-'34.] RETURNING HOME. 141 



1833-1834. 

Home again. — Colonel Swartwout. — Protecting Settlers in the Court of Errors. — Jackson's 
Progress. — Edward Livingston. — Abolition of Slavery in the West Indies. — Coloniza- 
tion and Antislavery Movements. — Removal of the Deposits. — Dissolution of the Anti- 
masonic Party. 

My journey from Paris to Havre was by diligence, resting at night 
at Rouen, whose monuments are so rich in the memories of the won- 
derful story of Jeanne d'Arc and the chivalrous campaign of Henry 
V. At dinner the passengers sat four at each table. Two young 
Englishmen talked so volubly and appropriated to themselves so large 
a share of the entertainment, that I asked them of what particular 
college at Oxford they were speaking. They answered Christ College, 
and politely asked whether I was educated there. On my replying in 
the negative they put me through a catechism as to the college I had 
been educated in, mentioning most of the colleo;es and universities in 
Europe. At last I said that I was graduated at Union College. As 
they had never heard of that, I told them that it was in Schenectady. 

" Sche-nec-ta-dy ! where is that ? " 

" In the State of New York." 

" New York ? " said one of them ; " why, that's in America ! 
Then you live in America ? " 

" Yes," I replied. 

" Why, Tom, only think of that ! Here is a gentleman who lives 
in America. Perhaps he has seen Niagara Falls. — Have you seen 
Niagara Falls ? " 

"Yes, I live near the falls, and see them three or four times a 
year." 

" O my God ! " he exclaimed, " how I do wish I could see Niagara 
Falls!" 

We were close friends, those young travelers and I, from that time. 

After remaining a fortnight at Havre I sailed with my father, whose 
health had been somewhat improved, on the ship Sully, arriving at 
New York after a voyage of thirty-two days. The voyage was rough 
and stormy, and, with all my eagerness to get an early sight of the light 
at Sandy Hook at midnight, I was driven from the deck by the bleak- 
ness of the blast. There was sunshine, however, when we reached the 
wharf the next afternoon. I saw the baggage quickly placed on carts. 
There were no coaches or hacks in waiting, and, as I had learned cau- 
tion and carefulness in European travel, I mounted the cart with my 
baggage, and was first seen in that situation by friends and acquaint- 
ances in the streets as I passed to the custom-house. 

The collector was Colonel Samuel Swartwout, who afterward fell 



142 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833-'34. 

into irredeemable disgrace as a defaulter. He was bland and cour- 
teous, and his knowledge of my father and myself influenced him to 
give our trunks a quick clearance — a compliment which had not been 
accorded to us anywhere abroad. My mother awaited us at my elder 
brother's, who then resided in New York. 

My first impressions on landing were discouraging enough. The 
public edifices and the dwellings of New York, built generally of brick 
and wood, seemed low and mean, the equipages cheap and vulgar, the 
streets narrow and dirty. The placards showed that the State elec- 
tion was going on ; that my political friends were cowed and recreant ; 
and that the 'party of the Administration were enjoying an easy and 
complete triumph. 

I had time to spend only a few days with my family at Au- 
burn before taking my seat in the Court of Errors. Addressing my- 
self directly to my judicial duties, I heard all the causes, and took 
my part in the decision of them. There "was one cause which gave 
me much anxiety. In the centre of the State around Auburn, the 
lands which had belonged to the Six Nations, when their possessory 
title was extinguished, belonged to the State of New York, and had 
been divided and distributed in lots, each of one mile square, to the 
officers and soldiers of the New York line in the Revolutionary 
War. Generally speculators had bought these lots for small sums of 
money while they remained wild, and had sold them at large advances 
to poor and humble men, who held them at prices continually advancing 
with the improvement of the country. A flourishing village in Onta- 
rio County was built by such purchasers on one of these lots, every 
part of which had thus become very valuable. A custom had, at that 
time, universally obtained in the State in regard to the sale of land 
upon credit, by which the owner in fee entered into a conditional con- 
tract with the purchasers, agreeing to sell them certain defined por- 
tions, on credit of several years, but permitting them to enter into 
immediate possession, and derive from the improvement and cultivation 
of the lands the means to pay for them ; the deeds were to be given 
when the lands were fully paid for. A mercantile creditor of the 
owner of the lot in question brought an action in the Supreme Court 
to recover a debt due him, and he at the same time filed in the office of 
the Register in Chancery a bill to set aside the title of that owner for 
fraud, giving no actual notice of this litigation to the persons who had 
settled on these lands under contracts of sale. The litigation between 
these two original parties continued all the time during which the 
lands were being improved and the village was built. 

The creditor finally obtained a decree in the Court of Chancery by 
which the title of the owner was declared fraudulent and void. He 
then caused all the lands to be sold on execution, becoming the pur- 



1833-'34.] THE ONTARIO SETTLERS. 143 

chaser thereof, to satisfy his judgment. The occupants refused to 
leave the lands. He brought actions of ejectment in the Supreme 
Court, to recover the lands. He proved in these actions that he had 
complied with existing laws, by filing in the register's office of the 
Court of Chancery a written notice of lis pendens, that is to say, of 
the fact that he had instituted his suit in chancery. 

The Supreme Court, upon this showing, rendered judgment in favor 
of the complainant, and directed an eviction of the occupants of the 
land, who, in the mean time, having had no actual knowledge of the 
litigation, had made the payments stipulated in their several contracts, 
and taken absolute deeds, in fee, for the premises. The tenants 
brought a writ of error to the Court of Errors, to reverse the judgment 
of the Supreme Court in these actions. One cause was argued, to test 
the principle of all. 

On the hearing of this cause, it was the duty of the judges of the 
Supreme Court to inform the Court of Errors of the reasons of their 
judgment ; but they had no voice in the review. The Chancellor only, 
with the Senators, sat in review. 

The practice that obtained in the Court of Errors was probably 
derived from an analogous proceeding in the House of Lords in Eng- 
land. The opinions of the Chancellor were generally accepted by the 
Senators in reviewing alleged errors of the Supreme Court, and, vice 
versa, the court accepted the opinions of the judges of the Supreme 
Court in revision of the decisions of the Chancellor. No case had 
ever occurred in which a majority of the Senate had disagreed with 
the Chancellor when he declared his opinion in favor of affirming a de- 
cision which had been unanimously made by the Supreme Court. It 
was not a habit of the members of the Court of Errors to confer with 
each other with a view to obtaining an agreement in opinion, although, 
when a cause was argued, a member of the court would naturally state 
to others sitting near him the impressions which were made upon him 
by the arguments of counsel. In this way, I incidentally learned 
enough of the views of the Chancellor to satisfy me that his final opin- 
ion, in the present case, would be in favor of affirming the judgment 
of the Supreme Court. Shocked at the hardship and injustice of evict- 
ing the occupants of the lands in question from their dearly-earned 
and valuable possessions, upon a ground which was merely technical, 
while they were not only innocent but meritorious purchasers, and in a 
case entirely new, there being no precedent for it, I sounded my brother 
Senators, and found them all conscientiously affected as I was ; but 
each one declaring that he could not satisfactorily controvert the rea- 
sons which the Chancellor was to give for affirming the judgment. In 
replying to them I said: "The case is entirely new. I think we can 
make an argument in which I can show that we may safely place the 



144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833-'34. 

tenant who is in actual occupation, under a written contract, on the 
footing of a grantee or mortgagee of record, entitled to actual notice, 
or not to be affected by the mere constructive notice of lis pendens." 

The Senators who were members of the bar declared their unwill- 
ingness to make such a statement of reasons, but their willingness to 
concur with me if I should do so. Accordingly, I drew up an opinion, 
and confidentially submitted it to each member of the court who was a 
lawyer, and received his promise to sustain the opinion by his vote. 
It was a thrilling scene when the cause was decided. The Chancellor 
read a strong opinion, in favor of affirmance, and sat down by the side 
of the judges, all of whom looked a unanimous concurrence. Senator 
Levi Beardsley, sitting by me, said, "Now, Seward, call out the 
militia ! " I, the youngest, not only of the lawyers, but of all the 
Senators, read the opinion which I had prepared, all the other members 
remaining silent. The roll was called, and the vote stood : For affirm- 
ing the judgment of the Supreme Court, the Chancellor ; for reversing 
it, Mr. Seward and all the other members of the court ! 

It is due, perhaps, to the legal profession and the legislators of the 
State to say that this decision, so equitable and so beneficent, has ever 
since been acquiesced in, and continues, unshaken and unquestioned, 
as a conclusive and final precedent. 

From the Court of Errors I passed, on the 1st of January, 1834, to 
the duties of my last year in the Senate of New York. This year was 
marked by more than the usual political vicissitudes. Opening under 
circumstances of overwhelming embarrassment, it changed rapidly to 
scenes of high enthusiasm and hope, and closed in a disappointment 
which might veil have deterred me from reentering the political field 
thereafter. 

Some important political events had occurred during my absence 
from the country, among which were the following : Flushed with the 
well-deserved praises of the party opposed to him in the Northern 
States, and a respectable portion of his own party in those States, for 
the boldness, vigor, and energy, with which he had wielded the Execu- 
tive arm of the Government in suppressing nullification in South Caro- 
lina, General Jackson, early in the summer, following the precedent set 
by President Monroe, began a popular progress through the Northern 
and Eastern States. His party, which had dropped all other names 
and assumed that of the " Democratic party," in the Northern States, 
while they rejoiced in the suppression of nullification, were by no 
means prepared for demonstrations of approval of that measure, which 
should be offensive and tend to alienate the nullifiers themselves from 
the party, and turn them over to the opposition. Jealousies arose from 
this cause when it was seen that the President was receiving too de- 
monstrative and hearty a welcome from the opposition. 



1833-'34.] MOVEMENTS AGAINST SLAVERY. 145 

Owing to this, as it was said at the time, the President, at Concord, 
abruptly brought his progress to a close, and hastened back to the 
capital in the quickest and quietest manner possible. 

John Quincy Adams, always active, industrious, and vigorous, now 
released from all former partisan associations and obligations, threw 
himself into the lead of the Antimasonic party, and addressed an able 
and powerful series of letters to Edward Livingston on the subject of 
masonry. Livingston was then Secretary of State, and arrived at the 
acme of his great fame by being recognized as the real author of the 
President's proclamation and other state papers directed against nulli- 
fication. The form of Mr. Adams's address to Mr. Livingston in those 
letters was, " Edward Livingston, Grand High-Priest of the General 
Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, and Secretary of 
State of the said States." Mr. Livingston was silent, and thus ignored 
this challenge. 

Other eminent statesmen, among them Richard Rush and Edward 
Everett, followed Mr. Adams into the same field. The Antimasonic 
party showed much vigor in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, and 
Vermont. On the other hand, the President had, in a letter of com- 
pliment to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, declared that, in his 
opinion, the Masonic society was an institution " calculated to benefit 
mankind," and he trusted it would continue to prosper. At the same 
time, in all those portions of the State of New York and other States 
into which the Antimasonic debate had extended, the institution sur- 
rendered ; dissolving its chapters and lodges, devoting its halls and 
temples to secular uses, and selling its regalia ; so that Mr. Hammond, 
the impartial historian of that period, impressed by these facts, declared, 
in his history, published in 1842, that the institution " had, in point of 
fact, ceased to exist." 

The sixty years' labors of the abolitionists of Great Britain cul- 
minated, this year, in an act of Parliament, which abolished African 
slavery in the West Indies, and awarded an indemnity of twenty mill- 
ion pounds sterling to the slaveholders. Three simultaneous move- 
ments against slavery in the United States excited more or less atten- 
tion : 

1. Israel Lewis, with scanty subscriptions by scattered individuals, 
founded, in Chatham, Upper Canada, a colony of fugitive slaves, and 
occasionally this settlement received an immigrant by what later was 
known as " the Underground Railroad." 

2. A very imposing official organization, embracing good and ear- 
nest men of all parties and in all the States, had been made, under the 
name of the " American Colonization Society," which had for its ob- 
ject the establishment of a free republic in Liberia, to consist of freed- 
raen from the United States ; and contemplated nothing less than an. 

10 



14G AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833-'34. 

ultimate transfer of the entire negro element from the United States 
to its native continent. 

3. William Lloyd Garrison, Arthur Tappan, Lewis Tappan, and 
others, justly, I think, conceived the idea that this plan of colonization 
was practically impossible, and that its operation would be to remove 
out of the United States only a few manumitted slaves, and so leave 
the great slave population without popular aid or sympathy. They, 
therefore, organized an antagonistical institution, which they called 
the "American Antislavery Society," and inscribed on their banner the 
watchword of " Immediate and universal emancipation." 

The first of these three movements was conducted without ostenta- 
tion, and almost without publicity ; but, so far as it was known, was 
regarded as unimportant and harmless. The agents of the Coloniza- 
tion Society and the Antislavery Society, who had repaired to London 
to obtain there favor and funds for their respective associations, came 
into conflict before the British public. The conllict begun there of 
Course was soon reopened here ; and out of this conflict grew an agi- 
tation in the great cities of New York and Philadelphia, that gave 
birth to mobs which, in a few instances, malevolently pursued and 
hunted down the negroes, and the leaders, preachers, and advocates, of 
the American Antislavery Society. 

These mobs seemed to consist of persons who apprehended that an 
immediate effect of antislavery debate would be an amalgamation of 
races. 

Prudence Crandall established a school in Connecticut for the in- 
struction of colored children, and was brought to trial for that proceed- 
ing, which was in violation of the laws of the State. A church in the 
town prohibited the colored pupils from attending divine worship in 
the meeting-house. 

Although South Carolina had repealed her ordinance of nullifica- 
tion, yet the principle of nullification was avowed boldly, widely, and 
tently, in many parts of that State and in Alabama. 

Edward Livingston resigned the office of Secretary of State, and 
succeeded by Louis McLane. The President, on the 18th of Sep- 
tember, 1833, overruling the advice of the Secretary of State, of the 
Secretary of War, General Cass, and the Secretary of the Treasury, 
William J. Duane, directed that the deposit of public moneys in the 
Bank of the United States should cease on the 1st of October, and 
be transferred to designated State banks ; and that the deposits then 
remaining in the former institution should be withdrawn as the exi- 
gencies of the Government should require. The President read, in 
cabinet, a paper in which ho assumed the responsibility for this act 
exclusively ; and assigned, as causes for it, that it was necessary to 
preserve the morals of the public, the freedom of the press, and the 



1833-'34.] END OF THE ANTIMASONIC PARTY. 147 

purity of the elective franchise ; and insisted that the Secretary of 
the Treasury should, on the spot, sign the necessary order. The Secre- 
tary of the Treasury declined ; and thereupon the President sum- 
marily removed the refractory Duane, and appointed in his place the 
then Attorney-General, Roger B. Taney, who proceeded at once to 
execute the President's mandate. The Bank of the United States 
prepared to appeal to Congress, and the country, against this bold 
proceeding ; and gave out that, if it should be carried into execution, 
it would be necessary for the bank to contract its discounts, to enable 
it to meet the new policy of the Government. Apprehensions of a 
commercial crisis arose ; and the President's proceeding was denounced, 
by his opponents, throughout the country, as an arbitrary usurpation 
of power, in violation of the laws of Congress, and of the true spirit 
of the Constitution. 

The annual elections, however, came on so speedily after this trans- 
action, that it did not enter at all into the canvass. That canvass was 
everywhere languid, and practically the election was taken by the 
Democratic party, or friends of the President, by default, in the State 
of New York. Only one Antimasonic Senator was elected, and he by 
only a majority of one hundred where in previous elections the ma- 
jority had been ten thousand. My own district was lost by a decisive 
majority. Only nine Antimasonic members came to the Assembly, 
instead of our former number, thirty-five. The election in other States 
was equally disastrous to the party with which I had acted. What 
was now to be done ? It was not difficult to convene the few more 
discreet members of our small delegation, and political friends, at the 
capital. Practically, at that moment, there was only one existing 
party in the country. That was now the Democratic party. The 
National Republican party, with whose policy we most nearly assimi- 
lated, had become demoralized and hopeless, seeming to have no issue 
upon which to reorganize, except a personal one with Henry Clay as a 
candidate for President, three years in advance. 

After this disastrous defeat, not a particle of hope remained that 
the Antimasonic party could successfully challenge the political power 
of the country. We were obliged to admit that, in the two chief 
objects of its organization, it had failed. Its first object was to restore 
the supremacy of the laws of the State, by bringing to the judgment 
and punishment which those laws denounced the conspirators and 
murderers of William Morgan. With a larger experience since that 
time, I have become satisfied that no political movement, however 
successful otherwise, succeeds in accomplishing an object so simple 
and so definite as this. For a long time I agreed with those who 
thought that the late civil war would fail of one of its chief ends, if it 
should fail to convict Jefferson Davis, or other distinguished rebels, in 



148 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1833-'34. 

a court of justice. The second object of the Antimasonic party was, 
the establishment of the principle that popular secret combinations, 
with oaths and penalties, capable of being directed to act politically, 
judicially, or socially, but secretly, ought to be condemned and made 
odious. This object also failed, while it seemed to triumph. If it 
was mortifying, a few years afterward, to see the institution of free- 
masonry reappear, in its ancient life and vigor, after having been left 
for dead on the field of combat, it was some consolation to see that, if 
the warnings of the Antimasonic party against secret political com- 
binations had been accepted by the people, the country would have 
been spared the shame of the pitiful " Know-nothing " conspiracy, 
and the dangerous order of the " Golden Circle" which claimed to in- 
augurate the late rebellion. However we might think on this subject, 
it was now apparent that our occasion had passed by, and that to con- 
tinue to flaunt the Antimasonic banner, when not a single recruit was 
to be gained, and no past defeat could be retrieved, would be to sink 
that noble and patriotic organization into a mere discontented, liti- 
gious, retaliatory faction. These reflections brought us to a unani- 
mous agreement that, so far as might depend on our action, the Anti- 
masonic party should be dissolved, and every member of it left at 
liberty to act as his judgment and conscience should dictate, without 
censure or complaint from his former associates. 

After reaching this conclusion, some naturally asked the others 
what use wo should make of our new liberty. I answered, for myself : 
" While I see no present organization for combined action except the 
Democratic party, I see too much in the policy and principles of that 
party to think of giving it my adhesion. I have opposed it from its 
beginning, throughout its aggressive career, and in its public triumph, 
as entertaining principles and policy injurious to the public welfare, 
subversive of the Constitution, and dangerous to public liberty. If 
I shall prove wrong in this, I shall have no longer occasion nor justifi- 
cation for political activity. If I am right in these opinions, time will 
show it, and necessity will bring round the associations with which I 
can labor for the welfare, safety, and advancement, of the country." 

These opinions were accepted generally by my old political associ- 
ates. A few, however, with more or less directness, availed themselves 
of their new freedom to join the triumphant Democratic party under 
General Jackson. 



1834.] REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 149 



1834. 

Last Year in the Senate. — Speech on Removal of the Deposits. — The Six-Million Loan.— A 
Warm Debate. — Honest John Griffin. — Land Distribution. — Improvement of the Hud- 
son River. — Beginning of the Whig Party. — Eulogy on Lafayette. — Searching for a 
Candidate under Difficulties. — Nomination for Governor.— Where Great Men live. — 
Silas M. Stilwell. 

My new political attitude proved convenient, and even pleasing. 
I was treated with respect and consideration by the members of the 
Senate ; and, indeed, all public men treated me with as much as I could 
claim. On all subjects they listened to me kindly, and adopted any 
just views that I presented upon questions which involved no differences 
of political opinion. 

Three or four weeks, however, was the limit assigned to my political 
indifference and inactivity. Congress was in session. A derangement 
of the currency, with a commercial panic, interrupted trade ; and failures 
of banks, corporate and individual credits, had followed quickly on the 
removal of the deposits from the United States Bank. Debates, never 
before nor since surpassed in earnestness and vehemence, divided and 
distracted the country. A majority of the Senate, and a minority in 
the House, denounced the conduct of the President as unconstitutional, 
destructive of the public welfare, and an illegal usurpation of power. 
The Senate called on him for a copy of the paper which he had read 
in cabinet on that occasion. He defiantly refused. The Democratic 
party, in the two Houses, adopted the language by which, in that paper, 
he had justified his assumption of authority to direct the removal of 
the deposits, and the reasons which he assigned for it. 

Adequate provision having been made for extinguishing the entire 
national debt, a large surplus fund was found in the Treasury. Con- 
gress had, at the preceding session, passed an act directing the distribu- 
tion of this surplus fund among the several States, to be applied by 
them to purposes of education and internal improvement. The Presi- 
dent vetoed this act ; and insisted that thereafter the sales of the 
national domain should cease, and the lands therein should be ceded to 
the new States and Territories in wmich they lay. 

The State of South Carolina having rescinded its ordinance of nulli- 
fication, the Senate of the United States debated a proposition of Mr. 
Calhoun to repeal the " enforcement law." 

The Bank of the United States appealed to Congress from the 
President's order removing the deposits. There were loud complaints 
of extravagance and corruption in the management of the Post-Office 
Department. The commercial crisis steadily advanced, spreading like 
a pestilence. Many State banks suspended payment and went into 
liquidation throughout the country, while applicants for bank charters 



150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1834. 

multiplied, tempted by the profits expected to follow from the transfer 
of the deposits to institutions of that sort. Immense meetings were 
held in the commercial cities to deplore the financial convulsion, and 
Congress and the President were beset on all sides by petitions and 
committees imploring interposition and relief. " Relief " and " stay 
laws " were passed in the State Legislatures. Propositions were made 
by Mr. Webster, in the Senate, for a renewal of the charter of the Bank 
of the United States ; and by Mr. Clay, for a temporary renewal. 
Counter-movements were made by the friends of the Administration in 
both Houses of Congress. There were other incidents intensifying 
public anxiety throughout the country, which, if I were writing a his- 
tory instead of my own personal memoirs, it would be proper to relate. 

The Governor of the State, William L. Marcy, taking notice of the 
pecuniary distress, and the derangement of the currency and embar- 
rassment of the banks, in his annual message, attributing those evils 
to an action of the Bank of the United States hostile and injurious to 
the State banking institutions, proposed to the Legislature to raise, by 
the sale of State stocks, four or five million dollars, and to lend the 
same to the banks to enable them to sustain themselves against the 
oppression of the United States Bank. 

It was under these circumstances that a member of the majority in 
the Assembly, with a view to procure the support of the Legislature 
of the State for the President, introduced resolutions in these words : 

" Resolved (if the Senate concur), That the removal of the public 
deposits from the Bank of the United States is a measure of the Ad- 
ministration of which we highly approve. 

" That the Senators from this State be directed, and the Represent- 
atives from this State be requested, to oppose any attempt to restore 
the deposits to the Bank of the United States. 

"That we approve of the communication made by the President of 
the United States to his cabinet, on the 18th of September last, and 
of the reasons given by the Secretary of the Treasury relative to the 
removal of the deposits. 

" That the charter of the Bank of the United States ought not to 
be renewed." 

These resolutions promptly passed that House, without debate, and 
with the dissenting votes of only nine members. It was understood at 
the time that none of the dissenting members had any experience or 
practice in legislative debate. They were passed in the Assembly on 
Friday. They were received in the Senate on Saturday, and the Sen- 
ate, overruling my proposition for delay, and with strong intimations 
of a desire to avoid debate, and to press them to an early vote, made 
them the special order for the Wednesday following. 

We of the minority were only six. Public sentiment, outside of 



1834.] A WARM DEBATE. 151 

the Legislature, vehemently demanded that the resolutions should be 
debated, although it was well understood that resistance to their pas- 
sage would be unavailing. Mr. Tracy, who after the death of Mr. 
Maynard had been our recognized leader, peremptorily refused to 
speak, and strongly dissuaded his associates from debate. One other 
of our associates declared himself in favor of the more important of 
the resolutions. My three remaining associates were always silent 
members, but earnestly insisted that I should assign our reasons for 
our intended vote in opposition to the resolutions. 

On Thursday and Friday I addressed the Senate in opposition to 
the resolutions. It was not difficult to find the required arguments. 
The elaborate and exhaustive speeches of Mr. Webster, Mr. Clay, and 
others, in the Senate of the United States, were before me. But the 
time allowed was quite too short for an analytic and concise prepara- 
tion. When I had concluded a speech, which had been listened to 
with profound and sympathizing interest by a large audience, the ma- 
jority announced a change of tactics. Instead of desiring to arrest the 
debate, and press the vote, they insisted that I should be fully and 
elaborately answered. The duty of making this reply was devolved 
on Mr. Maison. He had scarcely opened his argument when he fainted 
and sank into his seat. Time was allowed for his recovery, and he 
resumed and completed his argument in the following week. In the 
mean time Mr. Dodge made a labored argument. The majority were 
dissatisfied with the exhibition of their cause which had thus been 
made, and it was determined that Mr. Sudani, recognized as the ablest 
of the Democratic members, should, after being allowed time to pre- 
pare, close the debate for the majority. When the day assigned for 
him arrived, he was found in the morning confined to his bed with a 
brain-fever. Mr. Maison resumed and concluded his speech. The 
speeches of Mr. Dodge and Mr. Maison did not seem to me to have 
shaken the positions I had assumed. Both these gentlemen, however, 
were of that class of debaters who delight not so much in logical argu- 
ment as in parrying the argument of an opponent, by diverting the 
attention of the audience with anecdote, and with allusions to the per- 
son, position, or character, of their adversary. On this occasion, I for 
the last time yielded to the seeming necessity of a self-vindicating 
reply. My reply, I need hardly say, was even more popular than the 
original argument. But I did not fail myself to see that I had erred, 
in substituting myself in place of my cause. 

The agitation upon Federal measures increased throughout the 
State and country, constantly presenting new and incidental questions 
for discussion in the Legislature. I spoke with moderation upon these 
questions until a new one occurred, which required an effort as great 
as that which I had made in the debate before described. 



152 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1834. 

This new subject was a bill introduced into the Assembly in ac- 
cordance with the suggestion of the Governor in his message, and 
passed practically without debate, by which it was provided that State 
stocks should be created, and sold to the amount of six millions of dol- 
lars, and that four million dollars should be loaned to the State 
banks in the city of New York for twelve years, at five per cent., and 
two million more should be distributed in loans to the several counties 
in the State, for the purpose of enabling the banks and the counties to 
counteract the alleged oppression of the Bank of the United States. 

While all my associates disapproved of this measure, there was the 
same difficulty as before on the question of debating it. John Griffin, 
one of our members from Alleghany County, was a tall, uncouth, as well 
as unlettered man, who had acquired some skill and popularity in 
local rural assemblies, with rough manner and abrupt and intempei'- 
ate speech, but of fair and honorable character. Desirous, if I could, 
to avoid throwing my solitary gauntlet at the feet of so many com- 
batants, it occurred to me that Mr. Griffin might make a skirmish- 
ing attack, and leave me to come later into the debate. I applied 
to him to do so. He hesitated, and then said, "I don't know how to 
make a speech, but I can sometimes write down what I think and 
read that." I replied, " That would do exactly." He consented then 
to write and read, by way of opening the debate, a few thoughts, oc- 
cupying, say, ten or fifteen minutes. I had no difficulty in procuring 
from the courtesy of the Senate the delay which he required for 
preparation. I did not think of asking him to show me his notes. 
On the day assigned, Mr. Griffin rose to read a maiden speech. It 
began with a violent vituperation against the President of the United 
States, the party leaders, and the opposing Senators, designating them 
as " minions of Executive power." The first sentence was a long one, 
incoherent, violent, and objurgatory, and in the succession each sen- 
tence was more offensive in that respect than the last. The speaker, 
at no time lifting his eyes from the paper, continued to read this 
tirade two hours. At first Senators took notes, as if intending to 
reply. But it would have been as possible to make points and reply to 
a continuous northeast storm of sleet. Long before the speaker ended 
the majority had consulted what they should do. They saw in the speech 
manifestations of declamatory power which they could not believe 
belonged to the speaker ; and, assuming that I must have seen and 
sanctioned the assault, they prepared, if possible, to hold me responsi- 
ble. I was quite as much shocked as they, but quite as innocent of 
the offenses which Mr. Griffin had committed. The speech as it was 
served my purpose in requiring my opponents to enter the debate 
before me. In the end I came in, on the 10th of April, with my 
argument in reply to them. This reply, while it was temperate and 



1834.] CLOSE OF LEGISLATIVE LIFE. 153 

respectful, seemed to meet the wishes of the opponents of the meas- 
ure, and served to stamp my name on the issue thus made. All was 
well, except that Mr. Griffin then came and desired to have his speech 
printed. He reminded me of my promise to revise it, and I could not 
refuse. When the manuscript came before me I found it impos- 
sible, with such freedom as a critic had, to reduce the tirade into the 
form of an argument, and concluded it was best to relieve it of what 
little pretensions in this way it had. So, striking- out the occasional 
gentle and soft words, and leaving the epithets and confused meta- 
phors to jostle through an inextricable maze, without the interrup- 
tion of stops or exclamation-points, I let the manuscript go to the 
press. The effect was extraordinary. Senators, seeing the printed 
speech, pronounced it entirely original, while the opposing party 
accepted it as a bold challenge to the Administration. For a long 
time it seemed doubtful whether they would not insist upon making 
"honest John Griffin," as they called him, a candidate for the highest 
honors which the State can bestow upon a patriot citizen. 

Of course, the bill passed, by nineteen to five, and became a law. 

In the same manner in which the Assembly had passed the resolu- 
tions upon national subjects, which I have before noticed, that body 
further passed, and sent to the Senate, resolutions approving the Presi- 
dent's veto of the act of Congress providing for a distribution of the 
proceeds of the sales of public lands among the several States for pur- 
poses of education and of internal improvement, and of his reasons for 
his disapproval, and of the policy which was announced in that message. 
When these resolutions came into the Senate I challenged them, and 
insisted on being heard in opposition to them. Whether it was that 
the majority of the Senate only deprecated further debate on national 
questions, or that they were not yet prepared to sustain the President 
on the great question involved in the resolution, I do not know. But 
they came promptly to a compromise with me, in which they agreed 
that the resolutions should lie on the table. 

Simultaneously, I moved in the Senate a declaration on the part of 
the Legislature in favor of a bill pending in Congress for removing the 
obstructions to navigation in the tide-waters of the Hudson River — an 
improvement of the class against which the President of the United 
States had committed himself before Congress. The majority shrank 
from the subject and evaded debate ; but a popular issue upon it was 
sufficiently formed. Piquancy was now imparted to the political dis- 
cussions in the State Senate by a new and amusing incident : It was 
discovered, by some betrayal of confidence in the printing-office of the 
majority, that a form of popular petition to the Legislature had been 
printed in that office by direction of the party managers, copies of 
which had been sent out in large quantities to local leaders, with in- 



154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1834. 

structions to procure signatures to them, and forward them to their rep- 
resentatives in the Legislature. This was regarded as indicating an 
apprehension that the six-million-dollar bill, now called by the opposi- 
a ' : monster mortgage bill," had suffered by the expositions of it in 
lebates. While, as yet, the secret of the concerted action at the 
capital concerning petitions of that sort was unknown, a memorial 
from a remote county was announced in the Senate and was read. I 
moved that it might be printed ; the majority opposed. When I said 
printed, as legislative papers are, in order that 
it might be more conveniently read by the members, I was answered 
that the memorial was in print, as it came to the Senate, and could be 
examined by all the members at the Clerk's table. Two or three days 
afterward came another petition, the reading of which the majority 
proposed to dispense with. J en its being printed. I then 

demanded the reading. When it was read I remarked upon the sin- 
gular coincidence of persons, in different parts of the State, addressing 
jrislature, not only it in language which bore 

a striking similarity. As petitions came in day after day from other 
parts of the State, I dwelt upon this same coincidence until I ex- 
1 in that way, and obtained a reluctant confession from the ma- 
jority of, the concert of action, which they had before endeavored to 
. et, because it tended to destroy the entire effect of the pro- 
. 
In the midst of the great popular excitement which had been 
awakened by the n national policy in Congress, and in the 

nate, came the annual charter election of the city of New 
., in which tl. ion to the Federal and State Administra- 

tions had assumed the name of " Whig." The Whig ticket secured a 
majority of four in the Common Council, and only failed of electing 
r candidate for mayor, Gulian C. Verplanck, by one hundred and 
lection was followed by town mei iiich 

re indicated a revolution of opinion against the Administra- 
tion and the dominant party. 

It became manifest to that party that it must expect a defeat in 
the charter election, which was soon to come oft in the city of Albany, 
h it had suffered in the city ol >rk. Alarmed at 

;>ular mind which produced by defeats, 

not only in : -. but in the State capital, the party man- 

I to an <■ avert a de- 

:n Albany. They introduc ling the- city charter, 

and postponing the electio . 'luring which time the present in- 

cumbents should hold over. This high-handed . partaking of 

of popular opinion which then distinguished the Admin- 
W bington, • • iolent opposition in the city and 



1834.] THE NEW PARTY. 155 

throughout the State. I was relied upon to be the organ of that oppo- 
sition ; and I challenged the proceeding as being a flagrant political 
abuse, and a violation of the spirit of the State constitution. If I 
failed in this speech, the failure consisted in my moderation. Chief- 
Justice Spencer, then a political actor, insisted upon my denouncing 
the new law as a violation, not merely of the spirit but of the letter 
of the constitution. 

Attempts were made at this session, as at the two previous ones, 
to repeal altogether, or to materially impair, the law by which impris- 
onment for debt had been abolished. I constantly and strenuously 
resisted these attempts, and the law was left unimpaired. It was 
perhaps accidental that whatever countenance these attempts at re- 
action against a great, beneficent, but recently-established reform re- 
ceived, was given by members of the dominant party. 

Finally, the canals had been opened to navigation, and the State 
revenues exhibited an alarming decrease, foreboding still greater finan- 
cial embarrassment than had yet been experienced. It was under 
these circumstances that the Legislature adjourned on the 6th of May, 
and my services as a legislator of the State cf New York came to an 
end, leaving only the judicial labors required in the Court of Errors. 

General Lafayette died at Paris on the 20th of May, and I pro- 
nounced a eulogium u2^on him before my fellow-citizens of Auburn on 
the 16th of July. I should be glad if I could think that I did histori- 
cal justice to his memory. 

In the short period of four months a comfortable change seemed to 
have come over the country, pregnant with new, deep, and unantici- 
pated interests and responsibilities resting on me. I had begun the ses- 
sion without a party, without prospect of any, without hope of future 
advancement, and without a remaining chance of public service. I In 
leaving the Senate I had a party which, although it was new, was full 
of spirit, of courage, and of hope. It remained not merely for this new 
party, but, in a large degree, for the dominant one, to develop its real 
political character. But I could not fail to observe that the Democratic 
party was becoming an obstructive party — obstructive of education, ob- 
structive of internal improvements, obstructive of emancipation, obstruc- 
tive of commerce, obstructive of foreign intercourse, and embarrassed 
with disloyal traditions and combinations. On the other side, the Whig 
party, which had come into the field so suddenly, with all the vigor of 
youth, seemed to me capable of being impressed with all the compre- 
hensive, libera], and humane ideas which, through all chances, changes, 
and discouragements, I had cherished from my earliest experience in 
political affairs. 

I would have tried to invest the new party with a name of broader 
and deeper significance than that which it had assumed, for I had already 



156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1834. 

learned that names are often potential in the life of parties. But that 
was impossible. The small band of members who had remained faith- 
ful during the session appointed me, as usual, to prepare for them an 
address to the people, in which the stirring and important events of the 
session were reviewed, with all my powers of criticism, but, if I remem- 
ber rightly, with dignity and moderation. In signing that address, we 
for the last time used the descriptive name of " Antimasonic," and 
called upon the " Democratic citizens opposed to Executive usurpation " 
to constitute a convention at Utica, on the 16th of September, to 
nominate candidates for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of the 
State. 

Our attention was immediately directed to the finding of some per- 
son who should receive the first nomination, and thereby become the 
standard-bearer of the new party ; and he must be one against whom 
no violent prejudices would exist. Mr. Francis Granger, who had been 
so often defeated on the tickets of the National Republicans and Anti- 
masons, now, not unreasonably, preferred a nomination which should 
assure him an election to Congress, to a State nomination, with pos- 
sible defeat, as a candidate for Governor. The judicious portion 
of the new party approved his declension. But where was the candi- 
date ? We fixed our attention upon Jesse Buel, who was just then, in 
the violence of the new political shock, understood to be prepared to 
separate himself from his former party. Mr. Albert H. Tracy, Mr. 
Thurlow "Weed, and myself, waited upon that distinguished citizen, at 
his elegant rural home near Albany, and held a conversation with him. 
Disclaiming all authority or intention to give pledges, in behalf of the 
new party, we obtained an expression of his assent to its policy and 
principles, and his willingness to accept its nomination for Governor if 
the convention should see fit to bestow it upon him. For myself, it 
seemed to have been understood, in the political circles at Albany, that 
my nomination as Lieutenant-Governor would be not only proper, but 
advantageous. 

I repaired to my home in Auburn, charged with the duty of dis- 
creetly and quietly preparing the mind of the Whig party, in the west- 
ern part of the State, for the nomination of Jesse Buel for Governor. 
I found this effort by no means an easy one. Mr. Buel's case was the 
same with that of Samuel Stevens and William Wirt. His conversion 
from the Democratic party was not yet known ; and it seemed, as it 
truly was, to be conditioned upon his receiving, at the moment of 
avowing it, the highest honors and confidence our party had to bestow. 
Nevertheless, I went on, in good faith, and, when I thought I had suf- 
ficiently prepared the public mind at home, I reported to my friends at 
the capital, and urged a public announcement of Mr. Buel's adhesion 
to the Whig party, and a cautious preliminary suggestion of his name 



1834.] SEARCHING FOR A CANDIDATE. 157 

as a candidate willing to accept the nomination. This report of mine 
was answered by a summons to the capital. 

On arriving there, I learned, to the great discomfiture of all the 
hopes we had built upon Mr. Buel, that the " Albany Regency " (for so 
the managers of the dominant party were called) had anticipated the 
movement which Mr. Buel proposed, and had prepared to flank it, by 
reproducing from their leading journal an article written by Mr. Buel, 
within the year, in which he declared his approval and urged acqui- 
escence in the policy of the President in regard to the United States 
Bank, and his violent removal of the Treasury deposits. Having as 
we thought satisfactorily verified this fact, Mr. Buel was instantly 
dropped out of our thoughts. 

Thurlow Weed, Frederick Whittlesey, and myself, hastened to 
New York, hoping to ascertain there that a nomination of that emi- 
nent citizen Gulian C. Verplanck, the recently-defeated candidate for 
Mayor of New York, for Governor, would be acceptable to him, and 
satisfactory to the party in the eastern region of the State. On ar- 
riving there, we ascertained that Mr. Verplanck would not listen to our 
proposition ; and that any other nomination, that could be conceived, 
would be more acceptable than his. We were now as deeply and as 
spasmodically in despair, for a gubernatorial candidate, as little Greece 
frequently is in want of a king. In the midst of our perplexities, our 
self-constituted commission adjourned across the river, to see some 
new mechanical invention, then on exhibition in the public garden of 
Hoboken. Sitting down there to rest, with ices, wine, and cigars, on 
the table before us, in the garden, surrounded by crowds of idlers, we 
came to a final consultation. In this debate we brought under dis- 
cussion all the prominent men of our party throughout the State, 
stated the argument in favor of and considered the popular and other 
objections against them. They severally disappeared, when I laugh- 
ingly said : " I believe that we are reduced to the dilemma of King 
James and the clown. When the clown learned that the king was 
hunting in the forest, he went out to look for him, and, meeting him 
alone on horseback, he mistook him for a courtier, and asked him 
where the king was. The king told him to mount behind him, and 
he would take him where he could see his Majesty. He told him he 
would know the king by his being the only person who wore his hat. 
When they came to the crowd, the courtiers took off their hats, crying 
' Long live the king ! ' James, turning to the clown, asked him if he 
knew which the king was now. The clown, seeing the king kept on 
his hat, and feeling the cap on his own head, answered, ' Not exactly, 
but I am sure it must be one of us.' " 

My associates concurred in the appositeness of the story, and de- 
clared that nothing; remained but a ballot to determine who should be 



158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1834. 

candidate for Governor. I nominated Mr. Weed. Mr. "Whittlesey sus- 
tained my motion. Mr. Weed positively and peremptorily declined. On 
the second ballot I voted for Mr. Whittlesey ; Mr. Whittlesey for me; 
Mr. Weed gave the casting vote in my favor. We rose promptly from 
the table, and I was directed, by the majority of the commission, to 
hasten to Auburn, so as to be safely at home before the convention 
should assemble, to whom this arrangement should be submitted. 

The scene that awaited me at home was more curious still. I arrived 
there on Friday. The convention to appoint delegates from my county 
was to be held at Auburn on Saturday, and the State Convention was 
to be held at Utica, accessible only by stage-coach, on the next Tues- 
dav. Of course, a political career which had been for the last four 
years so successful as mine had not been run without exciting some 
envy, and bringing out many competitors. No one of my neighbors 
seemed to have heard my name mentioned as a candidate for Lieutenant- 
Governor. Certainly no one but Thurlow Weed and Frederick Whit- 
tlesey had thought of me as a candidate for Governor. I had already, 
before leaving home on my late excursion, at the request of political 
associates, formally declined to be a candidate for reelection as Senator, 
and with equal formality declined a nomination for Congress, and had 
committed myself to other candidates. But, suddenly, some exchange 
newspaper, received on the day of the convention, brought before 
them the fact that it was contemplated, in other portions of the 
State, to nominate me for Lieutenant-Governor. That would be too 
much for my friends at home. The delegates appointed barely escaped 
from being instructed to vote against rne for Lieutenant-Governor, by 
obtaining from me, and communicating to the convention, a promise, 
that I would not cause or permit my name to be brought before the 
Utica convention for Lieutenant-Governor, and my positive instructions 
to them to oppose such a use of it if it should be offered. 

My nomination for Governor by the State Convention was made 
with promptness and unanimity. When my nomination for the chief 
office was decided upon, it was thought necessary to take a politician 
of Democratic antecedents for the second office. Very properly the 
choice fell upon Silas M. Stilwell. Not without talent, and possessing 
untiring activity and perseverance, he, as a Democratic member of 
the Assembly from the city of New York, had introduced into the 
Assembly, and aided to cany through the Legislature, the benign law 
abolishing imprisonment for debt. 

The scene which occurred at the American Hotel in Auburn on 
the return of our local delegates was infinitely amusing. My politi- 
cal friends received them with complaints and reproaches, saying : 
"You promised to oppose Seward for Lieutenant-Governor, and here 
you have let him be nominated for Governor! The nomination is a 



1834.] THE CANVASS. 159 

disgrace to the State, and will be the ruin of the party ! " Mr. Jacobs, 
the orator of the delegation, attempted to reason with them : 

" Why, gentlemen, it is very easy for you, who have staid at 
home, to say all this. But, if you had been where we were, you would 
have found that we had nothing to do with making Seward the candi- 
date, and we did all we could to prevent it. The people from the 
other parts of the State wouldn't hear of anybody else." 

" We don't believe it," they replied ; " they could have found a 
more proper man in every other county in the State." 

" Well, gentlemen," replied the orator, preserving his good-humor, 
" I have known Mr. Seward long, and thought him a bright and smart 
young man, but I never supposed he was a great man; but, when I came 
to Utica, I found that everybody inquired of me about him, and spoke 
of him as if he was the greatest man in the State." 

" Well," replied they, " the State must be in a strange condition if 
Seward is among its greatest men." 

" Gentlemen," answered the delegate, " I have learned one thing 
by going to Utica, and that is, that a great man never lives at home ! " 

The canvass was unusually animated and active. When it began, 
my new position did not excite any ambition, or even a personal ex- 
pectation of success; but, at the immediate close, those on whose cau- 
tious judgment I habitually relied, carried away by enthusiasm, gave 
me a confident opinion that the Whig ticket would prevail. Its fail- 
ure, of course, after this, was a disappointment, though free from a 
sense of humiliation. 

The other incidents of the season preceding the election had no 
particular importance. It was for me a season of rest, since I remained 
silent and passive under the discussion which my principles and char- 
acter underwent. 



MEMOIR 



SELECTIONS FBOM HIS LETTERS 



CHAPTER I. 

1831. 

Home at Auburn. — Journey to Albany. — First Experiences of Legislative Life. — Sketches 
of Character. — Aaron Burr. — Citizen Genet. — Maynard. — Tracy. — Granger. — Weed. 

Everybody in Auburn, forty-five years ago, knew Judge Miller's 
house on South Street. A large, square mansion of unpainted brick, 
very substantially built, its exterior plain, its interior handsome, 
with a row of Lombardy poplars in front, and a grove of locust, 
apple, and cherry trees around, it stood not distant from the main 
street, and at the same time not very far from the outskirts of the 
little town. It was the first brick dwelling in Auburn. As land was 
abundant, and neighbors were few, five acres were occupied with 
the usual accessories of a rural residence — barn, carriage and wood 
house, vegetable and flower garden, orchard, and pasture-lot. Here 
lived the owner, retired from active practice of his profession. With 
him lived his mother and a maiden sister. His two daughters had 
grown up under their grandmother's care. The elder, Lisette, whose 
sprightly vivacity made her a general favorite, had recently married 
and left the paternal home. The younger, Frances, was of unusual 
beauty, but extreme diffidence. She had a few years before married a 
promising young lawyer, her father's partner, named Seward. Opin- 
ions had differed in the village as to his capabilities ; but the majority 
conceded that he was industrious in his profession, though many 
doubted if he was old enough, or grave enough, or wise enough, for 
the responsible position of Senator in the State Legislature, to which 
he had recently been elected. Two children completed the family 
circle. 

It is in this scene and with these surroundings that my earliest 
recollections of my father begin. It is in the same scene, with the 
11 



162 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

same surroundings, that the notes of his autobiography in the preced- 
ing pages terminate. 

He was at that time over thirty years old, but his slender frame, 
of not more than medium height, his smooth-shaven face, clear blue 
eyes, red hair, quick, active movements, and merry laugh, gave him 
almost a boyish appearance. The house was always cheerful when 
he was in it. That was never for long at a time, for he was indefati- 
gable in his toil at the little one-storied law-office on South Street, where 
he prepared his papers and received his clients. One evening that he 
spent at home, reading aloud, from Scott and Burns, is so vividly re- 
membered by the children that it must have been a rare event. 

Auburn was about as distant from New York then as Omaha is 
now. The annual stage-ride to Albany to attend the session of the 
Legislature was a serious and important undertaking. Of my father's 
journeyings to and from the capital, and of his legislative life there, 
he has spoken briefly in his autobiographic notes. But the picture 
there presented is based merely on recollections of a later date. It 
will be more complete if supplemented by some extracts from his let- 
ters, written at the time, giving more detail of persons, places, inci- 
dents, and character ; for the autobiography he had no opportunity to 
revise or read, and the letters he never saw again after writing them. 

Long and closely written, those letters from the distant capital were 
eagerly read by the household at Auburn. Under favorable circum- 
stances, they were three days on the road from Albany — under unfavor- 
able ones, a week. Sometimes they would come by post, sometimes by 
private hand, a favorite method of transmitting correspondence in that 
time of high postage and uncertain mail service. The postage on a 
letter from Albany was eighteen and three-quarters cents ; from New 
York, thirty-seven and a half cents. A traveler by stage-coach often 
had his pockets filled with letters and remittances handed him by his 
friends on the eve of his departure ; and these it would be his first 
duty, on arriving at his destination, to distribute. 

At the close of December, 1830, the newly-elected Senator was on 
his way to Albany. His first letters thus describe his journey and his 
entrance into public life : 

Albany, January 2, 1831. 

It was just seven o'clock, on Wednesday morning, when I left the Ameri- 
can Hotel at Auburn in a stage with eight ether passengers. We had a dull, 
tedious ride of four hours to Elbridge, where we breakfasted, and at five o'clock 
in the evening we arrived at Syracuse. I had not anticipated so warm a wel- 
come as I met with. In the evening my friends gathered in to sec me, and 
I promised to stay the next day, and write an address for their New-Year's Con- 
vention. 

Next morning I ondertook the task, but was interrupted and prevented; and, 
the stage coming along at two o'clock, I got into it, with Julius Rhoades, of 



1831.] FIRST LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCES. 163 

Albany. We traveled all night, and arrived at Utica on Friday morning at sis. 
Left there in a tremendous storm at eight, and slept that night at Fonda, forty- 
two miles from this city. Arrived here last night at seven, well, and sufficiently 
fatigued. Everybody had been keeping New-Year, and was as much fatigued 
as I. I found a room provided for me at the Eagle ; but it is as yet occupied by 
my predecessor, Judge Oliver, who will leave in a few days. I am temporarily 
in the room with my friend Senator Boughton. The Governor, Lieutenant- 
Governor, mayor, and ex-mayor, each had open house yesterday, and all the 
world went to see the dignitaries and drink their wine. Of course I came a 
day too late. The Lieutenant-Governor has rooms at the Eagle, and I think 
his whole family with him. 

Sunday Afternoon. 

I have been to the Episcopal Church. It is a delightful house, and the cler- 
gyman gave us a good New- Year's sermon. I have not yet been here long enough 
to know whether I shall be pleased or otherwise ; though I was last night visited 
with more recollections about you, aud Fred, and Augustus, than you perhaps 
would give me credit for. All, as yet, seems pleasant, and there has been exhib- 
ited no feeling of hostility on account of politics. The Supreme Court com- 
mences to-morrow, and the Legislature will convene on Tuesday. I shall then 
have an opportunity of giving you some of the feelings with which I shall com- 
mence the new career before me. From my windows I look out upon the Hud- 
son, whose swollen waters cover the streets and stoops, between this house and 
the usual banks. The sun shines out brightly and genially this afternoon. 

Tuesday Morning. 

Whether this state of things is going to continue, I don't know ; but so it is, 
that my only time to write is in the morning. The incidents of yesterday were 
of no great importance. I went to court, staid until I found I had no hope of 
reaching any of my causes for a week, left the court-room and went about town 
delivering letters, paying over money, etc. Then came calls from Antimasons, 
of high and low degree. In the evening I called at the Governor's to deliver the 
letters I had for him. Two lamps before the door marked the marble house. 
I staid but a little time ; and wended my way to the Capitol, to see the cau- 
cuses of the two parties. That business occupied till eight o'clock. I went home 
with Tracy and staid till nine ; came down to my room, packed up New- Year 
Antimasonic addresses till ten ; then Weed came and we talked till twelve. 
Such is the routine of a day here, and such, as near as I can learn, is the dispo- 
sition of time by most of our legislators. I hope to be somewhat more indus- 
trious. 

January 5th. 

Yesterday at twelve o'clock the Legislature convened. I took a seat posi- 
tively among the conscript fathers of the land, feeling constantly in my pocket- 
book, to be quite sure that I had the certificate of election there. The roll was 
called ; no credentials asked for, and I answered to my name. A venerable gen- 
tleman beside whom I had placed myself, and who doubtless thought that I was 
some impudent spectator who had thrust myself where " angels might fear to 
tread," turned around as I responded to my name and said, " Well, sir, I think 
it will be conceded that you are the youngest of us all ! " I went up to the desk, 
took the oath, and wrote my name in such a hand that, except for the recollec- 



164 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

tion of the incidents and feelings with which it was written, I should not recog- 
nize it again. After solemn and due annunciation, came Enos T. Throop Martin, 
with Enos T. Throop's message, delivered it to the Lieutenant-Governor, who 
with great dignity delivered it to the Clerk, who received from the Senate a dig- 
nified order to read the same. All this took something more than two hours. 
Some few committees were appointed, resolutions passed, and the Senate ad- 
journed till this day at eleven o'clock. Thus ended the first lesson in my legis- 
lative education. 

In the evening I went to the theatre with Mr. Boughton, whose term of ser- 
vice in the Senate has just expired, and who leaves town to-day. It is but a 
poor affair. In coming home it was very dark and rainy ; we were walking arm 
in arm when we encountered a rope or wire, stretched by some thievish fellows 
across the road, doubtless to enable them to pick off our hats. Off came both 
hats simultaneously. Fortunately we recovered our property and arrived safe 
at the Eagle. 

Thursday, January 6th. 

Another day's labor is ended. No measure of importance, no debate of 
interest, has as yet occurred in the Legislature. I rise in the morning with the 
idea that I have nothing to do, till eleven, go to the House, am occupied at most- 
two and a half hours, come home, dine ; and, after that hour, no man is allowed 
to be busy. As, for instance, after dinner to-day I came up into my room, wrote 
the first two lines on this page, was interrupted by a call, and continued receiv- 
ing calls and dismissing visitors until about sunset, when I abandoned all hope 
of writing one more line, till everybody should have gone to bed. So, in despair, 
I sallied forth, went with Mr. Fuller of the Senate and called on Mr. Samuel M. 
Hopkins, spent half an hour with him, came down to Manchester's, took tea, called 
at Oruttenden's, spent an hour with Mr. Spencer in arranging our causes for argu- 
ment in the Supreme Court, went across to bid good-evening to Mr. and Mrs. 
Tracy, dropped into Mr. Ellis's room, looked in upon Maynard, came down, ate 
supper, and find myself in my room at half-past eleven o'clock. Now, how any 
man finds time to study, and make speeches here, is beyond my comprehension. 
I want to look into the salt laws and the canal laws, and two or three other 
matters, besides doing up some old business; but in truth two letters from Seth 
Hunt lay on my table, reproaching my negligence. Tracy and Maynard say I 
must make up my mind never more to be worth anything for practice in the law. 
Doleful prediction for a poor man ! Adieu. Heaven protect you all ! 

January Wi. 

The State has furnished me with two quires of this beautiful pink paper, a 
dozen Holland quills, a pretty pearl-handled knife; and why shouldn't I write 
to you every day? Then, again, the State very generously pays me three dol- 
lars a day. I have gone at her call, and she has dismissed me for the day, after 
a detention of just twenty-five minutes. This morning I have been, for the 
principal part of the time, employed in attending to errands and commissions 
intrusted to me, paying taxes for my friends, etc. The sun has come gorgeously 
forth ; the river is clear ; the country looks blue and inviting. There are my 
friends, my home, my loved ones, my all ; here I am alone, a stranger. 

January 9th. 
Sunday morning here is a sorry time. I have bowed to Miss Livingston and 
to Mrs. Clarkson once since I became a locum tenens in this house; and, except 



1S31.J REV. DR. WELCH. K35 

those ladies, I have not seen the face of a woman in it — yes, I must except also 
Amy the housekeeper, who is old, and cleverer than old ; and, after a fortnight's 
absence from all others of the sex, seems to be not very ill-looking. I have not 
yet seen the face of a man from Cayuga, except our members. Manchester is 
with me about a third of the time, though he boards a mile off. The other 
Cayuga members — " Kegency " men, " whom we have put down, you know " — 
keep as far from me as if I carried pestilence in my march. It snows this 
morning, and all around is cheerless. 

After I had finished writing to you yesterday I went to call upon Mr. Sena- 
tor Cary and his wife, from Batavia. Then I adjourned to the theatre for the 
purpose of meeting some of my friends from abroad, who had arrived in the 
afternoon. The play was, " The Eighth of January, or the Battle of New Or- 
leans." The heroes of the play were the two opposing generals, Jackson and 
Pakenham. The only incident of any originality was not in the play as writ- 
ten; it was that, just as General Pakenham was to appear on the stage, he 
was arrested and carried off by a constable. 

I can hardly hope to make you understand how entirely the illusion under 
which I have labored in respect to the importance of my station has faded away. 
Seen through the vista of opposition, excitement, puffs, and abuse, the post of 
Senator of this great State seemed one of immense importance and dignity. 
One week has removed all the accumulating vanity of a year, and I find the 
whole a dull, every-day, and commonplace affair. 

The Chenango Canal bill I think will pass. The Committee on Canals in the 
Senate are decidedly favorable to the application. 

The table of the Assembly is covered with applications for banks. The 
dominant party give out that it is expedient and right to sacrifice party feeling, 
and not to suffer politics to interfere with the bank questions. The New York 
banks have all agreed to come into the safety-fund system ; they will doubtless 
all be renewed. 

Among the candidates for United States Senator are Sanford, Sudam, and 
Root. Marey, it seems agreed, is to be the successful one. 

John 0. Spencer is the great man of the House. The political aspect of the 
Senate is as follows : the Antimasons are, Mather, Maynard, Tracy, Lynde, Ful- 
ler, Cary, and Seward. Porter from the Eighth is just arrived, and it is said 
declares he will vote with us hereafter. If so, we are eight. Wheeler, I under- 
stand, says he shall vote with his old party this winter. McLean, of Washing- 
ton County, is one of the Clay men, who supports his chief while voting with 
the Regency. All the rest are Regency men. 

Monday, January 10th. 

The Senate was occupied in legislative and judicial business to-day, from 
eleven till two o'clock. I have learned by experience to consider my hold upon 
time, which passes in this place, so precarious, that I seize the first opportunity 
every day to write to you, lest by delay I might lose the time altogether. Last 
evening I had a call from the Lieutenant-Governor, who graciously condescended 
to mount two flights of stairs to call upon so unworthy a personage as myself. 
Then I went to the Baptist Church, where I heard one of the finest sermons I 
ever have listened to ; it was preached by Mr. Welch, the settled pastor of the 
congregation. The style of the sermon, the construction of it, the language, 
and even the delivery, were very much like those of the late Mr. Summerfield. 



16(5 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

This morning the snow is three or four inches deep, the weather cold, the 
sky clear, the sun bright ; the bells jingle most merrily, and the city is enjoying 
all the fun, fashion, and flash, of sleigh-riding. I do not hear of any other gay- 
ety yet in the good society here, though I suppose it is going forward. The 
river is full of floating ice, forced slowly down by the current. A steamboat 
left this morning for New York, but I do not think another will arrive from 
that place. The weather indicates now that we must bring our desires, wishes, 
and thoughts, within the limits of this ancient town. 

January 12, 1831. 

"Weed is very much with me, and I enjoy his warmth of feeling. A politi- 
cian, skillful in design and persevering in execution ; whose exciting principle is 
personal friendship or opposition, and not self-interest — that is just Thurlow 
Weed. How much more I like him than I should if he was selfish and avari- 
cious, you know me well enough to form an opinion. He is warm in his attach- 
ments. He gives for charity's sake, is generous to a fault, kind beyond descrip- 
tion, open-hearted, and sincere beyond most men's sincerity. 

What a contrast to my legislative friend , who is morbidly ambitious ! 

He came here expecting to make a figure in the House ; but he fears to thrust 
himself into the arena, and yet is unhappy because he is not a victor without 
having the courage to enter the lists. His conversation is always upon his own 
disappointments. 

Maynard is a giant in intellect, indefatigably industrious, methodical, ori- 
ginal, and persevering. He makes no protestations, exhibits no discriminating 
preferences for any one, is always uniform, reasons slowly, carefully, and wisely, 
upon every subject. His information is extensive, his power of application very 
great, his perseverance in study astonishing. No man can associate with him * 
without admiring, respecting, and esteeming him ; and yet no man, so far as I 
am informed, professes a warm and distinguishing personal attachment to him. 

Albert II. Tracy is a different man from all these. He is a man of original 
genius, of great and varied literary acquirements, of refined tastes, and high and 
honorable principles. He seems the most eloquent, I might almost say the only 
eloquent man in the Senate. He is plainly clothed and unostentatious. Winning 
in his address and gifted in conversation, you would fall naturally into the habit 
of telling him all your weaknesses, and giving him unintentionally your whole 
confidence. lie is undoubtedly very ambitious; though he protests, and doubt- 
less half the time believes, that dyspepsia has humbled all his ambition, and 
broken the vaultings of his spirit. I doubt not that, dyspepsia taken into the 
account, he will be one of the great men of the nation. 

Such are the characters of those in whose society I am thrown. And here 
my case is different from that in which I have herel ofore been. Visit and re- 
ceive visits, everybody must here; because it is through the medium of such 
intercourse that we arrive at a fair understanding of the measures before the 
House. The above, from the top of the page, has been written on this Wednes- 
day, January 12th, and it has been the work of three successive sittings. While 
I was painting Maynard, Tracy came in, and I went with him to call on Mr. 
Lynde. While I was delineating Tracy, Weed came in; and nobody thinks of 
writing when ho is here. 

This day has been the coldest of the season. Imagine the west wind blow- 
blast loaded with snow, down State Street the walks slippery, the air 



1831.] MEMBERS AND ACQUAINTANCES. IQf 

piercing, and you may have some idea of my experience of going to the Capitol 
this morning. The river is blocked up, doubtless for the winter, and all is 
cheerless without. Within, my coal-grate sends forth a comfortable heat ; the 
lodgers are all asleep. Bills, petitions, briefs, demurrers, and the whole mass 
of the world's perplexities, are laid aside. I finish this page, and then at mid- 
night I must to bed, to dream perhaps of you, mayhap, U wicked world! of 

Morgan. 

Thursday, January \Mh. 

The mail to-day brings no letters ; but I had a call from the Kev. Dr. Hop- 
kins, on his way to Vermont. He brought me a great package of papers. 

Albany is beginning to be less thronged. The lawyers who came down to 
attend term are, one by one, going off. The young students who came for 
diplomas will squeeze themselves through the examinations to-night, take the 
oath and the diplomas to-morrow, and the town will, in a few days, be left to 
the possession of the members of the Legislature and the lobby. 

There are several classes of members here. I hardly know into which I 
shall fall. There is a school of which John C. Spencer is the most prominent, 
the members of which are continually studying everything. They shut them- 
selves into their rooms, and seek out many inventions, in order to present them- 
selves to the attention of the House, and, through the newspapers, to their con- 
stituents. No bill is read, no motion made, no resolution offered, upon which 
they do not make at least one speech. They are often successful, but rarely 
popular. Another class is of those who hang round the Eegency, and glory in 
the assurance they feel that they are in its confidence, and are destined to 
share in "the spoils." A third class consists of pure, good society gentlemen, 
who dress finely, dine out, make calls, and have a set form of words for making 
pretty motions in the House, always taking care never to go beyond their depth 
in grave matters. These doubtless have their reward, in their self-complacency. 
A fourth class embraces those who, under a sense of their responsibility, chast- 
ened by true dignity and becoming respect for others, affect nothing, are not 
often in the way of the rest, speak seldom, and, when they do, speak wisely. I 
cannot claim to be of them. The last class consists of the multitude, who come 
here to say "ay" and "no," do nothing, read nothing, say nothing, and think 
less. What class do I belong to, do you think ? 

January 14, 1831. 

My letters and papers come addressed " non." and " The Hon'ble," with the 
various changes of " Senator," " In Senate," and " Member of the Senate," etc. 
But this morning came one addressed in small, neat handwriting, bearing on it no 
image, and only the simple superscription of " William H. Seward, Albany," 
which I have read all over twice, and laid it up in my pocket for a " third read- 
ing." Meantime, let me add that, as your letters arrive safely with that super- 
scription, so let them be addressed ; only remember that they be not so " few 
and far between " that the postmaster will forget, between-times, that I am 
here. 

My errand to the Misses E was about the amount I had collected for them 

to pay the rent for which they are in arrear, and which, unless I contrive in some 
way to have paid, they never can pay ; and in consequence they must be turned 
out-of-doors, and stripped of their little furniture, so that their rich landlord's 
patrimony may be kept safe from the moth and the rust which corrupt in this 



168 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

perishable world. I succeeded in getting some aid for them ; but they yet owe 
sixty-five dollars. God knows how it will be paid. Alas for the happiness of 
the poor ! 

January \hth. 

I awoke this morning late. It was snowing, and the wind blowing violently. 
I thought I should lose my ears in climbing to the Capitol. The Lieutenant- 
Governor was so kind as to give me a ride back in his sleigh. I came up into my 
little room. " Another w-eek," thinks I to myself, " has gone. What good have 
I accomplished ? What pleasure have I enjoyed ? " I could remember no good I 
had done but that of writing daily to you. I could remember no pleasure I had 
enjoyed but that derived from recollections of, and reflections upon, home. I 
smoked a cigar ; wished for Gus and Fred to play in the smoke of it. I smoked 
another, and thought of the difference in enjoyment derived from innocent play- 
fulness of one's children, and that of wordy controversy with one's political 
opponents ; and, believe me, I smoked another while I contrasted an open and 
cordial conversation at home with you, with the heartless, selfish, and parasitical 
attentions of the lobby-members. 

Mr. Gilbert, of Onondaga, called, and roused me from this reverie, by discover- 
ing to me, without any intention so to do, that a resolution I had this morning 
introduced into the Senate, about the smuggling of salt at Salina, had thrown the 
"Eegency" camp into confusion. I swallowed my tea, and sallied forth to con- 
gratulate my " Anti " brethren on so happy a result. 

January l%ih. 

I have told you nothing lately about my legislative career. Know, then, that 
when I came here I took my seat every morning feeling as awkw r ard as you can 
well imagine. For the first ten days I sat like a stone in my seat, not daring to 
open my mouth among the " conscript fathers," and having no intercourse with 
them when not in session, except in visits to and from the " Antis." I had it 
especially in charge from the good folks at Syracuse to look into the manner in 
which the salt-affairs had been managed at Salina. (You must know that the 
State owns the salt-springs, and derives a duty upon every bushel of salt manu- 
factured ; that during the year it has been discovered that salt has been carried 
off without paying duties, whereby a loss has been sustained by the State of not 
less, probably, than fifty thousand dollars ; that during all the time of these 
frauds the " Regency " have had control of the springs, and that their officers 
are implicated, and two of them have run away.) I dared not bring this subject 
before the Senate, for, when I said "ay" and "no," I started at the sound of 
my own voice. 

Meantime, on becoming a little acquainted, I learned that all the political 
change in our part of the State was here attributed to me. Of course, they con- 
descended to intimate that I was a good fellow — that is, that I w'ould be of itse 
to them, and very plainly to say that I must now join them, and my political 
fortunes were secure for hereafter; for my meekness in the House led them to 
think well of me, and caused the vain belief that T held myself ready to be pur- 
chased. Do not call me vain, or T never will unfold my secret thoughts to you 
on political subjects again. Well, I had gracious looks, open hands, and ap- 
parently warm hearts, at command. 

Night before last I said to myself: " Henry Seward, you are a fool to be 
afraid of your shadow. Show yourself a man. Bring up the salt business; 



1831.] AARON BURR. IQ§ 

and prove, to those who misconstrue your diffidence into meanness, that the one 
shall not seal your lips, and that the other attribute don't belong to you." So 
I drew my resolution, which you will see in yesterday's paper. I made out a 
brief of what I would say in favor of it, " screwed my courage to tbe stick- 
ing point," consulted Tracy and Maynard. They approved; and I went to the 
House, took my seat, my paper in hand. By the time that I could properly 
offer the resolution, I grew faint-hearted, thought I would postpone it till Mon- 
day — let the opportunity almost pass by — thought once more of it ; and, with a 
motion of uncommon energy, I found myself on my feet. 

" Mr. President," said I, and thick darkness was before me, " I offer tbe 
following resolution." Imagine my consternation, while I heard the President 
announce in usual form " The Senator from the Seventh District offers the fol- 
lowing resolution." It Avas read, while I was endeavoring to recall one word 
of what I had meant to say. To make my embarrassment tenfold greater, I 
discovered the Regency men took alarm. Two or three were on their feet at 
once, and moved that the resolution be laid on the table. I felt relieved, be- 
cause I was released from speaking upon it for one day. I sat down, after con- 
senting to the postponement. In the evening, Regency men came to know 
what I meant; the newspapers reported the offering of the resolution, and I 
was bailed by all the Anti- Regency men as a hero, for my bold determination to 
bring to light the peculations on the Treasury. 

I feel now as if I had surmounted the diffidence which has oppressed me; 
and, unless all is dark before my eyes to-morrow, I shall be able to assign my 
reasons for the measure I propose. I think the Regency men dare not debate 
it ; if they do, I shall endeavor to defend it. 

Now, is all this interesting to you ? For the matters of political nature which 
it involves I presume you will not care, but, as it concerns my feelings, perhaps 
you will think it worth the space it fills in this letter. 

Monday, January Yltli. 
I ought not to forget to inform you about our debate in the Senate ; to-day 
I called for the consideration of my resolution. The Regency men betrayed 
warmth and agitation. Every device was resorted to to defeat it, without en- 
countering danger in public estimation. Something of the debate is in Weed's 
paper this afternoon. "The party" voted us down, by tbe united vote of Re- 
gency against Antimasonry. But I feel much relieved, by having surmounted 
the difficulty of making a debut. I can henceforth speak without fear, if occa- 
sion requires me to say anything. 

A visit to Aaron Burr, in regard to the case in which he was coun- 
sel, occupred about this time : 

He was at the Merchants' Exchange, one of the fourth-rate houses of this 
-"city. I could not but think, as I ascended the dirty narrow staircase, to his 
lodgings, in a small two-bedded room in the upper story, of the contrast between 
his present state and that he enjoyed wdien he contended so long, even-handed, 
with Jefferson for the presidential chair, on the second election after the retire- 
ment of "Washington. He has lost property, fame, character, and honor. Once 
so gay, so fashionable in his dress, so fascinating in his manners, so glorious in 
his eloquence, and so mighty in his influence, how altered did be seem, as he 



170 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

met me, drawing a coarse woolen surtout over his other clothes, his coarse 
cotton shirt and cravat struggling, hy the form of modern fashions, to display 
the proud spirit of the wearer ! His few gray hairs, just filled with powder, put 
on as thickly as paste, wet down and smoothed over his head ; his form shriv- 
eled into the dimensions almost of a dwarf ; his voice forgetful of its former mel- 
ody, while naught remained to express the daring spirit of his youth hut his 
keen, hrilliant, dark eye. He approached me with the air and demeanor of a 
gentleman of the old school, and, as I shook his shriveled and trembling handy/' 
I felt a thousand recollections come to my mind of most unpleasant nature. ~ia 
this the same being who shared for years the confidence and did the bidding of 
General Washington ? Do I recognize in this lingering relic of an age gone by 
the man who was the ornament and delight of every fashionable circle? Is 
this squeaking, unsteady voice that instrument which wiled away the hearts of 
men ? Is this tottering frame the same that commanded at his pleasure the 
stormy waves of a new anil enthusiastic people ? Do these wretched habili- 
ments cover hini who was the second in honor and office in this nation, and 
whose sure ascent to the highest place was prevented only by his rash and dis- 
honest ambition ? Is this the same fascinating being who entered with the 
recklessness of a fallen angel into the peaceful and classic abode, and stole the 
confidence only to ruin and destroy the happiness of Blennerhassett ? Is this 
the same proud spirit which, determined to rule, raised the standard of treason, 
and attempted alone and almost single-handed the conquest of Mexico and the 
establishment of empire ? Do I actually grasp the hand which directed only 
too successfully the fatal ball which laid low Alexander Hamilton ? Miserable 
comment upon unchastened ambition ! Unhappy man, to drag out a dishonored 
existence among a generation which knows thee only by the history of thy 
crimes; and judges thee without allowing the merit of purpose or the extenu- 
ation of passion ! 

Wednesday Night, January 19<A. 

You probably expect that I will give you an interestipg dialogue as between 
Aaron Burr and myself. It would be so if I could convey its spirit and had 
room to communicate information enough about the object of our meeting to 
make the conversation intelligible. But pass we it by as one of those things 
which must be communicated when we meet face to face. 

Another person of historic note I yesterday met at our dinner-table, the 
famous E. 0. Genet, quondam French minister in the time of the Revolution; 
who was sent here by one of the temporary governments of France, and preached 
republicanism and sympathy with the French, until it nearly convulsed the 
Government of this country; was superseded in his office, on the elevation of a 
new and more Jacobinical dynasty in Ids native country ; was denounced, and 
dared not return to France; married the daughter of George Clinton, and has 
ever since lived a poor but very republican citizen of this country. 

January 20th. 
After writing you last night I finished reading the " Water- "Witch." It is a 
strange, improbable, absurd, and unnatural story, without the merit of one good 
character; but yet one of the most bewitching books I ever read. The sea- 
scenes and incidents are not less beautiful than any which are described in the 
"Pilot," or "Red Rover." I will not again, this winter, be so much interested 
in a novel. 



1831.] FRANCIS GRANGER. \ft 

I went last evening to the Capitol, to witness the proceedings of the State 
Temperance Society. Heard two fine speeches, and became a convert to the 
principles of the institution ; but I shall not become a member ; I leave that 
work of reformation in the hands of those who have not taken hold of the Ma- 
sonic evil. It is enough for me to practise temperance, which I intend to do, 
and have done. 

I have a cause of importance to argue in the Court of Chancery, at the term 
which will commence next "Wednesday. I have delayed, ever since last summer, 
to make up my brief. I determined that I would do it this day. Now mark 
the glorious opportunity for study afforded by the incidents of one day. Eose 
at seven o'clock ; read the newspapers, and was shaved ; ready for breakfast at 
eight o'clock ; smoked a cigar ; set to work at half -past eight ; wrote letters on 
business till nine; sat down at my brief; went to the House three-quarters 
past nine ; Senate organized at ten ; I took French leave at eleven ; worked at 

my brief till half-past twelve. Enter Mr. P , who had tracked me from the 

House — wants a new county. Some gentlemen from Cruttenden's, on the hill, 
were here to dine with us ; left the table at four ; went to the Eegister's office, 
called at the Tracys', and returned at five ; enter a bookseller's agent, refused to 
sign for his book, got rid of him at six ; went down to tea ; found Sacket ; 
brought him to my room ; talked half an hour ; enter Thurlow Weed ; enter 
Mr. Lynde, of the Senate, and Judge Dixon ; exit Mr. Weed ; enter Mr. James 
Porter, Eegister ; exit Mr. Porter ; exit Messrs. Lynde and Dixon ; enter Mr. 
Fuller, of the Senate, and Fillmore, of the Assembly ; exit Sacket ; enter Messrs. 
Andrews and Julian of the Assembly; enter Mr. Van Buren of the Assembly; 
exeunt Fuller and Fillmore; exit Van Buren; exeunt omnes at ten o'clock. 
Down sit I at my brief ; clock strikes eleven ; write a letter, and throw niyself 
into bed at twelve o'clock. This is life legislative! 

Francis, Granger, who had been the candidate of the Antimasonic 
party for Governor, was one of its acknowledged leaders. Seward's 
first impressions of his appearance and character were given in this 
letter : 

January 23, 1831. 

Mr. Lynde, a clever man, Senator from the Sixth District, called upon me, 
and I went with him to call on " Governor Granger." I believe I have never 
told you all I thought about this star of the first magnitude in Antiraasonry, and 
the reason was that, with a limited personal acquaintance, I might give you 
erroneous impressions which I should afterward be unable to reverse. He is 
"six feet and well-proportioned," as you well know, handsome, graceful, dig- 
nified, and affable, as almost any hero of whom you have read ; is probably 
about thirty-six or seven years old. In point of talent he has a quick and 
ready apprehension, a good memory, and usually a sound judgment. Has no 
" genius," in its restricted sense, not a very brilliant imagination, nor extraor- 
dinary reasoning faculties ; has no deep store of learning, nor a very extensive 
degree of information. Yet he is intimately acquainted with politics, and with 
the affairs, interests, and men of the State. He is never great, but always 
successful. He writes with ease, and speaks with fluency and elegance — never 
attempts an argument beyond his capacity, and, being a good judge of men's 
character, motives, and actions, he never fails to command admiration, re- 



172 LIFE AXD LETTERS. [1831. 

-" m. X * a man do I know -who is his equal, in the skill of 

exhibiting eve:- f his stores with great advantage. You will inquire 

about his manners. His Lair is ever gracefully curled, his broad and ex- 

row is always exposed, his person is ever carefully dressed, to exhibit 

ind form aright and with success. He is a gallant and fashionable 

- ms often to n^_ ters for small ones, and I have 

Lim a trailer; yet he is universally, by the common people, 

great. He is ai - .: in his feelings, though the people 

who know him think him all condescension. He is a prince among those who 

I • inferiors, and knows no superiors. In principle he has 

— more than enough to atone for all his faults — is honest, 

honorable, and just, first and beyond comparison with other politicians of the 

Yes. Although he ha- 
than those wh .ow him believe him to p ss - Las much more than 

: him frequently, but not intimately, will allow him to have. He 
and nevt. c ; but you must not understand me 

that be p. confiding and true a heart as Berdan had, or as you think I 

- we both know Weed 

:-t one quality of Gr : r which you do not dream of — 

he loves money aln. - - And now you have the best descrip- 

tion in my give of both the distinguished men, who, if Antimasonry 

mes predominant, will be long the objects ountry's confidence, and 

in some sort the conductors of her Which do you like best.' I know 

you - ou knew then. a would yield your 

whole confidence, as between I I to Trac; 

But one thin_- : you would, as I do, like Weed more than either. 

1 j not care to have so much of my letters devoted to 

..use I alw 3 prei tters hould be tr 

O] inions and fee' 

n Collier and his daughter. He is one of our cleverest 
a recent'.; ted to Congress. Xot finding him, I left my 

".. and then called on Fuller and Fill:.. :.:il half-past eleven 

and came home. 

.inner to-day met Henry Webb. We have taken a great biking to each 

his bachelor comforts, and went with him to Dr. 

heard a good sermon to a congregation among whom there 

ind, and here I 
ing you all the things I ha 1 seen II f.rd. 

. came in. and, anxious to know how far I was 
correct in my • I could n :m that part of 

He made me read it twice, made his comments upon it, and 
told me to make the following alteration : 

: the manner which sometimes makes him ap- 
pear lucation at Washington. But he is a democrat in all 

the two characters. I anticipa: 
be disappointed in both. N ry few men have fewer faults 

D tth .r of them — I mean, of course, political great men. 



1831.] IN THE CHAIR. I73 

January i" 

This morning I spent an hour and a half in the State Library, studying out 
my brief, so as to be ready for my argument in the Court of Chancery. Then 
went into the Senate, and having heard, with no little interest, the warm prayer 
of the chaplain for the health and happiness of the members, their wives and 
their little ones, sat down to the ordinary business of saying "ay'' and 1 
In the midst of it, the President was graciously pleased to call me to the chair, 
on going into Committee of the Whole. 

I manfully marched to the chair ; and, having been an attentive student, in 
order to learn the ritual on such occasions, I got, with some little ernbar 
ment, a seat in the red-cushioned chair, giving it a hitching motion to bring it 
up to the table. 

Imagine me seated under the full-length likeness of George Clinton, with a 
canopy over my head, representing the hollow globe, and the eagle resting his 
weary wing upon its summit, and hear me pronounce to the "grave and rever- 
end signiors :'* ;1 The Senate is in Committee of the "Whole, on the bill entitled 
An act for the relief of somebody or other" (then I gave my chair an- A 
hitch). " Shall the bill be n 

'•Ay," was the reply, and off went I reading through the bill and the peti- 
tion (then having hitched my chair too far, I rolled it majestically, with its in- 
cumbent weight, backward) : 

" Gentlemen, the question is upon the first and only section of the bill, those 
of you who are in favor of the same will please to say ay; those who are op- 
posed will please to say no. It is carried. The question will now be upon the 
title of the bill " (which I began as I supposed to read, but found I was readme 
the first section over again. I hitched my chair up again to the table, and re- 
eled myself back to the title of the bill, which the Committee of the Whole 
was graciously pleased to be satisfied with). 

" Gentlemen, the question will be now upon the whole bill, and rising and 
reporting.*' Again the committee was satisfied. 

I rose, and the President took the chair. I bowed and thus spoke : 

'• Mr. President, the Senate in Committee of the Whole have had under con- 
ation the bill entitled, etc.. etc.. have passed the same without amendment, 
and have directed me to report accordingly." 

Then the President lifted up his voice, and said to the Senate : K Gentlemen, 
Mr. Seward, from the Committee of the Whole, reports that the committee have 
had under consideration the bill entitled, etc., etc., and reports their agreement 
to the same, without amendment." Thus ended the trial of my courage. And 
such is the journal of a day, of a man who receives, for his services thereir.. 
sum of three hundred cents. 

■ ' 

The bright moon is pouring her silver rays upon me. just as she is pouring 
out of the abundance of the same treasure upon yon, though distant from me so 
many long miles. My window opens to the east, and I have stood half frozen 
at the casement, looking at the sober moon, and thinking how many a happy 
evening we have watched it through the window in the room where you now 
are. Nay, I even fancy that the boys, fatigued with the arduous duties of the 
day, have gone to sleep to dream of the pomp and circumstance of the parade 
ground, and that you are writing the lines which shall cros- these on the road. 



174 LIF E AND LETTERS. [1831. 

I have, just at half-past ten this Thursday night, dismissed the last of my 
visitors, who was the Attorney-General. As he bowed in, the Adjutant-General 
bowed out. It seems to be the fashion for the Eegency to visit, once during the 
session, all the members of the Legislature. Three have been here now, and I 
believe the body corporate and sovereign consists of but six or seven. All 
these calls must be returned, but when shall I be able to do it ? I almost need 
a private secretary to conduct my increasing correspondence. I give myself but 
six hours of sleep, and yet, like the housewife's cares, my troubles are never- 
ending. 

I am becoming immersed in a swamp of letters, for laws, for canals, banks, 
insurance companies, and for appointments. I found twelve lying on my table 
to-night. Your little letter was worth the whole dozen. 



CHAPTER II. 

1831. 

Albany Society. — Dinners. — Parties and Visits. — Governor Throop. — Samuel Miles Hop- 
kins. — Nathaniel P. Tallmadge. — Levi Beardsley. — Millard Fillmore. — Philo C. Fuller. 
— Lobbying. — Election of Marcy to the United States Senate. — Speech on Militia Re- 
form. — Troy and Schenectady. — Mad Dogs. — Reading Novels. 

Albany was noted at that time, as it has been ever since, for its 
hospitality and pleasant society. Early hours, however, were then 
fashionable, and French dinners were unknown. 

Friday, January 28th. 

I went to Mr. Hopkins's to dinner at three o'clock. The company included 
Mr. Fuller and myself, of the Senate ; and Messrs. Lacey, Fillmore, Manchester, 
Percival, Knight, White, and Ashley, of the Assembly. Mr. Hopkins, of whom 
you have heard me speak, is a most intelligent, philanthropic man, Mrs. Hopkins 
an intellectual woman. Miss Julia, the eldest unmarried daughter, is about 
twenty-two, sensible and easy in her manners. Miss Hester is like her sister, 
except that she has more beauty. Young Mr. Hopkins is a clever, well-informed 
young engineer. I must add, also, that they are all very unostentatious, though 
Mr. Hopkins is an LL. D. 

Mr. Fuller, of the Senate, taught school at Florida when I was at school at 
Goshen, in 1809, and while there he lived at my father's. He is tall, well-pro- 
portioned, and dignified in person, and is about forty-five years old. 

Fillmore was, ten or twelve years ago, a wool-carder in Summer Hill. He 
is popular and honest, and has more influence in the Assembly than any Anti- 
masonic member. He is now a lawyer of good reputation and talents. 

But I forget that I have left the company seated at the table without any- 
thing before them, while I am writing this account of their characters. N 

Mrs. Hopkins, at the head, has a boiled turkey. Miss Julia has charge of a 
boiled ham. Miss Hester presides over a dish of fried oysters, while Mr. 'Will- 
iam Hopkins disposes of a pair of roast ducks. His father has a tremendous 



i83i.] who is he? L75 

piece of roast venison. A flowing tureen of mock-turtle soup is first ladled 
out, ami then come the other luxuries. Presently there appear upon the t. 
Lotties of porter and of cider, supplying the place of brandy. The mi 
removed to make way for plum-pudding, apple, mince, and custard pies. Then 
come trifles, whip-cream, jellies, and custards. These are followed bj DUts 
and raisins. Then common Madeira wine gives place to "Farquhar." 
ladies drink one glass and are off, and the gentlemen leave the board at six 
o'clock. 

January 29th. 

1 took a walk with Mr. Tracy to return Judge Conkling's call, lie lives in 
Lydius Street, about a mile from the compact part of the town. 

It was by this time halt-past four. I sallied forth to find Mi-. Mancius's house 
in Montgomery Street. When I saw him before, he met me just as 1 was going 
out. Both were muffled in cloaks, and I knew I should not recognize him. I 
rang the bell; a servant appeared. 1 asked, and was answered thai Mr. Man- 
cius was at home. The girl went to the door at the farther end of the hall, 
and, as she opened it, disclosed a table, two gentlemen seated there, with bot- 
tles and glasses. 

"A gentleman wants to see me; where is he, in the hall, did you say?" 
and forth comes a man with a kind of bewildered air and manner, which showed 
that I was no more known to him than a visitor would have been from Kam- 
tchatka. 

Presuming this to be my host, I extended my hand, and received his, which 
was reluctantly held out to me. " My name is Seward, sir," said I. 

"Seward — Seward; yes, sir, Seward, did you say? Walk in, Mr. Seward." 

Then he glanced at me again, and opened a door which displayed a b< 
young ladies ; and I thought 1 was going to he ushered into the midst of them, 
when my host bestowed a bewildered look on my person as I divested m; 
of my cloak and hat, and then hastily, as if something were wrong, pulled-to 
the door of the parlor, and led me into the dining-room. 

" Major Schuyler, Mr. Seward. I think you said your name was Seward ? 
Take a chair, Mr. Seward ; " and so I was seated. I was perfectly satisfied that 
my name was Seward and as to who I was, but my host had no distinct idea 
on either of those points; and I on my part was bewildered to know if he was 
Mr. Maneius or his brother. A third glass was filled for me. I SOOH discovered 
that Major Schuyler was indignant at my intrusion, so. in order to disarm him, 1 
observed. : 

" We have a prospect of more comfortable weather, sir." 

" Perhaps so," said he, gruffly. 

Mine host asked me to drink, hut with an air which seemed to say, " I won- 
der what the devil sent you here? " 

Determined to know whether this was actually the man I came to 
said, " I perceive you do not recognize me, Mr. Maneius; my name is Seward ; 
1 saw you at the Eagle Tavern." 

"Seward — Eagle Tavern; yes, sir, please to take another glass." And -till 
it was evident he bad no recollection even of my name. 

"You know, sir, that you spoke to me about a suit I was i<> defend, and I 
was to call upon you for some papers to send to Judge Miller." 

"Oh, yes! now I know; now I recollect you. You are Judge Miller's son-iu- 



176 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

law. • Oh, yes, yes ! do take another glass of wine. I beg your pardon for not 
remembering you, especially as I invited you to call. How are you getting on 
in tbe Legislature, Mr. Seward ? " 

" Why, very well, sir ; we are disposing of the business as well as is usual. 1 ' 
Then Major Schuyler relaxed his knitted brows, and said — 

" Are you in the Legislature, sir? " 

" Yes, sir," said I, very meekly. 

" "Well, sir, I have a petition before your honorable body, and shall be 
obliged to you if, on examining it, you give it such support as you consistently 
can." 

" Oh, oh ! " thought I, " the weather is becoming more comfortable, after all." 
He went on to state the object of the petition. I assured him I should be happy 
to give it a favorable consideration, and added that I had not before heard of it. 

" Yes, sir," said he, " you must have heard of it ; it has been reported in the 
Assembly." 

" Ah ! " said I, " that is the reason I have not seen it." 

" Why, sir, that is the reason you must have seen it," said he ; " you are in 
the Assembly, I presume, sir ? " 

" No, sir," said I, " I am in the other House." 

" Now, sir," said he, " I beg to ask you, in God's name, how old you call 
yourself ? " 

" Twenty-nine years," said I, very meekly. 

" Well, I swear I never would vote for you for a Senator from your looks." 

" Ah ! " said Mr. Mancius, " that explains why I did not know Mr. Seward ; 
he was so youug ! I thought it was some young gentleman who had called to 
see my daughters." 

I need not protract this little story longer than to add that we after this 
got to be on excellent terms ; and I departed, questioning with myself whether 
I had not better get a wig. 

Monday, January 3l6<. 

To-day the Governor commences his usual dinner-parties. You must know 
the thing is done after thiswise: The Governor takes the alphabetical list of 
the members of both nouses, and dines a portion every third day until all have 
had the honor. Andrews, being first on the roll, has just gone to pay his hom- 
age. 

We have had a dull day in the Legislature. Mr. Benton, Mr. Sherman, Mr. 
Throop, and Mr. Foster, have made speeches drier than brick-dust upon a ques- 
tion drier than baked sand. 

It would amuse you to see the letters I receive from all classes of office- 
wanters. Among others last night was one from a man I never saw, but who 
says he is sure that, from my acquaintance with the Governor, I can get him 
the office of auctioneer for the city of New York. Alas ! poor fellow, he lit- 
tle knows that, if he wants an office, the surest way to be defeated is to enlist 
me in his support! 

Another writes that, in consequence of my having collected a note for him, 
he solicits my aid to procure for his brother the office of Quartermaster-General. 
A Regency man wants me to vote for t he Penn Yan Bank because George 
Throop is opposed to it. Another lobby-man wants me to vote for a new bank 
in Geneva because he thinks we ou<iht to have a railroad from Auburn to the 



1831.] ALBANY SOCIETY. 177 

canal. One wants me to vote for a bank at Waterloo, because it will promote 
Antimasonry ; while another is urging my neighbor, Hubbard, to vote for the 
same bank because it will help to kill off Antimasonry. These artful lobby- 
members deem the members of the Legislature to be ignorant and stupid, and 
have no idea how easily their tricks are discovered, nor how much they operate 
to defeat the very purposes for which they are practised. They even go so far 
sometimes as to electioneer our landlords to obtain the exercise of their influence. 
Is it not passing strange that, for four years, I have not had so much time 
which I might devote daily to domestic enjoyments as I now occupy in writing 
a page for your perusal ? And the time which I have had has been almost 
always snatched, with a feverish excitement, from perplexities and cares, which 
discolored most of the hours that might otherwise have been so happy. Well ! 
after all, perhaps I ought to have learned that it is the lot of no man to have 
more happiness. 

Of the various evening parties mentioned, it will, perhaps, be suffi- 
cient to reproduce here the description of one, illustrating their gen- 
eral character. Nearly all who then frequented the drawing-rooms of 
the capital have now passed away. 

February 1st. 

I have just come from Mrs. Tan Vechten's party. I presented myself at the 
door at precisely a quarter before nine. The fashionable time is from eight till 
nine. I was shown into the library, where I divested myself of cloak, etc. 
Meeting there Mr. Bleecker, I went, arm-in-arm with him, jostling through the 
crowd, to shake hands with Ten Broeck Van Vechten, twelve years ago my 
classmate, and now one of the sober and staid housekeepers of this ancient city. 
Although it was contrary to college laws to marry, Ten Broeck fell in love with 
a Miss Roorback, a pretty little girl, ran away with and married her, and then 
asked and obtained his father's consent to the union. Once only I remember to 
have seen the bewitching beauty at Mrs. Schuyler's — to-night I saw her leaning 
on her husband's arm, a matron of about thirty years. 

The apartments were two rooms, less spacious, though more elegant, than 
our own ; the style of the damask curtains in the best of taste. Into these 
rooms were crowded about seventy ladies and gentlemen, and they justified Al- 
bany's reputation of having a large proportion of handsome people. 

Two fiddlers were playing for a cotillon in the front-room. I knew several 
of the gentlemen, and a few of the ladies, and so contrived to be at ease. 

At nine o'clock the Lieutenant-Governor's daughters arrived ; and it was evi- 
dent they were regarded as belles. In a few minutes came Governor and Mrs. 
Throop and E. T. Thro op Martin. 

Waiters carried about lemonade, and sangaree, and cake. Madeira wine was 
in the gentlemen's dressing-room. Except that the ladies' short sleeves were in 
the extreme of the fashion, the assembly was the counterpart of a similar one at 
Auburn. Dancing continued till ten, when there was a general rush of girls 
and boys up-stairs. I followed, and was able to see that the successful ones 
were doing honors to an entertainment of some kind. After the ladies had 
retired from the supper-room, the gentlemen gathered round the table, which 
bore a beautiful set of china, with pickled oysters, ice-creams, etc., with Madei- 
ra, champagne, Burgundv, and Hock. I discovered that it was. considered 
12 



178 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

fashionable to retire at any time after supper, so being fatigued I came off with 
the Speaker of the Assembly at an early hour. 

The seat in the United States Senate that had been occupied by 
Chancellor Sanford was now to be filled by a new election : 

February Id. 

We held a caucus, the other night, for the purpose of nominating a candidate 
to be supported by the Antimasonic members ; which exhibited the peculiarities 
of all our great men. 

Spencer, always forward and assuming, had promised John Woodworth the 
nomination. Maynard, ever cautious and scheming, had a great anxiety for Al- 
bert Gallatin's nomination. Tracy was opposed to Spencer's course, for many 
reasons ; probably the principal one was, that he did not care to let him take 
upon himself too much of the management of the party. Hopkins, who with a 
great deal of talent and learning has the unaffected simplicity and ingenuousness 
of a child, went to the meeting, by request of Maynard, to speak in favor of 
Gallatin. From a sense of what course was best for the party, I was opposed 
to all the above-mentioned candidates ; and of course fell in with Tracy, to sup- 
port some third man, and we agreed upon James Wadsworth. 

Maynard made his speech in favor of Gallatin. Spencer made his in favor 
of Woodworth. Hopkins spoke in favor of Gallatin. 

Some one nominated Tracy, and some other one nominated Hopkins. I per- 
severed in my course. 

Hopkins, convinced by my argument against his own, voted for Wadswortb ; 
and, after having successfully carried my point, I had the mortification to sec 
Tracy and Hopkins defeat their preference and my own for Wadsworth, by con- 
senting themselves t<-» be candidates. The consequence was, we all had to give 
up, and then take Mr. Works's name, upon which all agreed. 

I laughed heartily at Tracy the next time I saw him. 

Wednesday, Filruary 2d. 

Yesterday was the day for the appointment of United States Senator. 

The roll being called, and Judge Marry, the Regency candidate, having a 
majority over Works, the Antimasonic candidate, a resolution was passed de- 
claring William L. Marcy to be duly nominated on the part of the Senate. 

The Senate sent a message to the Assembly that they would meet the Assem- 
bly, to compare nominations. An answer was returned. Thereupon the Presi- 
dent of the Senate left bis seat, and preceded by the Sergeant-at-Arms, with a 
drawn sword, and followed by the Clerk, led the way, the Senators marching 
in procession to the Assembly Chamber, where seats were provided on the 
right. 

It was quite an imposing exhibition. The object of the joint meeting was 
this : if the nominations did not agree, then Ave were to go into joint ballot. 

Judge Marcy, when thus chosen, was about forty-five years of age, 
and was the rising man of his party in the State. 

As Comptroller, and subsequently by the impartial discharge of his 
judicial functions in the Morgan trial at Lockport, he had won public 



1831.] SCHENECTADY AND TROY. 179 

esteem. He was now sent to Washington, and his seat on the bench 
was filled by the appointment of Judge Samuel Nelson. 

There were two towns that never lost their attraction for Seward — 
Schenectady, the scene of his college-days, and Troy, where Mrs. Sew- 
ard, not many years before, was a school-girl. Visits to both places 
were described in his letters : 

February 6, 1831. 

My visit at Schenectady was delightful. I saw Dr. Nott, who was pleased 
by my coming. He expressed gratification in counting the number of "his 
boys " who are in the Legislature. It was with difficulty he would suffer me to 
leave him. Arriving at night and leaving early in the morning, I could not go 
to see Berdan's monument, but in the evening I made some calls, talked with 
the old Dutch lady, who was habited in short gown and petticoat, and with the 
pretty black-eyed Susan with whom I used to board. But there is change at 
Schenectady, as elsewhere. Young ladies took me by the hand and claimed my 
recollection, whom my memory could only recall as little girls when I lived 
there twelve years ago. 

I spent an hour with Mrs. Boardman at Troy, yesterday ; pleased and de- 
lighted with her reminiscences of your and Lisette's sojourn there. She had 
garnered up Lisette's smart speeches ; and I sat a laughing auditor as she brought 
them, one after another, bright and pointed, from the stores of her capacious 
and faithful memory. 

Mrs. Warren appears to be living with elegance and taste in Troy. Her 
sister is now the reigning beauty in that city; so appropriately cognominated 
after the city whose fate it was to be demolished after a ten year.-' siege, to re- 
cover a beautiful woman. 

I do not see that Troy has at all changed. The beaux who figured there in 
your day have become chastened by years and cares; but their places are filled 
by a new generation, educated under the influence of their example, and copy- 
ing, with admirable precision, their manners. 

While I was at Mrs. Boardinan's, an old, very old lady, of whom I have no 
more recollection than I have of Mother Eve, came along, with trembling steps, 
to whom Mrs. Boardman introduced me. 

" Mr. Seward, Mrs. Jenkins. You don't remember him, I suppose." 

" Oh ! yes, I remember his looks and his voice, though I did not remember 
his name. He married one of the Miller girls." 

" Yes, madam," said I, with as much pride as old Demaree when asked to 
make a sangaree, " I am that man—" For I thought that I have seen ten thousand 
girls since; but, if I had to make a choice now, I would choose one of the Miller 
girls for my wife, and the other one for a sister. 

How powerful is the sympathy, or the self-complacency, which opens our 
hearts to those who make us the objects of their regard ! 

In many instances it is impossible to determine to what cause to set down our 
friendship. But, with Thurlow Weed, I have no hesitation about it. It is not 
a little surprising that though he is one of the greatest politicians of the age, 
and is, in fact, the magician whose wand controls and directs the operations of 
the Antimasonic party, I never, or very seldom, have ten minutes' conversation 
on politics with him. He sits down, stretches one of his long legs out to rest 



180 LIFE AXD LETTERS. [1831. 

on my coal-box, I cross my own, and, puffing the smoke of our cigars into each 
other's faces, we talk of everything, and everybody, except politics. 

This is a sorry world that will load down the rising of generous, kind affec- 
tion ; that will eradicate, one by one, the feelings which only make it desirable. 
I am happy when I am relieved temporarily from its cares. I derive more pleasure 
and more joy from the love you bear me, from the frank, confiding friendship 
of Thurlow Weed, and even from the irregular burst of Tracy's esteem, than 
from the proudest station, or from the longest, loudest shout of popular applause. 

I have just called on Mrs. Cary, wife of a brother Senator, and it gives me 
great pleasure to speak of her — she is so amiable and unaffected. 

Tuesday, February 8th. 
This morning, as you will see by the paper, I proposed sundry amendments 
to the militia law. A long discussion took place. It ended in a victory for my 
friends, and for a necessary and proper amendment of the law. But I am com- 
mitted to defend, as well as I may be able, the propositions I have offered ; and 
of course shall have to study. I am in hope to find time between sunset and 
midnight. But one is sure of nothing here. 

On Thursday morning he rose in his place in the Senate-chamber, 
to make his first labored speech (with what degree of self-distrust his 
autobiography describes). Carefully prepared, it was courteously and 
attentively listened to by his fellow-Senators. It was a plea for such 
reforms as should make the militia a theme of popular pride, instead of 
an object of popular derision, and closed with predictions which time 
has verified : 

" I have always felt that the militia system is a relic of the age of the Revo- 
lution, too valuable to lie idly thrown away; that it is a strong and beautiful 
pillar of the Government, \\ hich ought not to be rudely torn from its base. But 
if no effectual remedy can be found in legislative wisdom, ... I shall trust to 
the exigencies of invasion, insurrection, or oppression, for a regeneration of the 
military spirit which brought* the nation into existence, and will, if restored in 
its primitive purity and vigor, be able to carry us through the dark and perilous 
ways of national calamity, yet unknown to us, but which must at some time be 
trodden by all nations." 

Friday, February llth. 

Lust night, after writing to you, I was employed in writing down the sub- 
stance of my militia speech, as you will see it reported in the Journal. 

In lieu of the letter I was expecting from you came one from , the 

burden of which was to prove that Antimasonry was all a humbug — and there 
was the comforting addition that I knew it to be so. I was provoked, and 
under the combined influence of disappointment at not receiving a letter from 
you, anil of receiving such a one from him, I have written and sent him what 
will effectually silence his suspicions of my political integrity, if it do not cut at 
once the chain of personal friendship. 1 have no patience with anybody who 
knows me as he does, and yel can mistake me for a hypocrite. 

The good people of Auburn, who express so much surprise at my determina- 
tion not to visit home during the session, have a right to my reasons. I am un- 



1831.] READING NOVELS. jg^ 

willing to follow the fashion of affected fondness for home at the expense of 
public duties. I hold a responsible post in the Government. I will not be 
absent a day when duty calls me here, and no one knows at what time my vote 
on any important measure may be wanted. 

Then in half-serious, half-playful strain of comment on Auburn 
news, he added : 

I would not be very much alarmed about the hydrophobia. People delight 
in excitements, and in no excitement so much as that of terror, and in no terror 
so much as the mad-dog excitement; and, although I know the captain's 
good sense and excellent feelings, I have seen so many alarms of like nature that 
I have come to believe almost as little in mad dogs as I do in witchcraft. 

I have not seen one number of the Patriot or Messenger since I left home, 
and so you will see I have had the enviable felicity of living more than three 
months without seeing myself calumniated in a newspaper. Indeed, what with 
Weed's and Gary's regard for me, and the favorable impression I have made 
on some others, I am getting quite into the belief of my own honesty and up- 
rightness. 

The influence of novels upon the imagination was, at that day, 
quite as much as now, a subject of dispute. Giving* his opinion upon 
it, at the age when he was still a reader of romances, he said : 

February 15th. 

It is true that notions of human nature, derived from works of fiction, are a 
misfortune ; but it is not equally true that the matter-of-fact people, with whom 
the world abounds, are so much happier without them. I am inclined to think 
they have the worst of it. Unless one is so stupid as to be insensible, he will 
have emotion of some sort, and I apprehend you will find that those who derive 
none from works of fiction, and none from views of men and women through 
the medium of romance, have the distressing excitement of passion of some kind. 
And if there be no "bursting of bubbles" to make them weep, there is often 
the violence of anger, the pain of suppressed revenge, the malignity of envy, 
and the miserable craving of avarice. Among all your acquaintance those whom 
you would be least inclined to envy for their happiness would be those who have 
never been interested, charmed, or pleased, with works of fiction. 

Tracy has read to me some beautiful letters from Mrs. Sigourney, of Hart- 
ford, the author of the admirable "Letter from the Ladies of America to the 
Ladies of Greece," and of so many fine poems, etc., in the annuals. These let- 
ters were to his father and mother on the death of his sister, who was Mrs. 
Sigourney's intimate friend. 

February \Uh. 

In the Senate the whole number of members is but thirty-two. The num- 
ber present seldom exceeds twenty-eight, and is now but twenty-two. 

These become intimately acquainted, and, in most instances, personally friend- 
ly to each other. Business is talked over at our lodgings or wherever we hap- 
pen to meet. "We seldom have more than a dozen persons for an audience, and 
so no man presumes to make a set speech ; but most of the discussion is carried 



182 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

on in a colloquial and easy tone. In this I have obtained sufficient assurance, 
and have enough general information, to take a part. 

On the other page I have given you a rough draft of the Senate-chamber, 
that you may understand localities. 

If you look on the plan I sent you, you will find occupying seat No. 3, Mr. 
Benton, of Little Falls; a man of five feet ten, well-proportioned, almost bald, 
near-sighted, rather self-asserting. He speaks on every question, and is said to 
be the leader of the Regency party of the Senate. Pie is about forty years old. 
The member in No. 4 is Mr. Tallmadge, aged about thirty -five or thirty-six ; 
short but corpulent, and of dark complexion ; has a brilliant imagination, a 
happy elocution, and a fine though rather florid style ; speaks seldom, and 
never without preparation ; always commands respect ; is always clear and me- 
thodical. He is of a friendly and kindly disposition, polite, and respectful, and 
entitles himself to the good opinions of everybody. I imagine him to be a 
man who has no enemies, and few but warm friends. lie is a Regency man, 
and Will always be an important man ; has considerable ambition, but not as- 
sumption, and leaves minor matters to the care of others. 

Mr. Beardsley, a member from Otsego County, is about thirty-eight years 
old, with light complexion and light sandy hair. Unprepossessing but unpre- 
tending, he is an amiable man, a sound lawyer ; diffident, and not particularly 
prominent in debate. I esteem him a candid, honorable, and highly-respectable 
man. He belongs to the Regency party. 

Philo C. Fuller occupies the next seat ; a fine-looking man, six feet high, 
aged forty-two or three ; sensible and discreet ; a plain man, who always speaks 
good sense and speaks often, but never at any length, and is rather ambitious to 
obtain office and promotion. After teaching school at Florida, lie went west- 
ward ; became, and yet remains, a clerk to General Wadsworth, of Geneseo. 

The Antimasonic Stale Convention meets to-morrow. It has brought along 
many of my old friends. Bacon has been with me all day. "Woods, of Geneva, 
is also here. Fred Whittlesey occupies a chief seat in the tabernacle ; besides. 
there are politicians of all kinds, of whom I know nothing, except their zeal 
and apparent sincerity in the cause. My room is a thoroughfare, and I Lave 
less time for study than is at all compatible with my duty to my constituents or 
myself. 

February 24th. 

Maynard concluded to-day his speech on the Chenango Canal question, one 
of the nmst masterly efforts I have ever heard. It was a demonstration of the 
power which may be arrived at by means of persevering, patient study. Be has 
for this kind of subject, the finances, resources, and policy of the State, no equal 

ill the Senate. 

It makes me homesick to seethe sleighs bearing off lobby-members, whose 
business is done or undone, and members of the Legislature, who obtain leave 
of absence for three days and spend three weeks; and it is no contemptible 
effort of one's resolution to remain here upon one's post, when one feels that 
among so many counselors the responsibility resting upon a single individual 
is extremely small. 



1831.] VISIT TO THE SHAKERS. 1§3 

CHAPTER III. 
1831. 

Visit to the Shakers. — Presidential Candidates. — Calhoun. — Chief-Justice Spencer. — Rural 
Lite. — A Parent's Responsibilities. — Banks. — Edward Elliee. — Trip to Orange County. 

A few miles from Albany is the Shaker settlement of Niskayuna. 
The neat, frugal habits of its people, their quaint dress and language, 
their enforced separation of the sexes, and their peculiar religious ob- 
servances, attracted many visitors to the little community. Seward, 
in one of his letters, described his first impressions of them. With 
some of the leading members, a few years later, his acquaintance 
ripened into friendship. 

Sunday, February 27th. 

This morning Mr. and Mrs. Tracy, Mr. Andrews, and I, drove in the glorious 
sunshine to Niskayuna, to attend the worship of that singular but harmless 
people — the Shakers. The house is perhaps fifty feet long by thirty-five wide, 
the walls neatly whitewashed, the floor clean as any dairy. There is no gallery, 
no pulpit; there are no pews, no desk. The audience, if I may so call it, com- 
posed of curious visitors like ourselves, had plain benches, occupying half the 
room. The worshipers occupied the other half. There were about forty of 
each sex. 

The dress of the Shakers is simple, neat, and uniform ; that of the females 
consisting of dark, reddish-brown homespun, made exceedingly plain, with nar- 
row skirts and close sleeves, and presenting a singular contrast to the gay array 
of " the world's people," as they call us. No part of the person is exposed 
save the hands and face. The neck is covered even to the chin — a plain white 
linen or silk handkerchief is pinned over the shoulders and bosom ; a cap, with 
no ribbons or other ornament, is fitted closely to the head, and drawn so far 
over as to conceal the hair. This, resembling the customary head-dress of a 
corpse, seemed at first to give a cadaverous and painful appearance to the coun- 
tenance ; but that impression wore away, and was probably the effect of the 
association of ideas. Over this austere dress each bad a plain drab mantle and 
Quaker bonnet. The men were habited in drab coats, trousers, and vest, in the 
style of a past age. All was silence, order, and apparently self-communing 
devotion. 

One, who seemed to be in authority, stepped forward to the centre, and 
addressed his " brethren and sisters " in an exhortation to have their hearts 
directed to the importance and solemnity of their present duty ; and then retired 
again to bis place in the front rank. One, who seemed to be a leader of the 
music, then raised bis voice in a kind of hymn. Instantly every voice joined 
in chorus; each worshiper keeping time by a backward and forward motion 
of the body, though still keeping bis position on the floor; the arms extended 
forward from the elbow, with hands relaxed at the wrist, also keeping time by 
an upward and downward motion. The music was loud, clear, and harmonious ; 
the words seemed to be a kind of repetition— the tune something between the 



1$4 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

sacred music of other denominations and the light and gay airs of a ballroom. 
It commenced with "They are marching on to Zion" — then, continuing the 
action of their hands, the worshipers moved back and forth, in a succession 
of figures, one resembling in some respects the " promenade" in a cotillon. 

The Shakers having returned to their first positions, an elder then addressed 
the " world's people" in a few sensihle remarks; the burden of which was that, 
whatever might have been the motives which led us hither, he would submit to 
us whether it was not expedient for us to turn our attention as they had done 
to the great affair of salvation ; that the principle of their association was to 
pursue the road to heaven, as it was laid down in the Scriptures, by leading 
lives of self-denial and devotion ; that Jesus Christ and his disciples practised 
those virtues and inculcated them ; and that ambition, avarice, and all other 
worldly lusts, must necessarily be subdued and entirely overcome. He did not 
give us any further illustrations of the creed of this inoffensive people. 

You will be surprised when I tell you that the effect of the whole service, 
upon myself and all others present, was serious and devotional. If, for a 
moment, the continued evolutions of the dance, together with the animating but 
simple chorus, brought back the olden recollection of "How oats, peas, beans, 
and barley grows, you nor I nor nobody knows how oats, peas, beans, and 
barley grows," yet my roving thoughts were chastened by the impressive devo- 
tion apparent in the countenances of most of the worshipers. A few, however, 
did not seem inspired with the same enthusiastic spirit — some of the girls cast- 
ing furtive, smiling glances at the spectators ; and some of the men having such 
sinister countenances that it required liberal charity to consider them as suffer- 
ing penance. 

March Zd. 

Circumstances conspire to induce the belief that Mr. Clay will not be our 
candidate at the ensuing election. 

Calhoun, more than any other of the candidates, talks Antimasonry; but the 
stain of nullification is too black upon his record to justify any belief that he 
can receive our support. McLean is capable and deserving, and withal, I believe, 
well inclined toward us, but we have not yet a decided expression from him. 

March Ith. 

To-day I went to see Chief-Justice Spencer, whom I found one of the kind- 
est, as I have always thought him one of the most sensible, of men. 

On the way back I met Weed, who said he had been down to the Eagle to 
see me, and there heard a gentleman catechising my landlord about my being 
always out, and where I went to, and how I occupied my time, and all that. 
Upon that hint, I came down to my room ; wherein entered a lobby-member, 
who dwelt with me till nine o'clock. 

Mrs. A wondered that I would not join her husband and go to New 

York to live. I read her a lesson upon domestic comfort and rural life, which 
surprised her and myself too; you don't know how willing I shall bo to remain 
in Auburn next summer. 

March 7th. 
After writing von last night, Weed came in with Andrews from the theatre, 
\\ here the actors had been performing a play in which Weed was made one of 



1831.] EDWARD ELLICE. 1§5 

the dramatis persona. Like a good fellow as lie is, he was unaffected by the 
attempts of our opponents to be witty at his expense, so long as he preserves 
the attachment of his friends ; but Andrews, who is a warm-hearted fellow, 
took the joke so seriously as to come home evidently dispirited, and declaring 
that we would have revenge. 

March Sth. 

I went this afternoon to see the experiments with repeating-guns, which 
the inventor wishes the State to patronize. I, having voted against the bill the 
other day, could do no less than examine the gun. It is a curious piece of 
mechanism, by which ten successive balls may be fired from the same gun with- 
out the trouble of reloading. 

March lit//. 

The Governor having gone through with the process of "dining the Legisla- 
ture," as it is called, the Lieutenant-Governor now follows suit. Billets were 
received this morning, inviting a part of the Senators to dine with him on Monday 
next ; and others inviting the residue for Wednesday. He is a pleasant, plain 
old man, and I have been struck, on looking at him, by the reflection how little 
the people can or do know of the real character or merits of those whom they 
elect to rule over them. The press is always divided into two parties: the one 
lauds or magnifies the candidate beyond all justice or truth ; the other equally 
exaggerates his demerits, and it is only when the battle is lost or won, and we 
meet here, that we find each other neither so good and so great, nor so vile and 
so weak, as the press have labored to prove we are. 

March Uth. 

This day has been one of excitement and disorder ; opening with the last 
visit of the lobby-members of the Buffalo, Ulster, Madison, Montgomery, Penn 
Yan, and Oswego Banks, whose fate was to be decided this morning. Before 
the question was taken, a bill came up relating to aliens, its real purpose being 
to deprive one Edward Ellice, a foreigner, and now in London, of certain 
vested rights at Little Falls. It struck every one at first with astonishment to 
see such a bill introduced. Many opposed it; but the persuasions of party 
leaders induced one after another to yield ; and, with some specious modification, 
each professed to be satisfied. It was plain that, on the third reading, the bill 
was to pass. It was almost the only occasion, since I have been here, that I 
have felt roused by the spirit of indignation against wrong. I rose with the 
accumulated embarrassment of long delay, and poured forth a torrent of honest 
feeling. I did not occupy the floor more than five minutes ; I knew not what I 
was going to say when I rose, nor what I had said when I sat down ; but the 
house was still, and the audience was on my side of the question, and responded 
to the declaration I made that the village of Little Falls, its rocks, and its 
waters might pass aw r ay ; but, with my vote, not one jot or tittle of the legisla- 
tive faith of this State should be passed away or broken. 

The bill was adopted, but they were five honest and fearless men who voted 
against it. 

Then came the bank questions, and after that came a dinner given by the 
successful bank applicants at this house. 

I appreciate your solicitude about your boy ; but I do not think you need 
apprehend so much danger to the early morals of the child from his associations 



186 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

at school. Preserve within him his love and confidence toward his parents, and, 
my word for it, he will escape the evils of communication with those children 
who become corrupted at school for want of sedulous and affectionate care at 
home. There lies the evil. Whatever of bad effects my early associations have 
left upon me, I can now trace to the weakened confidence and affection toward 
my father, caused by his severity ; whatever of good I have preserved, I am free 
and proud to declare, I owe to the affection which I still cherished for him, 
and the love and fear which I have ever entertained for my mother. 

March lMh. 

In the Senate this morning we had under consideration the bill relating to 
colonial records. A long debate was had, of which there is a brief sketch in 
the papers. My remarks occupied fifteen minutes. 

At four I went to dine with the Lieutenant-Governor. The ladies were Mrs. 
Clarkson and Miss Livingston, his two daughters. The guests were Mr. West- 
cott, Mr. Lynde, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Tallmadge, Mr. Throop, Mr. Todd, Mr. 
Quackenbush, and myself, of the Senate ; Messrs. Fillmore, Otis, Andrews, 
Morehouse, and the Speaker, of the Assembly ; Mr. Cambreling, of Congress ; 
Mr. Van Rensselaer, the young Patroon, and Mr. Schuyler. 

When I came up to my room, at seven o'clock, I found waiting for me Colonel 
Stone, of New York, editor of the Commercial Advertiser. He is a very intelli- 
gent and agreeable man — I was much pleased with him. His contributions to 
the annuals you may recollect. One of his stories is, I think, in the " Atlantic 
Souvenir," of which the scene is laid in Otsego. 

Tracy maintained to-night that he did not desire to win one hour of posthu- 
mous fame — he was willing to be forgotten as soon as the clods were upon his 
bosom ; and, said he to me, " Just dismiss the vague and indefinable belief which 
you indulge, that when men speak your praises after you arc dead you shall 
hear them, and you would feel as I do." 

T assented, but added, "I cannot but shudder at the idea of leaving 'my 
wife and bairns' to struggle with a world careless of them." 

The monotony of legislative life was now varied by a visit to the 
old home in Orange County. 

Newbvrg, Saturday, IMA. 

I am just off for Florida; Mr. Fuller, of the Senate, is with me. It snows 
and is uncomfortably cold, but I am in exuberant spirits, owing to the escape 
from confinement at Albany and touching once more my native soil. We left 
Albany in the steamboat, at three o'clock yesterday. On board I fell into com- 
pany with Dr. McXaughton, of Albany. Found him extremely intelligent and 
agreeable. 

Monday, 21st. 
I ought to tell you about the mistake T found my poor grandmother Jen- 
nings laboring under. I had written a letter or two to my mother in an hour 
of 9ober thought, ponring out the affectionate feelings which, in a long ab- 
sence, had accumulated in my heart, but in no wise alluding, except by way of 
acknowledgment of my mother's virtue and piety, to the subject of religion. 
These letters had been read to my grandmother, and forgetting the straitness of 



1831.] SAMUEL S. SEWARD. 187 

her Calvinistic principles, find with the confused perception of old age, she had 
found cause in them to helieve me a man of " changed heart." When I was 
there she avowed this belief, and sought its assurance from me. Alas! poor 
sinner! I had to undeceive her, though I saw the mistake had afforded un- 
mingled joy to her affectionate heart. I leave you to judge with how little 
patience I bore the lecture she addressed, to bring me to that state which she 
had fondly believed me safely moored in. I knew all the time she had the right 
of the matter. I could not question her right, or feel one uprising emotion of 
resistance. I believe I held the handle of the door half an hour, waiting a con- 
venient pause in the lesson which would enable me to retire. 

Fuller saw this sheet lying on my table ; he asked to whom the letter was 
written; I told him. He said: "It maybe that you will continue to write such 
long letters to your wife till you are fifty years old; but I doubt it." Do you? 



CHAPTER IV. 
1831. 

Maynard"s Eloquence. — Eev. Edward N. Kirk. — Religious Belief. — John C. Spencer. — Bon- 
nets. — United States Bank. — West Point and " Old Fort Put." — Imprisonment for 
Debt. — Closing Scenes of the Session. 

The latter part of a legislative session is always a busy and hurried 

season. Again at his post in Albany, Seward resumed the narrative 

of its incidents : 

March 30, 1831. 

It gives me joy to think my stay here is limited to three weeks. I do not 
think I shall be disappointed in my hopes of passing the ensuing summer more 
wisely and pleasantly for you and for myself. If I can but learn to feel only an 
ordinary sense of responsibility in my professional business, I may have time 
enough to be not entirely a stranger at my own hearth. I may, for once, have 
time to read. Indeed, strange as it may seem, I have thought that I have retro- 
graded during my winter here, and got back to the feelings of by-gone years. I 
am certainly younger here, where I am a boy among gray-headed men, than at 
home, where I am in some sense the responsible head of a party, and the deposi- 
tory of important professional concerns. 

March 31«#. 

My father arrived here last night. I have spent with him all the time to-day 
not occupied with the sittings of the Senate. There is a singular youthfulness 
in his full years. Many of the boarders here supposed him to be my senior 
brother. Now that he is away from the patriarchal seat at the family fireside, 
he has thrown off the severity and rigor which used to awe me; and I have 
thought many times to-day how strange it was that he, to whom the affection 
and confidence of wife and children are so welcome, nay, so indispensable, should 
have seemed to us, during a part of his life, so different from the buoyant and 
generous youth which my mother describes him to have been. 



158 LIFE AXD LETTERS. [1831. 

April 1st. 

I was beyond measure gratified with the impression made by Maynard upon 
my father. In the course of the debate in the Senate on his favorite doctrine of 
canal revenues. Maynard took the floor, and for half an hour poured forth a 
torrent of sparkling eloquence, which drew the admiration of every one who 
heard him ; but withal so respectful, so kind toward his opponent as to disarm 
him of the power of reply. 

My father, who was an auditor, said, " Well! I don't think you have need to 
go further for a President of the United States, while you have Maynard." 

I told him I thought that such eloquence was worthy of the Senate of the 
United States, and would not compare badly with the efforts of even Daniel 
Webster. 

Next week, and probably to the end, we shall hold afternoon sessions, com- 
mencing at four o'clock. 

Sunday, April Bd. 

Went with Tracy and George Andrews to Kirk's church this morning. He 
is one of the most eloquent of pulpit-orators. Seventy-five converts were to be 
received to communion this afternoon. 

After church we walked, discoursing of religion, of skepticism, and its dan- 
gers; and coining, of course, to no satisfactory conclusion why it was that 
mankind must ever differ upon the subject. I suggested that, perhaps, less 
difficulty would exist if we had no books except the four Evangelists, and that 
the controversies between different sects are based largely on the Epistles and 
Revelation. 

To this Tracy assented, and added that the internal evidence of the divine 
origin of the Gospels was far greater than that of the Epistles. 

By-the-way, did you ever read Locke's dissertation upon " The Faith neces- 
sary ti' Salvation '." He maintains that all that is necessary for us to believe is, 
that Jesus Christ is the Messiah ; and he enforces it by a reference to the preach- 
ing of our Saviour, who, when asked, " What shall we do to be saved ? " an- 
swered, " Believe on me and ye shall be saved." 

The Rev. Edward X. Kirk was the youthful friend with whom Sew- 
ard exchanged orations when both were students in New York. He 
was now in the height of his reputation as a popular preacher. 
Very fine-looking, of medium stature, but of striking presence and 
graceful manner, with dark complexion, and profuse curling hair, he 
was, by his impassioned elocpicnce, drawing crowds to the Fourth Pres- 
byterian Church, in Albany, greater than it could hold. 

April Mh. 

This morning Mrs. T was going to look at the new bonnets, and invited 

me to get one for you ; so her husband sealed up his letters, and forthwith we 
all started off, down Columbia, and North Market, and South Market Streets, to 
Miss Harris's, and there the bonnets were. But how could I make any choice? 

Mrs. T thought she should prefer a "Dunstable" or a "diamond straw," 

that being the fashionable as well as durable article: but the difficulty was 
about the shape. I looked on like a Yorkshire rustic, thinking all shapes pretty. 
but unable to say, in my own mind, that one was handsomer than another. 



1831.] SPENCER, VAX BUREN, FILLMORE. 189 

Finally, I told her to choose her own, and I would look at it after it was 
trimmed, and then make up my judgment, get one for you and one for your 
sister, and meantime I would write home for advice. All that I could treasure 
up about the bonnets is, that they give one a chance to look out, and are not so 
lung and so small-crowned as was the fashion last summer. 

April '7th. 

This evening I have spent with John C. Spencer. I came away thinking of 
the influence of political prejudices upon our feelings. Such prejudices had 
predisposed me to dislike John 0. Spencer ; and when I find him on the same 
side as myself, full of zeal, and animation, and daring, in the same political 
cause, I find all my prejudices wearing away, and, instead of hating him, I am 
admiring him. 

Truly, this bachelor's life is one of very few charms. Here I am, alone in 

this little, dirty room, with a mean charcoal-fire, on this cold, dull evening. I 

have not heart enough left to go out anywhere. I cannot read a word, and 

there is nothing to think about but you and the boys ; and, when my thoughts 

range that way, they come back loaded with solicitude. Still, this is " life 

above-stairs," and I am to enjoy it, because thousands, under a mistaken notion, 

deem it enviable. 

April 11th. 

You know the leading Van Buren measure is the nullification of the United 
States Bank. Well, those who are in favor of the United States Bank are de- 
clared to be "Federalists," and those who are against it "Democrats." The 
Legislature of New York contains a large majority of Van Buren men, and, 
although Congress only can repeal the charter of the bank, yet the Legislature 
must, for Van Buren's purposes, now resolve that the bank ought not to be 
renewed. The order came forth ; the Assembly, after a week's discussion, 
passed the resolution and sent it to our House to-day. In the Senate there are 
eight Antimasons and twenty-two Jackson men. But we found on counting 
that there were some Jackson men who would not go with the measure. So 
we moved to postpone the resolution indefinitely. This motion has now fifteen 
votes. We have made a well-contested battle, and have triumphed for to-day 
so much beyond our hopes that the Antimasons are holding a kind of festival. 
You will see the debate in the Journal of this evening. 

April 12, 1831. 

Last night I dropped into Fuller and Fillmore's room. Some half a doztin 
were there, and the discourse turned on the result of the town-meetings. I 
stated what I had heard from Cayuga ; another gave the news from Washing- 
ton, and a third from Tompkins. At this stage of the conversation Fillmore 
came in. I saluted him laughingly with — 

" How are you to-night, brother Fillmore ? " 

" Very well, I thank you ; but I have bad news from home." 

" Your family unwell? " said I. 

He replied, " I have news of the death of my mother." 

After a pause I asked about her illness, then I rose to come away; and, see- 
ing that no one else was likely to follow, I thought it my duty to give a gentle 
hint : 

" Come, judge," said I to one, " are you going down-street? " 



190 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

" No," he replied, " I was waiting to tell the news of the town-meetings in 
my county ; " and then he went on with the details of his local elections. I left 
him in the beginning of his story. What think you of such sensibility ? 

April lBth. 

We had quite an episode this morning in our dull tavern-life — an alarm that 
a child was lost. In live minutes the wliole house was in an uproar. The Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, Senators, Assemblymen, lobbymen, judges, ladies, grooms, 
porters, foresters, and rangers, kitchen-maids and hostlers, all were in hot pur- 
suit. The house was searched from garret to cellar; the docks were examined, 
the passengers stopped, the stage-men ran, the dull were quick, and the quick 
were in a frenzy, about the lost child. After three-quarters of an hour spent in 
confusion the child was found in a fruit-store, looking wistfully toward a box 
of oranges. 

To-day the Attorney-General called for me to go before the Chancellor and 
argue an appeal. It has occupied an hour of the morning and three of the 
afternoon. 

April 14th. 

Yesterday morning I went, with half a dozen friends, by steamboat, to West 
Point, where we landed at two o'clock. We rambled over the grounds, descended 
to Kosciusko's garden, drank from its spring, and sat upon the moss-covered 
rock which bears his name, near the lilacs grown from those which the gallant 
Polish general set out with his own hand. You recollect to have seen old Fort 
Putnam frowning down upon you from its proud and defying elevation ? It 
is dilapidated, but as yet not in ruins. Built on a rock, almost inaccessible on 
every side — the stone for its walls was blasted from the rock — the brick and 
lime carried up by soldiers. The Avails are yet standing, in some places eight 
feet in thickness, and from fifteen to fifty in height. We traversed the officers' 
quarters, the magazines, the cells and the storerooms, and were astonished at 
the immense strength of the fortification. The chimneys were yet black with 
the -moke which the storms of fifty years have not washed away. 

What were our thoughts, as we looked upon these scenes familiar with the 
tread of Washington! This impregnable fortress was the key to America; on 
it depended the hopes of the republican cause. Here were the wassail and 
revelry of dates and Putnam. Here, in its command, Arnold, burning with 
avarice and revenge, plotted its surrender, which would have left America a 
province, and our fathers, ourselves, and our children, subjects of an English 
king. Here was the amiable but unfortunate Andre 1 brought, to await the 
decision of the American chief. From here General Washington sent, under 
safe-conduct, to the traitor Arnold, his wife and child. From the point below, 
the traitor escaped, in a boat, to the British ship, while Andre was left to 
suffer the punishmenl of a spy. What must have been the horror of Wash- 
ington, Knox, Lafayette, and the whole company, when they first learned the 
awful treason! What the misery (ay, the love too) of the unhappy wife as 
she Bought the protection of her guilty husband! But I cannot stay to in- 
dulge these reflections. I gathered as relics for you pieces of the stone from 
the walls of the fort, of the moss which covers the pavement, and a bit of the 
rose-tree which grows on the battlements. 

It was the De Witt Clinton which I boarded from a row-boat, at about 



1S31.] IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. 19^ 

eleven o'clock. " Not a berth is left," said the captain, to whom I was a stran- 
ger; and as I stretched myself upon a miserable mattress, from which the sheets 
as well as the blankets had been stripped by the sleepers around me, I had an 
opportunity to moralize on the deference paid to station. When I went down 
on board the North America as Senator, the captain was studiously polite. The 
chair at his right hand at the head of the table was reserved for me, and I was 
shown to it with great circumstance. Everything was done to interest me. 
When I came on board in the night without being announced, I was left to 
sleep, without a blanket, upon the cabin-floor. 

April 11th. 
You are right, my dear Frances, in the caution to avoid speculations on re- 
ligious topics ; and right in saying there is enough given us, in the injunctions 
of the Scriptures, to lead us in the way of duty. I thought as I was retiring to 
my lonely room to-night, and gazed on the bright and beautiful stars, how little 
we can know of them, their substance, their uses, their destinies, their history, 
the millions who perhaps inhabit them ! Human reason might, by them, stand 
rebuked when, passing by them, it attempts to debate the character and the 
purposes of that Infinite Being by whom they and all other things were created. 

April 21st. 
Everybody around me is hurrying and bustling, in the general preparation 
to evacuate the halls of legislation. Three days will bring our stay here to a 
close. How different are the motives, the feelings, the recollections, and the 
wishes, of these one hundred and sixty men! There are some who have, with 
miserly hand, hoarded up the savings of their wages, and are counting the gains 
made out of the stipend of three dollars a day; they will regret the termination 
of their public employment, because they will cease to reckon the daily addition 
of dollars and cents. Some there are who, in the dissipation of the past winter, 
have sacrified health and wasted treasure ; they will go home with sad retrospec- 
tion of their prodigality. Other some there are who have busied themselves to 
acquire some distinction among their generation, and have reaped disappoint- 
ment and chagrin; they will go home with a morbid disgust of themselves. 
Some, who have fluttered gayly upon the popular breeze for one year only, will 
go home to curse the fickleness which will leave them at the next canvass to 
the dull detail of private life. Others, having discharged, with what ability they 
might, the obligations imposed by their country, and having learned to hold the 
honors and pleasures of their station to be incidents in the tenor of a varied but 
well-ordered life, will return with loyal hearts and invigorated affections to 
those domestic and social circles where only earthly happiness dwells. 

April 22d. 

I had written as above, when Weed came in, and said I must write out my 
remarks on the resolution to amend the constitution. I forthwith went to 
work and continued until midnight. 

To-day I have spent the afternoon in a debate on the bill to abolish im- 
prisonment for debt. 

This afternoon debate was one of the closing scenes of the strug- 
gle over the great reform. The Antimasons had stood together in its 



192 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1S31. 

support. The Administration ranks were divided. Some of their 
leaders had taken the floor in earnest advocacy of it, others in un- 
disguised opposition ; while many sat idly in their seats, watching' the 
discussion with apparent indifference. Warned, however, by the rising- 
tide of popular feeling, the opponents of the measure contented them- 
selves at last with amendments to delay its passage, or to defer the 
time when it should go into operation. In answer to this class of 
propositions Seward said : 

If imprisonment for debt would he wrong ten years hence, why is it not so 
now '. It is wrong in principle to imprison for debt merely; it is right in princi- 
ple to punish fraud ; and both these objects are sought to be obtained in this bill. 

It w r as only in the last hour of the session that the bill was finally 
passed, upon the report of a conference committee, fixing the 1st of 
March, 1832, as the day when it should take effect. 

April 25<A. 
The last letter! It is exhilarating to think it is the last, and that I shall so 
soon follow it. To-morrow, at twelve o'clock, I shall be released from public 
duties. I hope to take the boat at Schenectady at two o'clock, on Wednesday, 
and in three or four days after shall be with you. 



CHAPTER. V. 

1831. 

Fourth-of-July Oration?.— Captain Pcn-ard.— A Militia Career. — President-Making. — First 
Railway-Ride.— Disraeli.— Dr. Campbell. — Judge Bronson.— Gerrit V. Lansing.— Abram 
Van Vechten. — Mrs. Hamilton. 

While the republic was yet in its youth, Fourth-of-July orations 
were composed with care, and listened to with attention. The theme 
had not become trite, nor its expressions hackneyed. Public men 
availed themselves of the occasion to give philosophic views of the 
destiny of the country. " I send you," wrote Seward, in July, 1831, 
" my Syracuse oration, and will send 3-011 Holley's, and Whittlesey's, as 
soon as they come from the press. Hunt has sent me Timothy Ful- 
ler's, and John Quincy Adams's, which is admirable." Six years pre- 
viously (and before he was twenty-five years old), he had delivered 
another Fourth-of-July oration at Auburn. The same train of thought 
is manifest in both addresses, though ripened in the later one by more 
mature reflection. A passage in each referred to the problem destined 
afterward to convulse the nation. In the first he said : 

Those misapprehend either the true interests of the people of these States, or 
1 intelligence, who believe, or profess to believe, that a separation will ever 



1831.] A MILITIA CAREER. 193 

take place between the North and South. The people of the North have seldom 
been suspected of a want of attachment to the Union; and those of the South 
have been much misrepfesented by a few politicians of a stormy character, who 
have ever been unsupported by the people there. The North will not willingly 
give up the power they now have in the national councils of gradually complet- 
ing a work in which, whether united or separate, from proximity of territory 
we shall ever be interested — the emancipation of slaves. 

And in the second he added : 

Are we sure that the simple, beautiful, yet majestic fabric of our Govern- 
ment can never be undermined ? Are we quite sure that neither we nor our 
children shall ever come to drink of the bitter waters of slavery ? By no means. 
. . . It is ours to do all that in our day and generation may be done, that this 
catastrophe may be long postponed ; and, to that end, it is of the last impor- 
tance to revive, renew, and invigorate the national feeling of the republic. . . . 
Dr. Franklin wished that he might be permitted to revisit his country at the 
expiration of a century after his death. Could he now return, after the lapse 
of much less than half that period, I fear he would find lamentable evidence of 
the decline of this national feeling since the Eevolutionary age. Methinks Caro- 
lina would throw away her pencil, and brush out her figures, should her eye 
encounter the stern look of the patriotic philosopher, while rashly calculating 
the value of the Union. 

In the early part of his life in Auburn, Seward, in conformity with 
what he believed to be the duty of a patriotic citizen, took part in the 
organization and drill of the rural militia force. About 1827-'2S, he 
joined in forming a village artillery- company, uniformed, equipped, 
and drilled, in accordance with military usages; and from his own 
means largely aided its equipment. Seward was elected captain ; 
and the villagers took pride in watching the parades of the little 
body of citizen soldiery, gay with its uniforms of blue and buff, and 
caps surmounted with red pompons. It was an event in its history 
when a six-pound brass gun made its appearance in the ranks, having 
been obtained by Captain Seward through a special mission to the Ad- 
jutant-General's office in Albany. This cannon rarely remained silent 
on any occasion of public festivity. In time the company grew to a 
battalion, Captain Seward was promoted to be its major, and its battery 
was enlarged by the addition of two or three iron guns besides the 
brass one. In 1829, with the battalion as a nucleus, a regiment was 
formed, comprising also companies from other portions of the county. 

Its officers were commissioned in August of that year : W. H. 
Seward, colonel ; John Wright, lieutenant-colonel ; Lyman Hinman, 
major; Oscar A. Burgess, adjutant; John H. Chedell, quartermaster; 
Nelson Beardsley, paymaster ; Franklin M. Markham, surgeon ; Blan- 
chard Fosgate, surgeon's mate. 

In the old roster-book are the elaborate orders for elections, pa- 
13 



194 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

rades, courts, drills, reviews, etc., some in the colonel's own handwrit- 
ing, some in that of his adjutant. There seem to have been about 
seven hundred men in the regiment. In an " order of the day," dated 
Scipio, September 18, 1829, the day of the annual muster for " county 
training," the colonel " avails himself of this his first opportunity of 
meeting: the regiment under his command to congratulate both officers 
and men upon the complete organization of the Thirty-third Regiment 
under officers of their own selection in a convenient portion of territory. 
... It is with great gratification that he perceives through the whole 
corps solicitude to improve in appearance and discipline, and he gives 
the assurance that no exertion in his power shall be wanting to effect 
so desirable an object." 

On assuming command of the regiment, their new colonel, having 
formed them in hollow square, addressed th m, and it was a subject of 
no small exultation in camp that night that " now they had a colonel 
who could make them a speech, and a good speech, too." 

The orders continue through 1830 and 1831, to March, 1832. In 
that year Colonel Seward was promoted to be brigadier-general, which 
position he held two or three years, and finally was elected major- 
general, but declined the commission. He was succeeded in command 
of the regiment, in 1833, by Lyman Hinman, who had been from the 
first an experienced drill-master and tactician. Afterward Colonel 
Charles W. Pomeroy was its commanding officer from 1838 until its 
final disbandment, under some change in the militia laws, in 1842. 

At that day wine and spirits were considered indispensable ad- 
juncts, not only at table, but in all social intercourse. A hospitable 
gentleman usually had a sideboard, or a decanter-stand, at his elbow, 
in his parlor or his business-office, and pressed his casual visitors to 
drink. Seward, though fond of conversation, had no liking for the 
convivial indulgence which many of his legislative colleagues found so 
attractive. In a confidential note in regard to his boarding-house 
during the coming session, he said : 

Weed, my good fellow, I am anxious to get, when I go to Albany again, 
where I can study more. What say you, my father confessor, to my taking 
lodgings at some boarding-house where they "touch not, taste not, handle 
not" the bottle? If there be no reasons of state which require Antimasons 
to drink, then I propose to abstain. What say you to it? Shall I lose your 
"nocturnal visits of the night," as the Irish orator said, if I quit the Eagle? 

The programme for the presidential campaign was now engrossing 
the attention of political leaders. A letter to Mr. Weed, after describ- 
ing conferences with the prominent men of the party at Seneca Falls, 
Waterloo, Geneva, Canandaigua, Rochester, Buffalo, Lockport, Pal- 
myra, and Lyons — among them Messrs. Childs, Dox, Woods, Dwight, 



1831.] FIRST RAILWAY RIDE. I95 

H. W. Taylor, Granger, John C. Spencer, John Greig, George Andrews, 
Whittlesey, Tracy, Boughton, Cadwalader, and Myron Holley — con- 
tinued : 

Thus you will see that we have made the tour of "the infected district." 
Many and cheering were the greetings we received. Nowhere did we find any 
ground of dissension, or feeling of disaffection. And whom, you will inquire, am 
I in favor of for President ? After a review of the whole ground, and compar- 
ing all I have heard and seen, I think that Calhoun cannot in any event be our 
man. The free, the cold, clear, intelligent North is the field for the growth of 
our cause. Let us not jeopardize it by transferring its main stalk into the South 
Carolina sands. The three great States which we need, and must combine, are 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. In these Calhoun is lost. Two candidates 
remain. Of these I prefer McLean, because we may hope to concentrate more 
effectually public opinion in those States upon him. But I am ready to be con- 
vinced, and to act in accordance with the best opinion of all our Mends. 

What a ticket we could make — Granger for Governor, Stevens for Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, and Maynard, Tracy, Whittlesey, or Spencer, for Vice-Presi- 
dent ! We should put a quietus upon the race of small men. 

In August the Senate was to hold a session as the " Court for the 
Correction of Errors." Seward's journey was by stage and canal, as 
usual, to Schenectady ; but thence to Albany the Mohawk & Hud- 
son Railroad had now been opened. It was the first in the State. A 
letter narrating his trip over it shows the railway in its primitive form : 

August 24, 1831. 

We arrived at Schenectady at three this morning, and immediately were car- 
ried, in post-coaches, a distance of a mile and a half, to the present termination 
of the railway. There were in waiting three large cars, which the passengers 
entered. These cars differ not much, as to the construction of the body, from 
stage-coaches, except that they are about one-third larger, and have seats upon 
the top. The body is set upon very short springs, which cause but little elas- 
ticity of motion. The fore and hind wheels are equal in size, made of iron, and 
are about two and a half feet in diameter. They have rims four and a half 
inches in width, with a projection on the side next the carriage, which serves to 
keep the cars secure upon the rails— not suffering the wheels to vary from the 
track. The car is divided into two parts by a high though not entire partition 
in the centre ; the door admitting into the forward compartment being on one 
side the carriage, and that admitting into the other on the other side. In each 
of these compartments were six passengers. On the top was the driver's seat, 
and one other, each holding three persons ; so that the car carried eighteen pas- 
sengers, with all their enormous bulk of baggage. 

The railway is made by leveling, excavating, and elevating a road, so that, 
as far as the eye can reach, it is either entirely level, or with an almost imper- 
ceptible rise or descent. Of course, there are embankments over ravines, and 
deep cuttings through hills, just like those on the route of the canal. Upon this 
plane surface are laid, at a distance of eighteen inches from each other, square 
blocks of solid stone, and upon these are laid two parallel timbers, about eight 



196 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

inches square, which are fastened by rivets to the stones. Then, upon each of 
these timbers is fastened a bar of iron, upon which the wheels of the car pass ; 
and, as the inner side of the wheel projects' about an inch below the bar, the car 
cannot get out of place. This is the simple construction of a railroad. 

Having mounted our vehicle, a fine large gray horse was attached to it, by 
shafts, exactly like those of a one-horse wagon. " Ready! " said the stageman; 
the driver whistled to the gray ; away went the car through hills and over val- 
leys. Before we had done looking at our novel vehicle, the car was stopped to 
water the horse under a bridge ; and, on inquiring, we found we had come four 
miles in less than twenty minutes. The horse drank, and away we went two 
miles farther, and then a fresh steed was immediately put in place of our gray. 
I mounted the top of the car, and, standing up there, looking over upon the 
mountains beyond the river, was driven, in forty minutes more, to the present 
eastern termination of the railroad ; thus accomplishing the journey of twelve 
miles in eighty minutes, including stoppings. 

Only think of riding from Schenectady to Albany without jolting, jarring, or 
bouncing ! The railroad not being yet completed at the eastern end, we per- 
formed the two miles remaining of our journey in a post-coach. Fifty-four pas- 
sengers and their baggage were brought on the railroad to-day, by three horses. 
No private cars are allowed to travel on the road. The cars go at stated inter- 
vals, and none are allowed to go in different directions at the same time. There 
are culverts, etc., and, in one place, a road passes under the railway. 

Of course I have seen those of our friends who stop at this house. Specula- 
tions and communications relating to the presidency formed the subject of our 
conversation. Afterward passing up-street I found Gerrit Y. Lansing smoking 
his long Dutch pipe in a store ; went to his house and drank a glass of wine 
with him ; called from the window to Weed, whom Lansing thereupon politely 
invited to come in ; then I went to "Ward's, read documents and talked till nine, 
and now am hurrying through this letter, so that I may be asleep at ten o'clock, 
and rise at five in the morning, to study a cause I have to argue to-morrow in 
the Court of Chancery. 

Weed's condition excites my feelings very much. His arm is broken, badly 
set, and, though nine weeks have elapsed since the accident, he is still deprived 
of the use of his arm, and suffers greatly from the pain of the fracture. 

Disraeli was then commencing his public career, and a new novel 
from his pen had appeared : 

Have you got " The Young Duke " yet ? You may find it at Doubleday's. 
It is by the author of "Vivian Grey; " and, if it but half sustain the spirit of 
that work, it must be worth perusal. I have, as yet, found no time to read any- 
thing. After disposing of my chancery business, I am listening with all the 
attention I can command to arguments in the Court of Errors. 

Sunday, August 28t7i. 
Mr. Azor Taber called this morning and took me to church, where I heard 
the Rev. Dr. Campbell address a beautiful sermon to the magnates of the city 
and State, among whom were Judge Spencer, Judge Sutherland, the Chancel- 
lor, the Attorney-General, Edwin Croswell, etc. In the afternoon I went to 



1831.] ABRAM VAN VECHTEN.— MRS. HAMILTON. 197 

the North Dutch Church, where John Ogden Dey showed me into Harmanus 
Bleecker's seat, and I listened to a sermon from the Rev. Dr. Ludlow. After 
church, Bronson, the Attorney-General, proposed to walk. We went up the hill 
and through the burying-ground, which afforded, of course, subjects for much 
moralizing. Passing over more humble graves, we noted those of the Clinton 
and Spencer families, and among them that of Mrs. Genet, wife of the minister 
plenipotentiary from the French Republic, and sister of De Witt Clinton. 

August 30th. 

Rose at five this morning, accomplished my work, and had time to spare to 
read. I thought when I came to shut up my book (the works of Bacon), as the 
bell rang for breakfast, that I would lose no more morning hours. 

This evening I called upon Abram Van Vechten, the father of the New York 
bar. He was sitting on his office-steps, smoking a pipe two feet long. I 
brought out a chair, and sat down beside him. We discoursed an hour on the 
dilatoriness of courts ; and I listened with great interest to the contrast between 
the judges of our day and those of the times when the State was young. I 
have somewhere read and admired the conceit that the world was not in its 
"antiquity," in the times when it was younger; but these are the older times, 
when all the years are accumulated. But, if I were to determine upon the testi- 
mony, I should certainly believe that there is a growing corruption and impo- 
tency of public men ; and yet Mr. Van Vechten is no railer, no backbiter, no 
envious person. He is in a green old age ; and retains, not only unimpaired 
mental powers, but a confiding and affectionate heart, full of charity and good 
works. As it gradually became dark, he invited me into the office, closed doors 
and windows, produced a bottle of superior pale sherry, remarking that he 
seldom drank wine, and his wine was therefore good, and, relighting his pipe, 
we compared notes about the Court of Chancery till eight o'clock. 

September \d. 
Bronson and I had a long and pretty animated debate yesterday about free- 
masonry, and it ended with the conclusion, assented to by both parties, that, as 
we could not agree, we would not hereafter dispute ; so we set out this after- 
noon arm-in-arm to go and call on the folks at the Eagle. 

September 6tA. 

Having so ordered my business on Friday as to go to Orange County, I went 
off in the steamboat on a race, which continued for about an hour, during which 
we went part of the time fastened to our antagonist's boat, part of the time 
crowding, and part of the time being crowded on shore. There was some 
alarm lest we should all be blowji up together. After we got below the shoals 
we were able to leave the other boat far behind us. 

We had the widow of General Hamilton on board. I talked an hour with 
her about the incidents of the stirring days in which she was the near associ- 
ate of one of the greatest and most celebrated men of America. 



198 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

CHAPTER VI. 

1831. 

A New England Journey.— A Steamboat Lottery. — Indian Traditions. — " Last of the Mo- 
hicans." — Providence. — President Wayland. — Boston. — Revolutionary Memories and 
Miii.— The Polish Standards. — Ride to Quincy. — First Meeting with John Quincy 
Adams. — Down the Delaware. — The Baltimore Convention. — "William Wirt. 

The story of a journey to New England, in the fall of this year, 
was given in Seward's letters : 

September Uh. 
This morning I received a letter from Hunt, stating that a great deal of un- 
pleasant feeling exists at Boston in relation to our intended nomination for 
President. On showing it to Maynard and "Weed, they concluded that I must 
set off at once for Boston, calling at Norwich to see Tracy. 

Norwich, Connecticut, September 9tA. 

1 arrived at New York at 5 a. m. ; went up Cortlandt Street and Broadway 
to the American Hotel. The streets were silent, and the great population 
had not yet left their slumber ; but, by seven, milkmen, porters, carmen, 
servants, and all classes of laboring-men were out, and the city exhibited the 
usual bustle and animation. I could not but reflect what vast changes time and 
circumstances had wrought upon the multitude, who a few years ago occupied 
the places, performed the duties, and enjoyed the pleasures, to which the pres- 
ent race address themselves, careless of the recollection of their predecessors, or 
the thought that they soon must yield to another generation as active, as gay, as 
animated, as heedless, and as brief, as themselves. What I saw now failed to 
revive anything of past recollections except the pain. I was changed ; all my 
friends were changed. Berdan, who was the companion of my early residence 
in New York, was gone, and I saw nothing on which he had left any impres- 
sion. Even my old landlady here, when I announced my name, had no distinct 
recollection of my character or conduct. From the idleness, the poetic feeling, 
the buoyant enjoyments of that period, how strange the change wrought in me; 
now seeking out, with anxious concern, associates for political action in refer- 
ence to government ! 

I met various friends in New York — Sam Stevens, who took me to his office; 
then Foot and Davies; then fell in with William Kent; returning, found Hol- 
ley ; but Ward had gone to Boston. 

Then I went and saw West's great picture of " Christ Rejected," now being 
exhibited at Masonic Hall. The scene is at the porch of the temple; the gal- 
lery is seen filled with the court of Pilate, his wife, Herod, and other distin- 
guished visitors. In the foreground is our Saviour, the crown of thorns upon 
his head, while the deriding Jews are drawing over his shoulders the purple 
robe of royalty. At one side are the disciples. Never, I imagine, did painter 
more boldly, more truly depict conscious guilt then in the haggard, desperate 
faces of Barabbas and the two thieves. Never saw I a more beautiful face than 
that of John, " the disciple whom Jesus loved," supporting the weeping mother 
of the Saviour with manly, confiding, and affectionate expression. 

Colonel Stone came to dine with me, and introduced me to Colonel White, 
of Pensacola, a member of Congress, who has been to Boston on a similar er- 



1831.] A LOTTERY FOR BERTHS. 199 

rand with mine. At the head of the table sat a young man of thirty-two or 
thirty-three, of dark complexion and foreign dress, who Stone thought was 
Major Hamilton, the author of " Cyril Thornton," because he wore mustaches, 
but who turned out to be an attache of some foreign mission. On the right 
was a gray-headed, sensible old gentleman, in light-blue coat, with prodigious 
ruffles on his bosom and at the ends of his sleeves. This was the Baron Stackle- 
burgb, minister plenipotentiary from Sweden. Near him was Willis the poet. 

Thence I wended my way to the steamboat, and we were off at five o'clock. 
It was a pleasant sail up the East Eiver, into the Sound, leaving behind the cit} T 
with its immense piles of buildings, passing Harlem and the beautiful shore of 
Long Island, with its villas and country-seats. We soon arrived at Hell Gate, 
but the tide was high, and we passed through without difficulty. 

Then I was summoned, with all the other passengers, into the cabin, to attend 
to the distribution of the berths. The manner in which this important matter 
is disposed of is ludicrous. About one hundred passengers were gathered, 
seated by request, in four rows. Then the steward came along between the 
lines and counted us; after having done so he reported to the captain. Then 
the captain counted the tickets purchased and paid for. He observed the num- 
bers did not agree. Then we were requested to have our tickets ready to deliver 
up as called for. The steward again passed the lines in review, and received the 
tickets, and carried them to the captain, who announced that still the numbers 
did not agree. Anon comes the steward, and counts us all over again. Still 
one ticket was missing. In a loud voice he inquired if there were any gentle- 
man who had not delivered up his ticket. No reply was made ; but a sup- 
pressed laugh was heard along the lines. " Go and get the list of passengers," 
said the captain; "I'll count once more." It was done; and there was not 
harmony of numbers. Then the list was read off, but no one confessed that he 
had suppressed his ticket. " Go," said the captain, " make another thorough 
search on deck; there must be a passenger who won't deliver up his ticket." 
While the steward was gone on this searching expedition, complaints and laugh- 
ter among the imprisoned passengers became rather free and tumultuous. He 
returned, and reported that he found no delinquent. The captain and steward 
summed up their book once more, and found, to their gratification, that they had 
made a mistake of one ticket. This important business being disposed of, no 
other preliminaries occurred to prevent distribution of lodgings for the night. 
This was effected on the principle of referring it to chance. A number of 
tickets, equal to the whole number of passengers, were put into a hat; of these 
a number said to be equal to that of the berths were prizes, the others were 
blanks. The steward drew them forth and distributed them. I, of course, had 
a blank ; but the captain, in kind recollection of Stone's introduction, took my 
blank ticket privately, and gave me a prize. 

Next morning I awakened at five, at the mouth of the Connecticut River ; 
landed at Essex, took the stage, and at eleven reached Norwich, which is one of 
the most beautiful towns I have ever seen. About as large as Geneva, it is built 
with great taste. The houses are principally of wood, but are spacious, and 
surrounded by trees and shrubbery. Dr. Tracy took me out to show me the 
town, and a picturesque view of Chelsea. 

Afterward, ascending a hill, we came to a little grove of forest-trees, marked 
by a few very rough, old-fashioned gravestones. We got out of the chaise, and 



200 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

went in. "This," said he, "is the burying-ground of the Uncases, the kings of 
Mohican." 

It is truly a spot for a royal resting-place. The little river makes up to its 
very base, arched with forest-trees. Up this river the royal funeral procession 
used to come in canoes. You can imagine the scene when, quitting their canoes, 
the Indians, with their death-song on their lips, ascended the little mount, with 
the remains of "the last of the Mohicans." Many of the inscriptions are illegi- 
ble. I was able to decipher two or three like this : 

Here lies y e body of Pompey Uncas, 

Son of Benjamin and Ann Uncas, 

One of y e royal blood. 

Died May 12, 1741, 

In the X th year of bis age. 

Others were — to the memory of " Samuel Uncas, second and beloved son of 
just John Uncas," and young " Cassar Jonas, a cousin of Uncas ; " and then 
this epitaph on the grave of the chief celebrated by Cooper in his novel : 

1757. 
Here lies Uncas, the king of the Mohicans. 
For beauty, wit, and sterling sense, 
For manners mild, for eloquence, 
And everything that is Wauwegan, 
He was the glory of Mohican ; 
And his death has caused great lamentation 
Both in the English and the Indian nation. 

These epitaphs are interesting as showing how easily the notions of the early 
settlers of Connecticut were imbibed by the honest and simple race of the Mo- 
hicans. The poor Indians thus took the idea of the peculiar merit of royal 
blood, and transferred its praise, just as civilized men do, to the tombstones of 
those who, whatever other merit they have, acknowledge none so great as that 
of relationship to him who " rules by divine right." 

I was much and painfully interested by the doctor's story of a Mohican who 
was educated, had property, married a white woman, had two daughters, was 
exemplary as a man, a citizen, and a Christian, but whose death was hastened 
by the seduction of his two daughters by white men. What sin is there that 
white men have not committed against this simple race? 

Providence, E. I., September 11th. 

Yesterday morning I took the stage, and arrived in this city at nine last 
evening. The country is rocky and uninteresting resembling the rocky part of 
Orange County. Our route was from Norwich to Jewett City, thence to 
Plainfield, where we left Connecticut and entered this State, which I have 
traversed from west to east. 

This city contains about twenty thousand inhabitants, is situated on both 
sides of the Providence River, is built principally of wood, but is beautiful, and 
is more rural in its appearance than our towns and villages. I came to the 
" Roger Williams Hotel," an excellent and spacious establishment. This morn- 
ing I strolled over the town, up to the college-yard, and along the wharves, 
through streets well paved and perfectly clean, with buildings of granite, brick, 
and stone, all apparently new and in good order. There is nowhere anything 
to offend the eye. The wharves are clean; even the shipping seems bright or 
newer than that in other towns. 



1831.] BOSTON SCENES AND MEMORIES. 201 

As I came along the wharves I saw a white flag rigged upon the mast of a 
schooner, called the Richard Rush, with the inscription " Bethel." A crowd 
of sailors and others were gathered on the deck, listening with close attention 
to a young preacher. 

I went on to the Episcopal Church, where I made my morning devotions. 
I could not but observe, as we came to the prayer for " all those who travel by 
land or by water," the advantages of the Liturgy over the often confused and 
extravagant prayers of other denominations. I need not tell you how strange 
it seemed to hear the clergyman, just before reading tbe first psalm, announce : 
" I publish the bans of matrimony between A B, of Boston, and C D, of 
this town ; if any of you know of any just cause or impediment why these 
persons should not be joined in the bans of holy wedlock, ye are to make it 
known — this is the first time of asking." Yet such is the form still observed here. 

After dinner I made my way to the door of a Baptist church, almost the 
largest I had ever seen (this town was settled by the Baptists). While stand- 
ing at the door Dr. Wayland, the president of the college, came along. He 
having been a tutor at Schenectady while I was a student there, we imme- 
diately renewed our acquaintance. He gave me a seat, and I heard him preach 
a most excellent sermon on the doctrine of "original sin," in which his argu- 
ment was, not that we participate in Adam's guilt, or that we suffer punish- 
ment for it, but that, in consequence of his sinning, w r e sin and suffer its fruits, 
unless we repent. 

After church he invited me home to tea with him. He was learned, clear, 
and rational ; and now, I think, he stands deservedly at the head of the clergy 
of his denomination. 

Boston, September \3th. 

I left Providence yesterday at seven. The distance to Boston was forty-five 
miles. There were in the stage two ladies, one from Providence, and one from 
Boston, the husband of the latter, two Quakers from Bristol, New Jersey, and two 
other passengers. We discoursed on all subjects — cities, politics, men, women, 
roads, bridges, stages, fashions, novels, poetry, printing, etc. They gave me 
instructions what to look at when I should arrive in Boston, commended me to 
the Tremont House, and showed an interest in my being comfortably bestowed 
and agreeably entertained at the city of their pride. We separated, with a hos- 
pitable invitation from the gentleman to visit his house. 

The Tremont House is now " the rage " in the United States. Of course, I 
could not get into it, except into No. 96, containing six beds, with the promise 
of having a private room next day. Behold me, then, with my trunk placed at 
the foot of cot No. 6, in room No. 96, meditating how and where to begin my 
tour of duty and observation. 

The dinner was served with ceremony; but who cares for dinners? Not 
you nor I. So let it be noted that it was very splendid, and we pass on. I 
found, by the aid of the directory, the residence of my old friend Dr. Phelps, who 
was a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention. 

While we were sitting there, the noise of drums, trumpets, and clarions, an- 
nounced the'parade on the occasion of the departure of two elegant new stand- 
ards, presented by the young men of Boston to Poland. We went forth to see 
it, and a fine spectacle it was; the military with "pomp and circumstance" and 
in strong force. The standards were rich in Latin and gold, and, as the assem- 
bled ten thousand people shouted, one could not but share in the aspiration 



202 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

that these encouraging gifts might reach the Poles before they should be sub- 
dued. All the ladies of Boston were in the windows, and the gentlemen in the 
streets ; and all the rest of the people were there also. 

As I stood gazing at the parade, Dr. Phelps said, " You are now standing 
upon the ground on which was committed the Boston massacre, in 1770; " and, 
truly, nearly every part of the town seems classic ground. 

After the procession, I called on several persons. I found matters, as con- 
cerned my mission, more favorable than I anticipated. As to all that relates to 
this, I have reported to those who sent me here ; and you will not desire to 
be troubled with allusions to it, for, though a very good Antimason, you are, 
with all due deference be it said, madam, not particularly distinguished as a 
politician. 

In the evening I went to the Antimasonic committee-room, where, it being 
the anniversary of the abduction of Morgan, an energetic harangue was pro- 
nounced by Dr. Portei-, after which Mr. Walker made a very animated speech, 
announcing, at his conclusion, my arrival and presence, in very laudatory strains, 
and calling on me for some remarks. The chairman, a venerable man of seven- 
ty, added the expression of a similar request, and I had to take the floor. I said 
some things, loose and desultory enough, I fear ; but the meeting were too civil 
not to express their gratification. I went home, laid myself down on cot No. 6, 
in room No. 96, and said to myself, " Harry Seward, is this your own self, preach- 
ing politics in the city of Boston ? " 

This evening I found my oration in the newspapers of Providence and Bos- 
ton, spread out with much commendation. 

I rose at half-past five, and dispatched my letters before breakfast. Dr. 
Phelps called for me, and we walked to the State-House. It fronts upon the 
Mall, which is a walk of forty feet in width, inclosing a park, containing seventy 
acres, in the very heart of the city and with good, large old elms shading a clear 
living pond of fresh water in the centre. The State officers politely showed me 
through the legislative halls and offices, all of which are not superior in appear- 
ance to those at Albany. We went into the cupola, from which is a picturesque 
and beautiful view. Every point, every side of Boston was within my sight — the 
fine rivers, the bay, the ocean, and villages and villas for a dozen miles round, in 
every direction. On one side was Bunker Hill, through all time to be celebrated 
as the spot where the first great battle of the Revolution was fought. 

What a host of glowing memories passed through my mind, as I thought of 
the sturdy farmers and townsmen who, without an army, without arms, with- 
out money, without generals, without organization, without determination of 
ultimate' purpose, intrenched themselves on this height to resist the legions of 
Old England ! 

There was Charlestown, right before me, which was burned to ashes — there 
was the place where the British army w^ro encamped — " There," said Dr. Phelps, 
"where you yesterday saw American troops performing a rite in the name and 
service of liberty, I myself saw General Gage march in, with the British troops, 
fifty and more years ago, to quell the factious spirit then called 'insurrection.' " 

Off beyond was Lexington, that spot where blood was first spilled in the 
cause of liberty ; beneath us was the venerable mansion formerly inhabited by 
John Hancock, worth then a million, all of which was spent in the cause of 
freedom. Dr. Phelps said that Mrs. Hancock, who died but a few years ago, at 



1831.] THE STATE-HOUSE. 203 

the age of ninety, had often told him how, when the French fleet and army came 
to the assistance of America, notice was brought at two o'clock one morning to 
her husband that the French officers would breakfast with him ; and how, on 
that short notice, she, good lady, sent out to her Whig neighbors for help and 
provisions ; and at eight breakfast was given to three hundred. 

Off on the right was the monument which covers the remains of the father 
and mother of Benjamin Franklin. Down in a low, obscure spot was the resi- 
dence of Samuel Adams, who, with John Hancock, were the only two for whom 
Governor Gage refused to allow hope of pardon if they would surrender. 

Among the archives of the State-House are preserved a brass drum, a mon- 
strous sword, a grenadier's cap, and a musket, taken from the Hessians at the 
battle of Bennington, with the vote of thanks passed by the Provincial Congress 
of Massachusetts to General Stark for these trophies. Here, also, was a monu- 
ment now taken from its place, but the slabs of which are preserved and placed 
in the hall, from which I copied for you the inscription : 

To . commemorate 
That . train . of . events . which . led 
To . the . American . Revolution 

And . finally . secured 

Liberty . and . Independence 

To . the . United . States 

This . column . is . erected 

By . the voluntary . contribution 

Of . the . citizens . of . Boston 

MDCCXC 

On the other side is a recapitulation of the leading events of that period, 
thus : 

Stamp Act passed, 1765 ; repealed, 1766. 

Board of Customs established, 1767. 

British troops fired on the inhabitants of Boston, March 5, 1110. 

Tea Act passed, 1773. 

Tea destroyed in Boston, December 16th. 

Port of Boston shut and guarded, June, 1774. 

General Congress at Philadelphia, September 4th. 

Provincial Congress at Concord, October 11th. 

Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1875. 

Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17th. 

Washington took command of the army, July 2d. 

Boston evacuated, March 17, 1776. 
Independence declared by Congress, July 4, 1776 ; 

Hancock, President. 

Capture of Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776. 

Capture of Hessians at Bennington, August 16, 1777. 

Capture of British army at Saratoga, October 17th. 

Alliance with France, February 6, 1777. 

Confederacy of United States formed, July 9th. 

Constitution of Massachusetts formed, 1780 ; Bowdoin, President of Council. 

Capture of British army at Yorktown, October 19, 1781. 

Preliminaries of Peace, November SO, 1782. 

Federal Constitution formed, September 10, 1787. 

Definitive Treaty of Peace, September 11, 1783. 

New Congress assembled at New York, April 6, 1790. 

Washington inaugurated President, April 30. 

Public debts funded, August 4, 1790. 



204: LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

On the fourth side is the following inscription : 

Americans, 

While from this eminence 

Scenes of luxuriance, fertility, 

Of flourishing commerce, 

And the abodes of social happiness, 

Meet your view, 

Forget not those 

Who by their exertions 

Have secured to you 

These blessings. 

In a kind of temple, standing within the great entrance to the State-House, is 
a marble statue of George Washington, executed by Ohantrey, which cost ten 
thousand dollars. 

Within sight from where we stood was the old South Church, where the 
people of Boston resolved that they would not receive the tea on which the 
British Parliament had laid the duty of three cents per pound. Just beside it 
was the place where the Whigs disguised themselves as Indians, and just before 
us lay the wharf where they threw the tea overboard into the harbor. 

Nor must I forget to mention that in the State-House are preserved pictures, 
made in 1740, of the governors and clergymen of Massachusetts; among others, 
that of Governor Winthrop, mentioned in " Hope Leslie." What think you of a 
clergyman with his hair cut off close, and a black cap over his head, or a gov- 
ernor with mustaches, and one long tuft of beard depending from the centre of 
his chin ? 

We went next to Faneuil Hall, from whence proceeded the groans which 
aroused the sympathy of the colonies, the bold denunciation which startled King 
George and his Parliament, the manly appeals which gained the admiration of 
Europe, and the thunders which roused the people of America to resistance. I 
stood on the spot where Hancock presided, and where John Adams and Samuel 
Adams spoke. The room is decorated with a large portrait of General Washing- 
ton, resting upon his horse and watching the passage of the Delaware at Trenton. 
It was executed by Stuart, and is said to be the best likeness ever made of the 
great man of the world. What would I not give to be able to say I saw Wash- 
ington, as did the old man who had charge of the room ! He remarked, " The 
picture has one fault, Washington's knees were not so small." There was over 
the chair a portrait of John Adams, " looking just the same," said the old man, 
" as he did when I last saw him at Quincy, a few weeks before his death." 
There is a picture also of John Hancock, at his desk examining his ledger ; an 
excellent picture of General Knox, and another of General Washington, both 
painted by Mr. Copley, father of the late Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. 

Going down, this afternoon, to take the stage for Quincy, my guide pointed 
out to me a cannon-ball projecting from the wall of a church, in the very spot 
where it was lodged when thrown from a mortar in Charlestown, early in the 
Revolution. 

Quincy, September IWi. 

Nothing I have seen is so beautiful as the environs of Boston. This place is 
distant from the city ten miles, and very rural in its appearance. The mansion- 
house, in which died one man who had been President of the United States, 
and which is now occupied by his son, who has held the same exalted station, is 



1831.] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 205 

a plain, two-story building, about sixty feet long, witb a few venerable trees be- 
fore it, and two doors of entrance in front. An old-fasbioned knocker brought 
a servant, who said, " The President has walked up to his brother's, who is 
sick." Would he be in soon ? " Probably not before nine. He walks there 
every evening, and stays one or two hours. He will be in in the morning ; he 
is always at home in the daytime." I left my card, saying I would call in the 
morning. A little girl about five years old, who was standing near, bade me 
"good-by." I happened not distinctly to understand her ; she repeated it, and 
repeated it until she arrested my attention, just as I was going out of the gate. 
I asked her whether she would come and kiss me ? She ran and gave me a 
kiss, bade me good-by, and I left the house thinking of her venerable grand- 
father, the most excellent but the most wronged man of the age. 

Wednesday. 

I spent my hours before breakfast this morning in a ramble through the 
churchyard, looking at the monuments. I discovered several substantial ones 
erected to the memory of his ancestors by a grandson, and a great-grandson, and 
a great-great-grandson (John Quincy Adams), whose name was not expressed ; 
and on one of the monuments it was stated of the deceased that he was " tho 
father of John Adams," and " the grandfather of the lawyer John Adams." 

Thus the burying-ground gives, in the most unobtrusive manner, the geneal- 
ogy of the Adams family, without a word laudatory of either of the Presidents. 
Having obtained the key of the meeting-house, I entered it, and there found 
the well-known inscription upon a plain marble monument in the wall, sur- 
mounted by a bust of John Adams, and closing with the lines : 

From lives thus spent thy earthly duties learn ; 
From fancy's dreams to activo duty turn, 
Let freedom, friendship, faith, thy soul engage, 
And serve, like them, thy country and thy age. 

And now from the dead we turn to the living greatness of Quincy. At nine 
o'clock I was shown into the house, and waited in the parlor till I was an- 
nounced. The house is very plain and old-fashioned ; no Turkey carpeting, no 
pier-tables, no " pillar-and-claw pianos." Very plain ingrain carpeting covered 
the floor, very plain paper on the walls ; modern but plain mahogany chairs, 
and a piano about like yours, composed the simple furniture of the room, ex- 
cept an ancient portrait of General Washington, another of Mrs. Washington, 
one of Jefferson, and one of John Adams. 

A short, rather corpulent man, of sixty and upward, came down the stairs 
and approached me. He was bald, his countenance was staid, sober, almost to 
gloom or sorrow, and hardly gave indication of his superiority over other men. 
His eyes were weak and inflamed. He was dressed in an olive frock-coat, a cravat 
carelessly tied, and old-fashioned, light-colored vest and pantaloons. It was 
obvious that he was a student, just called from the labors of his closet. With- 
out courtly air or attitude, he paused at the door of the parlor. I walked quite 
up to him, while he maintained his immovable attitude, and presented my letter 
of introduction from Tracy. ■ He asked me to sit, read the letter, said he was 
happy to see me, sat down in the next chair, inquired with the earnestness of a 
particular friend concerning Tracy's health, my arrival, etc., expressed a strong 



206 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

desire that he might see him, and then ensued a pause. I alluded to my busi- 
ness of seeing the prominent Antimasons of Boston, and stated that I was to 
have been a companion of Tracy. " Yes," said be, " Mr. Tracy was in the 
vicinity of the outrage in your State, and his attention was, therefore, early 
drawn to the subject ; and his principles are too honest and correct not to deter- 
mine him to take the right side." " A fortunate coincidence of opinion," thought 
I, "both as to my principles and my friend." He spoke of freemasonry, said he 
had not wished to do anything which would injure Mr. Clay's prospect of ob- 
taining the presidency, and had therefore been restrained. He had long felt 
an anxious desire to discharge the duty which devolved upon him in relation to 
freemasonry ; but, situated as he was, had hoped that other and younger men 
enough would engage in the cause to dispense with his exertions. But he was 
satisfied this was a crisis which required every man to do his duty, and he should 
not shrink from his. He regretted that Mr. Clay had not been advised by him 
and by Mr. Rush to abandon the order ; but he would not be so advised, and 
that was his misfortune ; but the right cause must not be sacrificed. 

He spoke enthusiastically of Rush ; said Rush sent him copies of his letters 
before they were published ; that he advised him to be a candidate for the presi- 
dency, but he declined, and now he (Adams) regretted it. He said he should 
have more confidence in Rush than in Clay as President, and thought him, on 
the whole, superior to Clay. He spoke of Calhoun as a man possessed of great 
and splendid powers, having the capacity greatly to serve his country, but in- 
sincere, and possessing " the sin of unchastened ambition." He hoped Calhoun 
would retrieve his condition, adopt better principles, and yet be useful to his 
country. 

He spoke of General Jackson and the Seminole War without one word of 
reserve, or bitterness, or unkindness ; thought his Administration ruinous, but 
still doubted not that he would be reelected. Of John McLean he spoke, 
though not warmly. Of himself, he said that he would not desire to be Presi- 
dent of the United States again, though he should have the assurance of a 
unanimous vote. He had had the office ; he knew its duties, privations, enjoy- 
ments, perplexities, and vexations ; but if the Antimasons thought his nomi- 
nation would be better than any other, he would not decline. He had not, 
as a citizen, a right to decline ; but hoped they would not mention him, except 
on the ground that he was the best candidate. He said he should write in favor 
of Antimasonry. He knew what the opposing party would say — they would 
impeach his motives ; he did not care for that; he was accustomed to it; he was 
callous to it. He spoke with great freedom of Daniel Webster, as a very great 
man, etc. 

Our interview lasted three hours; he was all the time plain, honest, and free, 
in his discourse; but with hardly a ray of animation or feeling in the whole of 
it. In short, he was just exactly what I before supposed he was, a man to be 
respected for his talents, admired fur his learning, honored for his integrity and 
simplicity, but hardly possessing traits of character to inspire a stranger 
with affection. Occasionally, indeed, he rose into a temporary earnestness ; and 
then a flash of ingenuous ardor was seen, but it was transitory, and all was cool, 
regular, and deliberate. When I left him he thanked me for the call, expressed 
a hope of seeing Tracy; and, if he should come to Boston, he w r ould call on me; 
and so we parted; and, as I kft the bouse, I thought I could plainly answer 



1831.] JOSEPH BONAPARTE. 207 

bow it happened that he, the best President since Washington, entered and left 
the office with so few devoted personal friends. 

September \Mh. 
On returning from Quincy, I finished and dispatched my letter to you, after 
having received a dozen letters from everywhere. I went in the evening to the 
theatre ; saw young Kean and a tolerably full house. The next day Mr. Gassett 
called with a gig. I rode with him to the university at Cambridge ; traversed 
the halls, library, chapel, etc. ; called on Dr. Waterhouse, who cordially wel- 
comed me. I told him how much I was pleased with his work on the subject 
of Junius. He showed me a congratulatory and beautiful letter from James 
Madison. I went home by the way of Bunker Hill; saw the half-finished 
monument and the scenes of many interesting incidents in the Revolutionary 
War ; at night, visited Mr. Odion, a merchant, who entertained a number of 
our friends with myself very hospitably ; talked politics till eleven, then went 
home to my lodgings. The next day I devoted to business; had the pleasure of 
seeing it all do well; dropped into the Athenteum; went in the evening to the 
theatre; saw Hackett enter upon the character of Solomon Sioap ; was called 
off to go to a political meeting ; spoke to them half an hour, by solemn invi- 
tation. Next morning I took the stage at five o'clock; took the boat at Provi- 
dence at one; and yesterday arrived at New York. 

The Baltimore Convention was now at hand, and Seward went, 
as a delegate, to attend it. 

* October Id. 

I left Albany on Wednesday afternoon, reached New York the next morn- 
ing, and set out at six o'clock on the steamboat for Philadelphia. The weather 
was cold and wet, and the journey quite uncomfortable. Many delegates were 
on board. The route to Philadelphia is by steamboat, forty-five miles, to New 
Brunswick, on the Raritan River ; then twenty-six miles across the country, by 
stage, through Princeton to Trenton on the Delaware; thence down the Dela- 
ware, by steamboat, about thirty miles, to the city of Philadelphia. 

At Bordentown, a few miles below Trenton, is the seat of Joseph Bonaparte, 
who has secured in this country an asylum from the storms of the Old World, 
and has brought with him wealth which, it is said, is used with munificence not 
unworthy of a king > You recollect that he was made, by his brother Napoleon, 
King of Spain, and was not an unimportant, though at times an ineffective, 
auxiliary in Napoleon's stupendous operations. It must be now fourteen or 
fifteen years since he came to this country to reside, during all which time he 
has demeaned himself as a quiet and inoffensive citizen ; and at no time has any 
aspiration on his part for a reentrance upon the busy theatre of French politics 
become public, save when, on the arrival of the news of the revolution in July, 
1830, and at the time of the establishment of the new dynasty, he issued a 
manifesto, in which he asserted the right of the young Napoleon to the French 
throne; doubtless in the hope that it might excite grateful recollections of the 
emperor among the French, and prepare the way for reestablishing the Bona- 
parte family. The manifesto hardly escaped ridicule in tbis country, and in 
France fell upon a people who seemed to regard it with indifference. 

The Raritan River is little less than a bay, or arm of the sea, extending forty 



208 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

or fifty miles into New Jersey, and flowing through low land covered with wild 
salt grass. The banks of the river are destitute of beauty. The Delaware, 
below Trenton, flows through a tract of finely-improved land, with few natural 
objects of sublimity or interest, but has several beautiful towns upon its banks, 
composed principally of summer residences of the inhabitants of Philadelphia. 
We reached Philadelphia at seven in the evening, slept at the United States 
Hotel, and were roused at five by the summons to the steamboat. We set off at six 
o'clock, and floated down the Delaware till we reached the mouth of a fine ship- 
canal, of about fifteen miles in length, crossing which we were in Chesapeake 
Bay, where we found the Charles Carroll, a large and handsome steamboat. In 
her we proceeded down that beautiful sheet of water, seeming like a lake, twelve 
or fourteen miles wide, till, in a sequestered cove, we found stretched before us 
the city of Baltimore, of which the most prominent point is, as it should be, a 
monument to Washington. I found a room in the third story at Barnum's. 

Now, if it were an agreeable subject, I would describe to you all the bustle, 
excitement, collision, irritation, enunciation, suspicion, confusion, obstinacy, 
foolhardiness, and humor, of a convention of one hundred and thirteen men, 
from twelve different States, assembled for the purpose of nominating candi- 
dates for President and Vice-President of the United States. 

But I pass over that, and the results you know already. The convention 
adjourned on Wednesday night at twelve. The next day I called, in company 
with several of the delegates, upon Mr. Wirt, and found him one of the most 
interesting, amiable, and intelligent men I have ever met. 

• Thursday, October Gth. 

Do you remember my writing to you a long letter, last winter, about Colo- 
nel Burr and Blennerhasset ? If you will look up again the old trial of Burr, 
you will find there the speech of Mr. Wirt, and, when you have read that, rum- 
mage over your father's library until you find " The British Spy " and " The 
Old Bachelor," and look over them, and say if you do not share in the pride of 
the Antimasons in having Mr. Wirt for their candidate. It is cheering to them 
to find their cause manfully and zealously espoused by three so pure, so able, 
so illustrious men as John Quincy Adams, Richard Rush, and William Wirt. 
I have never seen our friends when they felt so enthusiastic. I am almost the 
only one here who, wishing Wirt to be elected, am not sanguine in the hope that 
he will be. 

Coming up the river, the other night, a man fell overboard from the steam- 
boat. There wa- a fearful moment of uncertainty as to who it might be; and 
if every passenger on board the boat thought and felt as I did, he thought only 
of that person, nearest and dearest to himself, who was among the passengers. 
Tedious minutes elapsed until it was known. I cannot describe to you the 
intense, painful anxiety that bound in silence all the crowd, which looked upon 
the man, as he seemed to stand erect in the water, waiting, and waiting, and 
waiting for the boats to approach him. What a possession is human life, to be 
exposed to such hazards ; and what must have been the solicitude of that poor 
mortal, while the boats were getting toward liim ! And yet, had he sunk be- 
neath the waves, to rise no more, what would it have been but hastening for a 
few days, or months, or years, a catastrophe which is inevitable; and how very 
soon would the surface of human society, momentarily agitated by the event 



1832.] SPEECH ON THE UNITED STATES BANK. 209 

like the face of the waters disturbed by his struggles, have become smooth and 
borne no trace of the commotion ! 



CHAPTER VII. 
1832. 



Legislative Debates. — Speech on the United States Bank. — Railroads. — General Boot and 
the Regency. — Boyish Memories. — Ways of the Lobbyists. — The Address. — The 
Greeks. 

Another session was now at hand. Established for the winter, 
with his family, in Albany, Seward wrote describing their hotel-life : 

It has been intensely cold since we arrived here, the mercury standing, last 
week, at sixteen below zero. The wind has blown a hurricane for the two days 
past ; snow and sand filled the air ; nothing was to be seen from the windows 
but half-frozen men hauling wood at ten dollars a cord, except, indeed, that 
night before last a fire threw its lurid glare over the city, and yesterday, in the 
midst of the storm, the procession of a funeral passed before us. Kobody 
moved without-doors that could avoid it. 

Though our parlor is but twelve feet square, a bureau, two tables, four 
chairs, and a coal-scuttle, constituting its furniture, the wind whistled through 
the door-cracks, and we drew our table up to within two feet of the coal-grate 
to write, but between-whiles stopping to warm our hands. 

But to-day the wind has fallen, the sun shines, the bells ring, and the streets 
are enlivened by the cheerful gathering of people at church. 

The United States Bank question had begun to loom up as a com- 
ing political issue. The petition of the bank for a continuance of its 
chartered rights lay upon the table of a Congress known to be fa- 
vorable to its request. But the President's hostility had already 
been foreshadowed. The Jackson party, in the Legislature at Albany, 
followed the Executive lead, and a resolution denouncing the bank 
was introduced in the Senate. Maynard opposed it with his usual 
eloquence. ' Seward followed on the same side. His speech on the 31st 
of January was the prominent event of his legislative life during the 
year. His previous modest efforts on the floor had made a favorable 
impression, and the news that he was to make an elaborate speech 
brought an unusual audience to the cramped space allotted to specta- 
tors in the chamber. He besran : 

"War, sir, is a grievous calamity. Consternation goes before, destruction 
attends it, and desolation marks its path ; and yet it is animating, exciting, 
and glorious. We love to dwell even upon its terrors. The poet of our own 
age, who excels all others in telling of the passions, has drawn his scene of 
most intense interest from the carnival of the dogs and vultures upon the field 
14 



210 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1832. 

of battle. Beauty delights to honor valor. Young ambition is emulous of its 
deeds, and poor human nature, dazzled and confounded, often sinks into hom- 
age before the blaze of military glory. Well does the gentleman from the 
Third District (Mr. Edmonds) understand this infirmity of our nature ; for, in 
the very commencement of his eloquent speech, he converted this Senate-cham- 
ber, ordinarily the forum of placid debate, into a battle-field, and having placed 
before us, as an enemy of huge dimensions, the United States Bank, he pro- 
claimed a war which, "if God had given him the power, should be a war of ex- 
termination." Baising high that standard, always equally victorious in the mar- 
tial or the political campaign, he rushed with tremendous energy upon the foe. 
We cheered him in the figlit, and could not without reluctance withhold the 
wreath of victory. 

Continuing- in the same strain, Seward ironically proposed that 
the Jackson men should apply their doctrines to their own banks ; 
and, since they had declared war against " bank aristocracy," should 
begin with those in the State which they had been so liberally charter- 
ing, and of which their own political friends were stockholders and 
directors. This " palpable hit " was received with some merriment. 

Much is said, sir, about the motives of this crusade against the bank, its 
disinterestedness and patriotism. I, too, am at least disinterested in relation to 
it. Like the poet who feared temptation, and therefore blessed his Muse " who 
found him poor and kept him so," I may be grateful that I am no bank-stock- 
holder, either in the Bank of the United States or any other of the banks, nor 
have I connection or communion with those who are interested in either. 

After giving a history of the national bank, an exposition of its 
relations to the fiscal system of the country, and a summary of the 
arguments for and against its recharter, he proceeded to draw a con- 
trast between the actual operations of the bank and the effects likely 
to result from its stoppage. In conclusion he said : 

I will conjure all the members of the Senate to reflect that he whose will 
is said to he the author of the mandate for the introduction of this resolution, 
and who it is avowed demands its passage, great, honored, loved, revered though 
he is, is nevertheless mortal — mortal, therefore fallible — and that his interests 
weigh hut as the dust in the balance against the interests of twelve millions of 
people, and the thousands of millions of their posterity, to be affected by this 
legislation. Let their interests, not his glory, their welfare and prosperity, not 
his success in an election, determine our votes in this measure. 

On the 14th of February of this year a number of gentlemen, 
among whom were large landed proprietors, scientific students, and 
persons of prominence in political affairs, met at the capital to take 
into consideration the project of forming a State Agricultural Society. 
Le Ray de Chaumont was chosen its president, and Jesse Buel one of 
its secretaries. Among others who participated in the meeting were 



1832.] NULLIFICATION MOVEMENTS. 211 

Judge Conkling, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Isaiah Townsend, William 
James, Edward C. Delavan, Lieutenant-Governor Edward P. Living- 
ston, Chancellor Sanford, Francis Granger, Peter Sken Smith, John 
A. King, George Tibbits, Daniel D. Campbell, and William C. Bouck. 
Seward was a delegate from Cayuga County. This gathering was 
one of the early steps toward organizing the New York State Agri- 
cultural Society, since become so important and useful. 

Corporations were already engrossing much of the attention of the 
Legislature. In a speech, at this session, on a proposed charter to a whal- 
ing company, Seward showed the injustice of creating monopolies, and 
urged, what was through life a favorite doctrine with him, that privi- 
leges for commercial enterprise, in all its forms, roads, banks, railways, 
manufactures, and trade, ought to be thrown open to all citizens by 
general laws. In subsequent years this principle gradually gained 
more ground in the statute-book. 

March ISth. 

We have before us the great western and southern railroads. Last Monday 
the bill for constructing a railroad from "Waterford to Whitehall, along the line 
of the Champlain Canal, was before the Senate. It was lost, receiving the votes 
only of the northern Senators on its line, and the western Senators on the line 
of the Erie Canal. All the North River Senators, except Tallmadge, voted 
against it. It was at the same time distinctly avowed in debate by Beardsley, 
who led the opposition, that there should be no railroad constructed on the line 
of the Erie Canal. The reason given was an apprehension of a diversion of 
canal-tolls. The consequence will be, that the western railroad will be defeated. 
Should there be a charter granted to construct a road from Schenectady to Utica, 
I think the road would probably be made. It is said it would not be possible to 
procure a subscription to the stock of a railroad from Utica or Schenectady to 
Buffalo; but I would be willing to grant charters for roads from Buffalo to 
Schenectady, and from Lake Erie to Orange County. 

John A. King is not only an Antimason, but a clever, fine fellow, and very 
popular with the whole Legislature. 

April 2d. 

You doubtless have read General Root's attack upon the " Regency," and 
have observed the prompt denunciations which have been poured out upon him. 
The war is openly declared. I wish you could be here to see how much more 
violently the different factions of "the party" hate each other than they hate 
us. As yet the prospect gains ground that the Clay men in this State and in 
Pennsylvania will be content to support our tickets. 

You will have seen that the excitement growing out of the Cherokee question 
is postponed until next winter for the benefit of General Jackson. In the mean 
time Georgia will go on to survey the Cherokee lands in defiance of the Supreme 
Court. 

All private intelligence from Washington contributes to the belief that no 
arrangement of the tariff question will be made this winter : and that within the 
summer South Carolina, aided probably by Virginia, North Carolina. Georgia, 



212 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1832. 

Alabama, and Mississippi, will hold conventions to nullify the tariff laws, and 
threaten dissolution of the Union. 

I am informed that it is probable that I have been nominated for supervisor. 
So far as concerns myself, I certainly would rather be run when I must be de- 
feated than to run and be elected. I understood that you were opposed to my 
nomination, and I think you were right ; but it is a matter of not very great 
importance. I trust our friends would not push me upon the course unless 
it were for the best ; and, if it be for the best, I shall care very little for being 
beaten. 

In April he made another visit to Orange County, leaving Mrs. 
Seward there. A letter, written her on his return to Albany, said : 

IIow does Orange County appear to you ? I do not mean in such dull 
weather as this, but when the sun shines forth, and winds are stilled, and the 
air is soft. It is to me a land of many charms from the associations of youth 
and habit. I love its mountains and vales, its brooks and groves. There are a 
thousand localities there which I do not recollect to have admired, when I lived 
there, for their sublimity or beauty, yet which are green and fresh and lovely in 
my remembrance, and with them every one there is the association of some in- 
cident or feeling now recalled with pleasure. Let one speak to me of Mount 
Eve, which in truth, I suppose, is far from being beautiful in comparison with 
other mountains, and suddenly the green, forest-covered steep rises before me, 
with beautiful fleecy clouds resting midway on the ascent, now gathering form 
and proportion, now fading away over the summit, and with it is sure to come 
the recollection of the hundred times when I watched it, to see if there was 
cause to fear a storm might mar anticipated spurt. I well remember once, when 
you were in Orange County, of your writing to me about strawberries in a 
meadow belonging to Mr. Curtis. I do not know that I had thought of the 
spot in twenty years, yet the distinct recollection of the grassy knoll, of my 
own hours passed in gathering the delicious fruit there, rises with all mi- 
nuteness of time, circumstance, incident, and even conversation. The little 
brooks which you so much admired when we went over to the hill on which 
Chloe lives, are marked distinctly by the recollection of many a jocund laugh, 
many a fearful story, many a pleasant truant hour. The old butternuts that 
shade her humble habitation, how venerable they seem in my memory ! IIow 
many hours I've spent, squirrel-like, in gathering, by slow labor, the nuts to lay 
in store for winter's evening enjoyment! I think that this delight of the heart 
in ancient associations is the secret of the desire so common to return and close 
one's days, after a busy life abroad, in the scenes of youth. 

"When I was studying law, I think at Goshen, there came a lecturer on the 
" Science of Mnemonics, or the Art of improving the Memory." His plan was 
this : lie had a book of plates containing the pictures of many familiar objects — 
a pump, a table, a carriage, etc. These were placed in regular order. The art 
consisted in forming an association between the fact or idea to be remembered 
and one of those objects, so that everything to be remembered should be, as it 
were, stowed away in the same room with one or another of the pictures, and 
whenever the picture occurred all the ideas associated with it came up in the 
memory. The plan was ingenious, but useless, because too artificial. Yet it 



1832.] THE LOBBY. 213 

was amusing to see how soon the fancy supplied the desired connection between 
the arbitrary memento and the thing to be remembered, and in all after-life I 
have had tbe association come up involuntarily in my mind. On the same prin- 
ciple it is tbat scenes acquire interest and preserve it by association. 

The striking of the clock admonishes me that I have spent an bour in this 
rambling letter. My anthracite is fading into stone. I will leave the residue 
till morning. 

April UtJi. 

"Weed called this morning, and announced as news, among other tbings, that 
Marcy was to be the candidate for Governor. 

John Birdsall called, and we discussed that part of the science of demonol- 
ogy which relates to the " blue devils." He was delighted with an opportunity 
to relate his experience, and a melancholy one it was. Who would think that 
so kind-hearted, unobtrusive, and amiable a man would be the victim of such 
horrid oppression ? 

The canal will be opened on the 25th, but for the first week we shall hardly 
be able to get along without being crowded out of all comfort. 

I set apart to-day to write the address of the Antimasonic members of the 
Legislature, locked my door, and went to work with great diligence. Having 
half finished it, I went up to converse with one of our leaders upon the subject- 
matter. He advised me to leave out all on the subject of antimasonry, and fill 
it with matters relating to the conduct and doings of the Legislature. Tims 
advised, I proceeded until our other leader came into the room at noon. I read 
it to him ; he wondered at the selection of such topics, and thought I ought to 
confine myself principally to antimasonry. Then I made up my mind to take 
my own way, as I found it impracticable to meet the views of both parties. At 
last I have gone through with the draft, and laid it aside in order to write to 
you, which I find vastly more easy, as well as more agreeable. 

Here is a bonmot of Granger's. A newly-married pair, both recently wid- 
owed, have arrived on their bridal tour at Congress Hall. The Kanes sent them 
cards of invitation to their party, but the bride and the bridegroom came not. 
The Kanes asked Granger what he thought was the reason that they did not 
come. He answered that he "supposed it must be because they were both 
in deep mourning! " 

April 12th. 

The lobby are becoming corrupt and impudent. Yesterday, after I had 
made up my mind to vote for the Leather Manufacturers' Bank, I received a let- 
ter requesting me to vote for it, because it would be to " the interest of the 
writer." I threw the letter into the fire, and told Mr. Tracy that I was almost 
disposed to vote against the bank. The bank bill passed. To-day the gentle- 
man appeared and told me that any amount of stock I wanted in the bank I 
could have at ten per cent. I told him I wanted no stock in the bank. He 
said he could not offer it before the bank bill passed. I told him it was useless 
to offer it to me, either before or after it passed. I have seen too much of these 
operations. " Give me," said Agur, "neither poverty nor riches! " and so say I. 
And yet, though I see those now flourishing who practise mean and corrupt 
ways, I cannot think it always was so, or always will be. If I thought so, 
Heaven knows I would soon be out of the line altogether. But it has not been 
so with me. For my years, I have had good speed, and as little reverse as 



214 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1832. 

most ; and yet I have never given one vote from interested considerations, or 
attached myself to a party whose principles did not receive the support of my 
conscience. There is nothing bright, to be sure, in prospect, yet tbe way seems 
no more difficult than that through which I have passed. 

You recollect the friendly fraternal solicitude Weed manifested about the 
success of my effort on the United States Bank? Among all tbe compliments, 
all the praise that effort brought me — and it brought me more than it deserved 
— one from Weed gave me most pleasure. None but one of his delicacy of 
principle would have thought of it. "Seward," said he, "that speech will do 
great things for you. It will win you much favor, not so much for its merit as 
a defense of the bank, though in that respect meritorious, but because it may 
lead people to know and esteem your principles, and your feelings." I have run 
on in this strain of egotism, I know not how ; but to return : I think such prin- 
ciples ought to distinguish our party from its opponents. 

Nine o'clock P. J/". 
I have been vigorously at work on the address. It has grown upon my 
hands. 

Thursday, April \M7i. 

You would give me joy, I know, if you were here. I have just finished the 
first copy of my address, after a labor of many hours. The feelings called forth 
in the composition of it are yet warm ; and therefore it seems to me a success- 
ful performance. I will speak well of it now, for, before many days, it will 
seem " weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable." 

Tallmadge reads his to-night in the Regency caucus. I am going to hear it, 
partly for the purpose of being prepared to answer anything in it that may 
require answer, and partly for the purpose of comparing my own with his, 
although the risk of being disgusted with my own is very great. 

Saturday, 21st. 

Yesterday was a day of caucusing. The Antimasonic committee were here 
to take into consideration the address. In the evening all the Antimasonic mem- 
bers were crowded in the ladies' parlor for the same purpose. It was submit- 
ted, criticised, and approved. It only remains that it be copied correctly for 
the press, and then it is off my hands. 

Before this time, notwithstanding the rain and clouds, I suppose George and 
his bride have arrived. The heavens smile not on your festivities. Jove laughs, 
they say, at lovers' prayers, hut lovers, during the honeymoon, may laugh at 
his storms. 

I shall employ myself diligently in closing my concerns, so as to be off from 
Albany at the instant of the adjournment. 

Anions? the events of the year 1832 was the final adjustment, by 
the threat powers, of the boundaries of Greece as an independent 
state, and the elevation of Otlio to her throne. The news of her in- 
dependence Avas welcomed by the friends of the Greek cause in Amer- 
ica, though it hardly realized their highest hopes of Greek liberty. 
In February, 182?, when tin- tidings came that the fortress of Mis- 
solonghi, after long resisting the power of the Turks, had yielded, and 



1832.] THE CHOLERA. 215 

the greater part of the brave defenders had been massacred, Seward 
had joined, with youthful ardor, in the meetings and appeals for relief. 
Forty years later, when he made the circuit of the globe, and was 
received by every nationality with some demonstration of gratitude 
for remembered kindness, he landed one day among the isles of Greece. 
As he was setting sail at twilight from Syra, the town and hillside 
burst into a blaze of illumination, as for some festival. A deputation 
of venerable men came to say to him that the display was in his 
honor, and not merely for his renown as a statesman, but because they 
cherished with especial pleasure the remembrance of the young lawyer 
at Auburn, who, in years gone by, had so earnestly pleaded for help 
to the Greeks. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
1332. 



Rural Fancies. — Rev. Alonzo Potter. — The Fire-King. — Coming of the Cholera.— Maynard's 
Death. — Lieutenant-Governor Livingston. — Jackson reelected. — Governor Marey. — A 
Weather-Prophet. — Rival Stages. — The Price of Candles. — Edwin Forrest. — A Pre- 
monition of the Civil War. 

Enjoying at Auburn, after the adjournment, a respite from official 
labors, Seward, in a letter to Weed, alluded to that dream of rural 
life which was one of his favorite imaginings : 

Public life has produced a singular effect upon me. It is the desire to aban- 
don active occupation altogether. It has produced disgust for my profession ; 
that is natural enough, but it has diminished my ambition for public service. I 
seem now to wish only for a farm, with sufficient revenue to save me from 
actual embarrassment. 

So you see, when you and Granger, Whittlesey, Maynard, and the rest, come 
to your kingdom, I shall be looking out upon you from the " loop-holes of my 
retreat." 

But there was little time for the indulgence of such fancies. This 
was to be a busy summer. It was the year of the presidential elec- 
tion. In June the Antimasons were to hold their State Convention at 
Utica, and the Legislature was to meet in extra session to apportion 
congressional districts. Then, too, a new and comparatively unknown 
public danger was approaching. The cholera had made its appearance 
in America. Not only was that pestilence more dreaded than now, 
but it was fraught with more actual peril, for medical knowledge, in 
regard to its treatment, was scanty and imperfect. 

So vague and confused were many of the popular ideas about it 
that a story was told of a squad of men who went out from Albany, 



216 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1S32. 

armed with stioks, to drive it back if they should happen to meet it 
on (hr line of the Northern Canal ! 

CoNGKEBS Hall, JttlH '2\st. 

I have drawn the red-covered table into the centre of " Letter B," and made 
ready to write von a good letter, telling yon that 1 have escaped upsets by stage, 

tire in the taverns, explosions by steam on the railroad, and cholera on the 
Canal. As we anticipated, we arrived in I'tiea Tuesday evening. The next 
morning we took the Telegraph, which landed as at Schenectady at seven in 
the evening— too late for the railroad cars, so we concluded to remain there in 
preference to coming by night in the stage. 

1 went over the college-grounds, after which I called upon one or two friends 
and spenl the evening in conversation, reviving old recollections. 

There is no cholera here, and none known to exist in the State, except at 
Ogdensbnrg, Plattsburg, and Fort Miller. I believe there was a solitary ease at 
Mechanicsville, hut it docs not appear to have infected the place. 1 think we 
shall ha\ e a short session. 

June 21et. 

The alarm has greatly subsided. It disturbs no domestic circle, and, so far 
a- 1 can learn, prevents no contemplated arrangement, because the cholera has 
not yet come the people are quite well convinced it will not come at all. or, if it 
come, will he less fatal than was anticipated. The accounts now received from 
Canada induce the belief that its ravages are confined to the immigrants, of whom 
it is said twenty-five thousand have landed this year at Montreal, a number ex- 
ceeding the entire population of that city. 

The Drowned band road cause came np in the Supreme Court, so I had to 
attend there at ten. At eleven we went into session as a legislature, and spent 
the day till two o'clock in passing a hill for the preservation o\' the public health. 
Its provisions, if they can be enforced, may be very useful, but it is rather re- 
garded as an endeavor to quiet the public mind than as growing out of any 
exigency actually existing. Thus far all continues well. 

In the evening the delegates arrived from the btica Convention, among 
whom were Tracy, Weed, Andrews, Cary, and Bolley. They had an harmonious 
meeting, and made nominations which suit the Nationals, without comprotnittinir 
the interests or principles of our own party. The fair prospect now is, that we 
shall combine in support of our ticket the whole opposition, and many entertain 
confident hopes of the election of Granger and Stevens, and our Wirt electoral 
ticket. 

Last evening, we steamed an hour at the Museum in witnessing the exploits 
o( the " Fire-King." They were marvelous enough to excite astonishment, but 
not sufficiently diversified to sustain the interest. The performance commenced 
with the operation of holding for five minutes a piece of white paper in the 
blaze of a candle, and preserving it unburned by means of blowing upon it. The 
next was eating liquid sealing-wax. Then "his majesty " poured liquid molten 
bad upon his tongue, and afterward swallowed boiling oil. He concluded with 
the feat of going into an oven, and remaining there ten minutes while be cooked 
a beefsteak. Of course there is nothing wonderful in all this, except the secret 
of the substance^ which he uses to counteract the heat. 



1832.] CLAY AND WIRT. 217 

Monday, June 2hth. 

Yesterday morning I went to St. Peter's Church, where I heard a beautiful 
discourse from Alonzo Potter, of Schenectady. J came away satisfied that he is 
a line scholar, as I had supposed when in college lie would prove to be. In thi 
afternoon I went to the Baptist Church, and was gratified, of course, with the 
impassioned sermon of Mr. Welch. 

William Fosgate came here in the afternoon, and we spent two hours in 
rambling over the graveyards searching for the grave of Clinton. It turned out 
that his remains were deposited in some vault, SO that we were disappointed in 
our search. 

Consternation here about the cholera has ceased ; indeed, I wish it had kept 

up a little longer. The streets are offensive, hut it seems to be thought probable 

that our State will escape the contagion. 

Tuesday, June IMh. 

After tea last evening, we. bad a caucus at, Gideon Hawley's. Among those 
who attended was Judge Woodworth. On the way home he and I fell in with 
General Gansevoort, who extolled so highly his port wine, that we were induced 
to accept his invitation to taste it. 

We found the wine very good, and the general very hospitable. We talked 
about Indians in general, and the expedition to ( hicago in particular. 

Next perhaps in importance was the call on Mrs. Livingston, the bride, who 
is domiciled at the Eagle. She made many inquiries about you and the boys. 
All seem to think, from the circumstance- of your spending last winter \\ ith me, 
that you were enlisted for the whole senatorial term, and were to be expected 
here whenever the Legislature should be in session. If you were here you 
would enjoy Albany very much. The weather is warm, indeed, but morning 
and evening it is delightful. There are no lobby-men here, and uobody is writ- 
ing speeches. 

I purposed while here to prepare an address to be delivered at Schenectady. 
I found the time passing rapidly away, and yet I was unable to select any sub- 
ject, and so I read and wrote, not knowing 

"Hew tie- subjed theme might pang; 
Perhaps it may turn out a Bang 
1'crliaps turn out a sermon " — 

until yesterday, when I became convinced that I had not and could not have 
time and opportunity to prepare such a discourse as would be satisfactory to my 
own mind. I burned the manuscript and abandoned the intention. 

Wednesday, June 21th. 

Last evening I attended a joint meeting of the leading politicians at tic 
Adelphi. 

The Nationals have declared their entire concurrence in the nominations 
made by the Antimasonic State Convention for Governor and Lieutenant-Cov- 
ernor and electors. Thus, after four years of reviling us, wasting their own 
strength, and embarrassing ours, to tins end they are come at las!, to take up 
our cause and our candidates. I hope it may not be too late. 

Now followed an active and exciting presidential campaign. The 
union between the supporters of Clay and those of Wirt, it was be- 



218 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1832. 

lieved, might be successful in overthrowing' the party in power, who 
had renominated General Jackson. 

By the local convention of his party Seward had, this year, been 
chosen the chairman of the Central Committee in Cayuga Count}', his 
associates being J. H. Hardenbergh, George C. Skinner, Robert Cook, 
and A. D. Leonard. Their address of August 4, 1832, " to the Anti- 
masonic Republicans " of the county, called upon them to " make a 
renewed and vigorous effort " in the election, " in which they will for 
the first time have the privilege of voting for candidates of their own 
nomination for President and Vice-President of the United States," 
and invited the cordial cooperation of all who approved the Utica 
nominations. 

But their high hopes were destined to swift disappointment in 
November. At the election the Jackson men again carried the State 
and nation by overwhelming majorities. 

A session of the Court of Errors, held soon after, called Seward 
again to Albany, whence he wrote : 

November 101A. 

I am resting from the labors of my journey under the wings of the Eagle. 
The result of the election has been so signally overwhelming as to leave no 
cause for idle or unavailing regrets. 

I find myself among men who are, like myself, beaten, but not desponding, 
and so much beaten that they, like me, laugh at the delusion which could hope 
for a different result. 

Besides this, our opponents have achieved so destructive a victory that in 
common decency they are compelled, when in our presence, to suppress the ex- 
pression of their exultation. Marcy came into the Senate-chamber this morn- 
ing and received the congratulations of his friends ; but there was great deli- 
cacy in the conduct of the ceremonies, for which, as for the least of mercies, 
we ought to desire to be grateful. 

1 went last night, as soon as I arrived, to see Weed. He is still confined to 
the bouse. He sits up, however, and bis house is a levee, continually resorted 
to by our defeated friends. I found John Birdsall and others with him. Weed 
sustains defeat with firmness and spirit. Birdsall is now the only associate I 
have here. I have come to esteem him very much ; he is honest, candid, and 
unsuspecting. 

Sunday Night, November 11th. 
I was tempted to-day to remain within-doors, the weather was so cold; but 
I gallantly surmounted the artifices of the Evil-One in this particular, although I 
have abundant reason to fear that his grappling-irons seized more strongly 
upon some other parts of my religious character. In the morning I went with 
Mrs. Tracy and Mrs. Cary to St. Peter's Church. The pews were meagrely 
filled. I went, intending to be interested at least in the service, but the wretched 
expedient of labor-saving, by employing a clerk to utter the responses which 
the people alone ought to express, destroys the whole system of audible worship 
by individuals. Now, I could well enough have joined with all the congrega- 



1832.] AFTER THE DEFEAT. 219 

tion in so low a voice as to attract no notice, and yet keep my mind riveted to 
the subject-matter of the prayers ; but when I heard a priest saying one part of 
the service in a loud and melodious tone, and a clerk uttering the other part in 
a still louder nasal sing-song, the whole seemed a ceremony which I might listen 
to without having any responsibility upon myself. 

In the afternoon I went to Dr. Campbell's, where people actually were not 
too lazy to sing, and the clergyman spoke as if he was conscious that his con- 
gregation had souls to be saved. The sermon was desultory, rather a lecture 
than a sermon ; but it was nevertheless one of the best I have ever heard from 
that amiable and eloquent preacher. 

Dr. Campbell had recently come to Albany from Washing-ton. He 
was now settled in pastoral charge of the First Presbyterian Church — 
the " Old Brick "—whose walls had echoed the voices of so many elo- 
quent men. Dr. Campbell was still young, and of striking appearance: 
tall, very thin, very pale, and spiritual-looking, with dark hair and 
eyes, he was always dignified and grave in the pulpit, though in soci- 
ety his conversation never lacked genial humor. He had already 
grown very popular. 

Monday, November 12th. 

Every man I meet asks what we are to do next. How shall we proceed ? 
Shall we fight, or shall we surrender? How and where shall we rally? But 
no man pretends to answer the questions which all so eagerly propose. 

My friends give me credit for philosophical or stoical firmness in misfortune. 
What do you think is my comfort now ? It is, that there is always some way out 
of the most intricate of labyrinths, and some relief in store for the most help- 
less of conditions. How we are to get along I know not ; but, when the confu- 
sion of our defeat is past, I doubt not that there will offer some course which 
can be pursued with honor and with advantage to the interests of our country — 
honor which I shall never sacrifice, interests which I shall continue to cherish 
and to defend. 

Tuesday. 

Last evening I sallied forth to Little's book-store in quest of a book to re- 
lieve the dullness of my spirits. I ransacked the inexhaustible treasures of 
Little's shelves — annuals, bijoux, caricatures, comedy, and farce ; then the more 
rational stores of morals ; and, lastly, devout " Addresses to Persons in Afflic- 
tion," " Thoughts for a Quiet Man," the " Religious Statesman," " Christian 
Solace in Season of Public Calamity ; " but I could be content with nothing, 
and at last in despair I seized upon Fielding's " Amelia," and bore it off to the 
Eagle. Kent came in', and we discoursed affectionately until midnight. When 
we parted I laid hands upon the novel, when lo ! I had brought the second vol- 
ume only. Judge with what disappointment I retired to bed. Fortunately, I 
had employment enough in the morning. I have devoted myself to it with 
assiduity, and now " Richard is himself again." 

I spent three delightful hours to-night with Mr. Van Vechten. He was at 
times gloomy, always charming, and seemed prophetic in his forebodings. " What 
madness is in the people," thought I, " that cannot listen to the remonstrances 
of this venerable man ! " 



220 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1832. 

I do not know but the prospect of repose, and of drawing comfort and 
pleasure from the recollection of by-gone days, is always delusive. When I 
went to Auburn first, I carried with me a full bushel of letters, which I prom- 
ised myself at some leisure hour to assort and preserve for perusal, not doubt- 
ing but that I should delight in the recollections which they would call up. In 
haste I deposited them in a drawer in the office. There they lie now, and have 
remained, untouched, untasted. Many a gloomy hour have I had, many a list- 
less season ; but never have I seen the time that I would resort to their contents 
for support or for amusement. Nevertheless, I cannot but indulge the hope 
that there will be a time when I can withdraw from cares which harass me, and 
pursuits uncongenial to my taste and feelings ; and that then I shall derive pleas- 
ure in renewing the incidents and feelings of this, which I would fain believe to 
be the most busy and perplexed portion of my life. No record will remain of 
it but these hurried letters, that are written with all the freedom and thought- 
lessness in which I could write or speak to no being on earth save yourself. 
But shall I laugh or weep when I call from its musty abode this record of 
chagrin and disappointment? In truth, as my old friend Mr. Van Yechten 

says, " That is to depend upon the chapter of chances." 

November Kth. 

From the conversation of the good society at the head of our dinner-tahle, 
I infer that the town is engrossed by the subject of the two great marriages, 
one of which took place on Wednesday, and the other yesterday. The first was 
that of Mr. Barker, son of Jacob Barker, to a daughter of William James ; the 
other was Colonel Barnard to Miss Walsh. 

I have been at Weed's all this evening. He has related to me with great 
minuteness the melancholy story of Maynard's illness and death. Weed says he 
was wild and bewildered, much of the time, and talked politics always, when 
he was out of his senses. When possessed of his powers he was silent, con- 
scious of his danger, and undismayed about it. 

Weed describes most touchingly the ghastly but sublime appearance of his 
countenance in dying. Poor fellow! he died most fortunately. The ruin of the 
political interests he had so much at heart would have consigned him to un- 
merited and insupportable obscurity. 

November Kith. 

"The sufferings" of the Antimasons "at this time is so intolerable," that 
individuals cannot endure them alone and in silence. To this cause, doubtless, 
I owed a visit yesterday from Tracy and Birdsall ; they came in at three 
o'clock, and determined to caucus. Was ever a patriot band reduced to num- 
bers so thin and forlorn as our trio ? We canvassed and discussed the state of 
our political affairs until five o'clock, when, having hit upon a plan of operations, 
Ave hastened to Weed to submit it. He fully accorded with us; but, in the diffi- 
culty of carrying out the details, we foresaw its impracticability, abandoned it, 
adopted a different measure, and separated ; the burden being imposed upon me 
of writing the manifesto by which the Evening Journal is to announce to 
Antimasons, all over the world, the policy which the party will pursue. 

November \*,th. 
I have now on hand the manifesto of which I spoke in my letter of yester- 
day, besides an unfinished opinion, and two more cases to study, with many let- 
ters, and some other business to transact. 



1832.] STAGE-COACII TRAVELING. 091 

This evening the Lieutenant-Governor gave me many details of Lis travels 
in France, his stay in Paris during the consulate of Bonaparte, his visits to the 
court, his introduction to Josephine, his dinners with Talleyrand, his interviews 
with Cambaceres, Massena, Junot, and others. 

November IWi. 

This day has been a worthless one. I feel wretchedly, always, when I have 
to retire to bed with the reflection that I have accomplished nothing I ought to 
have done, and learned nothing I ought to know. 

The Jackson men exult in the belief that Van Buren starts auspiciously for 
the presidency, and, although he has great opposition to contend with, it must 
be admitted that he has already more organized force than any other candidate. 

Wednesday, November 21st. 

About these days, when I think of little else but going to Auburn, I have 
become a constant weather-inspector. The accounts of the roads, for the last 
three weeks, have been disheartening. This morning was mild and moist, 
but before nine o'clock I discovered the great golden fish which points the 
weather from the Second Presbyterian Church was scenting about for a change. 
He vacillated, now showing his nose down the river, now a little west, then 
rapidly resuming his first position ; but I at length had the pleasure to see him 
present, direct to the west, his open mouth, while his golden fins, displayed to 
my eye, indicated that he preferred colder weather. A flurry of snow suc- 
ceeded. I shall hope to have sleighing before Thursday. 

November 22d. 

To-night the Regency have had their great celebration. They have fired one 
hundred guns, and feasted the populace, with which the populace are satisfied. 
1 have come to be quite content and undisturbed amid the scenes which it was 
so painful to contemplate in prospect. 

November 23d. 

Mr. Adams's poem is called " Dermot McMarragh." I have tried, in vain, to 
buy one. All the copies received here have been sold immediately, and the 
booksellers say that the edition is exhausted. Nevertheless, as I suppose I shall 
go to New York next week, I hope to be able to bring one for you. In meas- 
ure and style, it somewhat resembles Lord Byron's " Beppo." A part of it con- 
tains a piquant satire on " princely marriages for convenience made : " 

" Long round the torch of Hymen Cupid hovers, 
The case is not the same with royal lovers." 

Less than a month intervened for a brief stay at Auburn, before it 
was time to return for the opening of the annual session. There was 
rivalry between two lines of stage-coaches, and Seward narrated some 
of the incidents which relieved the monotony of his journey to Albany : 

December 26th. 
Our ride to Syracuse was exceedingly tedious. There were, besides myself, 
four passengers, one of whom was a very rough old man, who had paid half 
a dollar more than he could have gone for in the other coach. He seemed to 
have supposed that this additional compensation would induce the proprietors 
to smooth the turnpike, and cover it with snow. 



222 LIFE AND LETTEKS. [1832. 

Two other passengers had come to Auhurn in our coach and there stopped, 
with the intention of taking the other ; but, neglecting to order their baggage 
taken out, it came on with us, leaving the owners at the American Hotel in 
Auburn. Full of wrath, they overtook us on horseback, about a mile east of 
the village, and took seats in the stage, after sending their horses back to the 
"library" (as they described the place from which they procured them). These 
men, too, uttered nothing but complaints against the villainous stage-proprietors 
who did not take out their baggage, in consequence of which they had to pay, in 
addition to the stage-fare, one dollar to the keeper of the " library-stable." 

How edifying was the discourse of my fellow-passengers, you may judge. 
One of them surveyed my baggage-marks, and then asked if I lived at Auburn. 
This was a plain question, and admitted an easy answer ; but the second ques- 
tion was a poser. " What is the price of candles there? " Being utterly unpre- 
pared to answer, I said, " What did you ask, sir ? " hoping that the question 
when next presented would come in such a shape that I might " speak to it." 
But there was no such relief for me. Out it came again : " What do you pay for 
candles at Auburn? " Now, what was I to say? Acknowledge my ignorance? 
It seemed to me that would not do. A man might be pardoned for not knowing 
the price of wheat. Wheat is bought and sold as a matter of speculation. Corn, 
iron, cotton-goods, anything else, a man may be ignorant of the condition of the 
market, if he be not a professed dealer. But candles ! Who does not burn can- 
dles? Whether I was a merchant, or a lawyer, or a divine, I must have light, 
and how could I get it without buying candles, and how buy candles without 
learning the price? And I felt, too, that I ought to know — I, a lawyer, a 
Senator, a man with a wife and two children, how could I make the inquirer 
understand how it could be that I did not have occasion to learn the price of can- 
dles ? In the eloquent phrase of Senator T , " it is a question which comes 

home to every burner of candles, and who in this land is not such? " Never- 
theless so it was, I could not answer. At first I thought I would excuse myself 
and say, " I burn oil ; " but the question then would come, " What is oil worth ? " 
and this would be no easier than the other. Then I thought I would guess the 
price of candles ; but the knowing look of the interrogator warned me from that 
purpose, and I finally acknowledged that I did not know the price of a pound 
of candles. My fellow-passenger sympathized in my confusion, and dispelled, 
in some degree, my mortification, by saying he was a tallow-chandler at Eoches- 
ter, which was the reason he inquired. The old grumbler then announced him- 
self to be a butcher, and the two communed sweetly together, upon the mys- 
teries of slaughtering, dressing, moulding, dipping, and soap-boiling. 

Albany, as usual, was enlivened by the approach of winter. Hotels 
were filled with guests, society was preparing for pleasure, and legisla- 
tors and lobby for work. Seward's next letters adverted to meetings 
with new and old acquaintances, and visits to the theatre to see a 
young tragedian of rising fame : 

December 28th. 

Wednesday evening I went with Thomas Y. How to see Forrest play Hamlet. 
Critics say he is not a first-rate actor, except in characters adapted for the dis- 
play of great physical power, and in such parts he is admitted to excel. But he 



1832.] EDWIN FORREST. 223 

certainly played Hamlet with profound judgment and much effect. I was very 
happily disappointed in it. Even the ghost-scene, unnatural as it is, seemed 
less so, because the eye and ear were riveted upon Hamlet, terrified, dismayed, 
horror-struck, but firm of purpose to discharge the duties of a son. The inter- 
view between Hamlet and his mother, in her closet, where he accuses her of 
murder and incest, and wrings from the lips of a mother, whose only remaining 
virtue is her love for her son, a confession of her guilt, was a scene of deep in- 
terest. 

There is another part of the play which, on reading, always seemed to me to 
be mistaken in point of effect. I mean the representation by the players of a 
tragedy intended to be the means of discovering, by its effect upon the guilty 
King and Queen, the truth of the accusations by the ghost. But here again I 
was disappointed, and admired still more the deep discernment of Shakespeare. 
Hamlet, meditating upon this plan, says : 

" The play, the play ; yes, the play's the thing ; 
With that I'll catch the conscience of the king." 

Now, these lines I've read a thousand times, without discovering that they 
had any meaning, or were of more use than to end the scene in rhyme. But, 
when Forrest so uttered the lines as to express the full meaning, I saw how 
true both author and actor were to Nature — when the King started at the first 
suspicion that his guilty secret was out ; when Hamlet insidiously urged on to 
quick discovery, and the King, losing all self-possession, rushed from the cham- 
ber, while the affrighted players dropped their curtain and fled. 

In my boyish days I kept a scrap-book, into which I transferred, as I thought, 
the finest passages of Shakespeare, and among the rest those which are found 
in " Hamlet ; " but Forrest's just perception showed me a thousand beauties 
and sublimities I never knew before. But I must not dwell longer on the the- 
atre. To-night he plays Metamora. I am going to see whether the Indian char- 
acter can be written and enacted. 

December 2i)tJ>. 

Day before yesterday Mr. Bronson announced, at dinner, that Mr. Van 
Buren and Governor Throop had called this morning upon the ladies, and left 
their compliments for all the gentlemen of the Court of Errors. Yesterday 
morning Mr. Van Buren came into the Court of Errors, and remained until the 
adjournment. 

Did you notice in the papers the death of Mrs. Henry Hone, formerly Caro- 
line Burrill? " When you and I were first acquent," Mr. Bun-ill's three daugh- 
ters were the theme of all conversation in the society in which I lived. Their 
beauty of person, powers of mind, and traits of character, were subjects of 
discussion in almost every circle. Mrs. Murray Hoffman was dignified, Emily 
was modest and lovely, Caroline was witty and satirical. All three were mar- 
ried, had children, and died, within ten short years. Dignity, loveliness, and 
talent, though they possessed them all, have fled, and the earth covers the poor 
handfuls of dust which can no longer excite admiration or inflict pain. 

I cannot augur good of the proposed marriage to which you refer. But it 
seems always idle in such cases to advise. There is a disposition not to be ad- 
vised, and, moreover, this is such a "clever" world that many people always 
advise lovers to follow their own inclinations; being willing to believe that all 



221 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1832. 

will be as it ought to be, very happy, if the person most interested wishes to 
believe so. This is a kind of complacency of which I have no share. But I 
confess I have seldom seen the friend who had firmness enough to advise 
another against marrying in accordance with inclination. 

I am grieved to say that our poor friend Weed is in a very critical situation. 
He can hardly hope to escape without loss of limb or life. It is horrible ; it de- 
stroys all the happiness of his society. It is almost enough to make us repine 
at the dispensations of Providence. Never were men more honest, more pure 
in patriotic enterprise, than our feeble band of Antimasons. Yet the greatest 
and noblest is struck to the earth ; and another is prostrated ; and this comes 
simultaneously with the desolation of all our fair hopes ; while triumphs and 
festivities seem held in reserve for those who sacrifice their country to their 
party, and their party to themselves. 

But I had better tell you about Metamora than to fill up this page with mur- 
murings against the dispensations of Providence. 

Metamora is Philip, the last King of the "Wampanoags. Forrest looks like an 
Indian, walks like an Indian, and talks as well as if he were not an Indian. The 
play would be no play if the hero did not speak, and unfortunately we all know that 
Indians never do make long speeches, or declaim like white men. This inherent 
but unavoidable defect in the tragedy renders the whole thing so absurd that no 
one can be interested in the first four acts. The last act, however, is filled with 
incidents which excite intense interest. His child is pierced by a bullet sped at 
his wife (the Indian woman, by-the-way, was acted to the life). The enemy are 
in hot pursuit. The tribe of "Wampanoags are all cut off, and the chief, his 
wife, and their dead child, are in their cave. The alarm of the approach of 
white men inspires him with a sudden resolution. He points his wife to the 
sky — tells her the great and departed of her race beckon her thither. She de- 
spairingly declares she is ready. He stabs her, weeps over her, curses the 
white men — the enemy discover him — he bares his breast, receives a whole vol- 
ley of musketry, and dies execrating the cruelty of pale-faces. It is impossible 
to witness the representation of the play, and not rise from it without a feeling 
of detestation of our ancestors and ourselves. This bloody tragedy is not fic- 
tion ; it is a softer picture of more than a thousand massacres ; and yet we go 
on. The race is almost extirpated here ; we proceed to extirpate the remnant 
in their retreat. With the wrongs of the Indian and the negro races still fresh 
and ascending to Heaven for vengeance, little ground have we to hope to avoid 
civil war, and I sometimes think a just Providence overrules all efforts of the 
good and wise, that it may hasten the day of that calamity. 



1833.] NEW-YEAR'S VISITS. 225 

CHAPTER IX. 

1833. 

New-Year's Reflections.— A Round of Calls.— United States Senators.-rSilas "Wright,— N. 
P. Tallmadge. — Christian Faith. — South Carolina Nullification.— Speech defending 
Jackson's Proclamation.— A Mother's Illness.— Voyage to Europe. 

January 1, 1833. 
With this New-Year's day comes the reflection that my term of office is half 
expired. One-half of those by whom I was surrounded when I first took my 
seat in the Senate have vacated their places : Stephen Allen, Mather, Fuller, 
and Maynard. I can truly say I feel no regret at the evidences that my official 
term draws nearer to its close. What is to he u the color of the times " dur- 
ing the residue of my legislative term, I know not. At present there is little 
to encourage exertion. Our friends are desponding, the victors are arrogant, 
and the people sunk in too profound a slumber to be waked to a conviction of 
their interests. What new events may come, and what may be the operation 
of such events, no man can read. It is certainly not impossible that a reorgani- 
zation of political elements may take place. The times indicate it, but whether 
it will be one which will be fraught with weal or disappointment to those with 
whom I act, no one can even pretend to conjecture. 

January Id. 

The Legislature adjourned yesterday, without receiving the Governor's mes- 
sage, in order to afford opportunity for the celebration of New- Year's day in the 
usual manner. The military were out, of course, and the usual public demon- 
strations were made. It is only of my own adventures that I can speak. First, 
I called on Lewis Benedict's family, who gave me an old-fashioned welcome. 
Here Birdsall joined me. We passed by Chancellor Sanford's — dropped in 
at old Mr. Gregory's — did not see Mrs. Wing, but Mrs. G. wished us & happy 
New-Year. Stopped at Congress Hall, called on Mrs. Cary, found Mrs. Tracy 
in the ladies' parlor arranging a table for the entertainment of her friends. 
The new Lieutenant-Governor, and the ladies of his family, held levee in the 
dining-room, where there was, of course, a throng. Birdsall mingled with 
the crowd that pressed into the room of " the magician." Our next call was 
at John T. Norton's, where we found Mrs. N. the mother, Mrs. N. the wife, 
and Miss Treadwell. Next we dropped in at the Chief -Justice's; found Mrs. 
Savage as agreeable as formerly. Thence to Judge Sutherland's ; him we 
found surrounded by his wife and half a dozen daughters. Our next call was 
at Mr. Weed's. Mrs. Bronson has fitted up the Hopkins House, so it seems to 
be a different establishment. We found the Chancellor at home with his family. 
Having now come down Washington Street, we went round the Academy Park. 
At Porter's, we met his late Excellency Governor Throop, Mrs. Porter, and Mrs. 
Lafarge. Then we called at Delavan's ; there we found ourselves in the crowd 
who thronged the halls of the new Governor. The sovereign people crowded, 
as idolaters always do, to worship the god they have just made. His Excellency 
was pleased to say he was very happy to see us. Mrs. Marcy occupied the draw- 
ing-room ; the Adjutant-General and the aides of the Governor were in attend- 
ance in uniform. 
15 



226 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1833. 

Left my card at Congress Hall for Mrs. Julius Ehoacles; crossed to John 
Keyes Paige's, who was out ; then to the Recorder's, who was in. Then to the 
Surveyor-General's, and then to his son's. Went into the Misses Lovett's ; then 
made our way to Isaiah Townsend's, and stopped at ex-Mayor John Townsend's, 
who puts a good grace upon the loss of his election, and declares he is glad he 
is out. 

Cary, hy this time, had joined us, and we went into Coming's ; thence to 
Wendell's. Never saw a handsomer girl than Anna Mary, or a cleverer matron 
than her mother. Was informed that Mrs. Blanchard did not receive company; 
nor did Mrs. James King. Called at Rufus H. King's, Mrs. BrinckerhofP s, Mrs. 
Mancius's, Chancellor Sanford's, Judge Spencer's, the Bleeckers', Kane's, Baine's, 
etc., etc. ; more than I can speak of in detail. We called at the new mayor's 
(Bloodgood's) ; his daughter is accomplished and elegant. While Cary and I 
were there, he happened to call me "uncle," at which they all started, and 
required explanation. I told them that it is a generic name applied to me by 
my Antimasonic brethren, who make me uncle to the whole party. On which 
the girls declared that they desired to be received as my nieces, and we all 
agreed that our family, though not the most numerous, was yet a very respect- 
able and worthy one. 

January 4, 1833. 

Friday was the day appointed for choosing a Senator in the Congress of the 
United States. I went into Spencer's room on business on Thursday evening, and 
he told me there was to be a caucus of our friends at Bement's at seven o'clock. 
I staid and took tea with him ; we consulted upon the matter, and finally 
agreed that it would be well for us to scatter our vote among our Antimasonic 
friends. When the meeting organized, Spencer submitted his views, and called 
upon me. I concurred ; some others opposed ; Birdsall joined us ; Cary as- 
sented ; and finally all agreed in entire harmony and good feeling to the policy 
we proposed. 

This election was to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation 
of Judge Marcy, who had been elected Governor. There was no con- 
test ; the Democratic candidate was the Comptroller, Silas Wright ; and 
as his political friends numbered three-fourths of both Houses, he was 
elected without difficulty. The Antimasonic members scattered their 
votes as had been prearranged. 

Sunday Evening, January Gth. 

This afternoon I went to St. Paul's, where I heard a sermon on the necessity 
of evangelizing the heathen. I never enter a church and hear the doctrines, 
hopes, and fears of our faith explained, but that I feel sensibly how much bet- 
ter it is to believe, and to seek to act according to its precepts, than to be desti- 
tute of religious faith and practice, hope and comfort. Happy arc those who 
receive this religion in childhood, grow up in the faith, go through life without 
doubting, and die with triumphant hope; and miserable is he who either be- 
lieves or acts as if he believed that this span of life is the whole period allotted 

for his duration ! 

Monday, 1th. 

I have to tell you what will undoubtedly be most gratifying. Dr. McNaughj 
ton was at Weed's yesterday and examined his limb ; he pronounced with much 



1833.] NATHANIEL P. TALLMADGE. 227 

confidence that the disease was a mere enlargement of the ligaments, and prom- 
ised him that he should be able to quit his house in a fortnight. I learned also 
that Dr. Williams's opinion is in accordance with Dr. McNaughton's. 

I would give half- a kingdom (if I had a whole one) to be divested of my dis- 
position to suffer under an oppressive sense of responsibility. I brought with 
me the papers to argue two cases in the Supreme Court. The argument was to 
be brought on to-day ; I labored yesterday, and for two days previous, in pre- 
paring a brief, and was constantly depressed by apprehensions of failure. The 
day at length came ; I waited my turn in court with a state of feeling very 
much like that of a man about to be hanged. I rose, stated the case, read my 
notice, and looked round, when lo ! nobody appeared to gainsay my motion, and 
I took it by default in each case. 

Another Senator in Congress is to be chosen by the Legislature in February. 
Tallmadge and McLean are busily employed in canvassing. Tallmadge's chief 
opponent is Judge Sutherland. I incline to the belief that Tallmadge will suc- 
ceed. Comptroller Wright has already been elected to the Senate ; Flagg, the 
Secretary of State, is to be Comptroller ; General Dix, the Adjutant-General, it is 
understood, is to be promoted to fill Flagg's place, which leaves the Adjutant- 
General's place vacant ; there is, however, nothing left for us to do but to 
look on. 

My afternoon was occupied with calls, among which was that of Judge 
Woodworth, who condoled with me over our defeat, and we both agreed we 
would never be so much excited again in a political controversy. It is doubtful 
whether either of us adhere to so wise a resolution. 

After a brief visit to Auburn in the early part of February, he re- 
turned to Albany, bringing his family with him, and wrote thence to 
Judge Miller : 

February 10th. 

Our journey was as comfortable as we could reasonably expect. The chil- 
dren seem to enjoy entire health. It will be something for them to tell of, if 
they live after a few years, that they sat on the knee of Aaron Burr. Yet it will 
be true. The old man spent the morning with me to-day. He had begun to 
tell me the story of the duel when Dr. Williams came in, and that broke off the 
narration. I would have given much to hear it from his lips. 

The chief incident which has occurred in the Legislature was the election of 
Tallmadge to be U. S. Senator. 

A question immediately arose as to the eligibility of Mr. Tallmadge. 
He was a member of the State Senate, and the Constitution contained 
a provision prohibiting any member of the Legislature from receiving 
" any civil appointment " from that body during the time for which he 
was elected. An animated debate ensued. Some of the political asso- 
ciates of Mr. Tallmadge, having scruples about the legality of the 
election, asked to be excused from voting. The Attorney-General 
(Greene C. Bronson), to whom reference of the question had been 
made, gave an opinion that the constitutional provision did not apply 
to the case. Various minor questions entered into the discussion in 



22S LIFE AND LETTERS. [1833. 

the two Houses, in which Messrs. Edmonds, Foster, Sherman, Tracy, 
Spencer, Livingston, and Morris, took prominent part. Seward's 
closing- argument was a careful presentation of the legal points in- 
volved. Finally the election was approved and pronounced valid by a 
party vote. 

The country was now alarmed by the grave and exciting incidents 
of the nullification struggle, the resignation of Vice-President Calhoun, 
the passage of the South Carolina Ordinance, the memorable debate in 
Congress, Webster's reply to Hayne, President Jackson's proclamation, 
and the orders to the land and naval forces near Charleston. Of course 
the New York Legislature took cognizance of the crisis. A joint com- 
mittee was appointed, who presented a report that became a subject of 
debate. A question of this character could not fail to enlist Seward 
on the side of the Union, regardless of party prejudices. On the 16th 
of February he addressed the Senate at some length, and introduced a 
series of resolutions, closing with this : 

Hesolvedj That the President of the United States, in his late proclamation, 
has advanced the true principles upon which only the Constitution can be main- 
tained and defended. 

In his speech he said : 

The last resolution, sir, approving the principles contained in the procla- 
mation, seems absolutely necessary, inasmuch as the committee either forgot, or 
evaded expressing, any approbation in their report. They set out to vindicate 
the President, but compliments supply the place of vindication, or even approval 
of the proclamation. But we are told that in order to maintain and preserve 
the " Democratic character " of the State, we must adopt the Virginia and Ken- 
tucky resolutions of 1798 and 1799. Have recent events brought suspicion on 
our " Democratic character? " If not, why is it now necessary to burnish it? 
And how is it to be effected ? New York demurely resolves against nulli- 
fication, but adopts the text-book of the heresy to show that she is not in 
earnest ! The resolution shows that we are opposed to nullification as practised 
by South Carolina ; but the report shows we can wink at it in the abstract, 
as indulged by Virginia. . . . Sir, South Carolina and the great party who 
favor nullification at the South ask nothing more of us than to waive the Con- 
stitution, and adopt those resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky. They are 
written in their hearts' core. If we adopt them, the question is no longer 
whether nullification and secession are constitutional, but it is reduced to a ques- 
tion of construction of your new text-book. 

Replying to the argument that the adoption of the resolutions was 
a tribute to Jefferson, "the second savior of his country," as they 
called him, he said : 

Sir, I remind you of the duty due to the first real savior of his country, 
the Father of his Country, under whose hand the Constitution has come down 



1833.] A MOTHER'S ILLNESS. 009 

to us. "Were his venerated sbade to witness these deliberations, how, with a 
countenance " more in sorrow than in anger," would he remonstrate against the 
infatuation of surrendering that sure and only guide, to adopt in its place the 
crude dogmas of any man or men ! .... I protest against the exhibition of 
the servile spirit toward Virginia indicated by the uncalled-for adoption of 
these resolutions. I know it is a custom in this State, but I can say of it : 

" Though I am native here, 
And to the manner born, it is a custom 
More honored in the breach than the observance." 

To find himself a champion and defender of General Jackson 
against the "Jackson party" in the Senate, was a novel position for 
Seward. But the ground was so well taken, and the popular heart so 
fully in accord with his Union sentiments, that, although the commit- 
tee's resolutions were adopted, and his own " postponed," yet he suc- 
ceeded in making a break in the party vote, some of his Democratic 
colleagues, Sudam, Sherman, and Van Schaick, voting for his stronger 
indorsement of the "Old Hero's" proclamation. 

Hardly had the Legislature adjourned, at the close of April, when 
he was summoned to Florida by news of the alarming illness of his 
mother. He remained there until her convalescence. One of his let- 
ters home spoke of the affection with which she was regarded : 

All the journey long I felt that I had never before realized how far I was 
living from a mother who had always loved me with more than ordinary mater- 
nal affection. 

"When she became very sick, the front-gate was closed, and all access to her 
room was denied except to her children, physicians, and nurses. Billets of wood 
were laid on the west side of the street, to oblige people to pass as far as possi- 
ble from the house, so that she might not be annoyed. All these precautions 
were calculated to excite prejudice, but the sympathy of the neighbors far and 
near has been strong and affectionate. 

I rode out this morning, and all along the road, at almost every house, some 
person came out to inquire concerning her. There is not one who does not love 
her ; and in all this region there is none whom Death can, in his caprice, select 
as a victim whose removal would excite so deep and general concern. 

As soon as her recovery was assured, preparations began for a 
summer voyage to Europe with his father, already described in his 
autobiography. There were, as yet, no ocean-steamers. At the open- 
ing of June they embarked on the Liverpool packet. 



230 LITE AND LETTERS. [1833-'34. 

CHAPTER X. 

1833-1834. 

Return Home. — The Wadsworths. — Dissolution of the Antimasonic Party. — Debate on 
Removal of the Deposits. — The Six-Million Loan. — Commercial Distress. — A Depre- 
ciated Currency. — The Cholera. — Freeman the Artist. — Nomination for Governor. 

During the summer and autumn of 1833, Seward's letters from 
Europe to his family and friends described the incidents of his tour. 
Weed, who had received some and read others, insisted that, though 
not written for publication, they were worthy of it ; and a reluctant 
consent was obtained for their appearance, without signature, in the 
Evening Journal. European life and travels were topics as yet fresh 
and novel to the American public, and the letters were widely read. 
As their substance is recounted in the autobiography, they may be 
passed over here. 

Returning home in the fall, the close of November found him again 
leaving Auburn for Albany, to resume his seat in the Court of Errors. 

Congress Hall, November 22, 1833. 

The stage at Auburn was delayed quite an hour after the notice given me. 
The delay was occasioned, as I found, by the driver's having waked up Mr. 
Hills. Which was most vexed by a mistake thus occurring on a severe Novem- 
ber morning — the driver, my neighbor, or myself — is very doubtful. Our jour- 
ney was tedious enough to Utica, but a good fire, a good supper, and au inter- 
view with one good and estimable friend, Devereux, made the evening pass 
pleasantly. Devereux, after hearing my first impressions of his unhappy coun- 
try, interested me exceedingly in the detail of the political events which had 
occurred during my absence. He told me, among other things, that General 
Jackson had offered to Richard Rush the office of Secretary of the Treasury, 
and that Rush has the proposition at present under consideration. The object is 
supposed to be to enlist the Antimasons of Pennsylvania in favor of Van Buren 
for the presidency. 

All along the road during the day I heard from the drivers that Mr. "Wads- 
worth, of Geneseo, withhis family, were coming behind us in an " extra.'' "We 
arrived at nearly the same moment, ,'ii Bagg's. Being entirely unacquainted 
with Mr. Wadsworth, but knowing him to have been an ardent, liberal, and 
distinguished member of our party, 1 thought circumstances justified me in- 
making hi- acquaintance, lie seemed to think so too; he received me with 
warmth, and invited me to travel to Albany with them. In the evening Abijah 
Fitch came in from the State Temperance Convention. lie was full of zeal in 
the great reform. 

A thousand recollections of intense interest crowded upon my mind when! 
lay down to rest in the same little room in the third story which you and I 
occupied when we visited Utica in L828, during the sitting of the Young Men's 
State Convention. I reviewed my political course since that day, when it com- 
menced to attract public attention, and reflected with pleasure that it had been 



1833-'34.] END OF ANTIMASONIC PARTY. 231 

marred by no act and no motive which brought self-reproach. I reviewed the 
same period of our domestic association, and was sincerely grateful that the 
affection which then united us had only continued to increase and to make us 
both more truly happy. 

Our party in the "exclusive extra" consisted of Mr. Wadsworth, his daugh- 
ter and son, and myself, with their servant. I hardly know a more interesting 
man than Mr. Wadsworth. He is about sixty-five, a gentleman of good educa- 
tion, and extensive philosophical reading. He had traveled in Europe some 
twenty-five years ago, and was an observer of men and things. In personal 
politeness, in urbanity, and kindness, as well as in the ease of his manners, he 
resembles Colonel Mynderse. His daughter is one of those beings who cannot 
be seen without being loved. She seemed unaffected, sincere, modest, and 
affectionate. She is about eighteen or nineteen, and is not in good health. 

Her brother appeared to be of the same elevated and honest class of minds 
as his father. You will readily imagine how much I enjoyed the society of my 
fellow-travelers. The conversation, which was principally between the father 
and myself, did not flag during the whole journey. We compared recollections 
of the Old World, and agreed entirely in our views of things on this side of the 
water. The good old man, with all his shrewdness, had not yet seen reason to 
doubt the eventual success of political Antimasonry, and grieved when he heard 
me express a doubt whether it would be either possible, or even expedient, to 
attempt another organization. 

November 23d. 

I am once more established in my old quarters, and already too much en- 
grossed with the subjects which always absorb the attention of public men when 
congregated here. It makes me melancholy to look around my chamber ; it is 
the same in which Maynard lived. Eeminiscences of that great, estimable, and 
eccentric man crowd upon me, and I have mused in moralizing mood upon the 
incidents of my acquaintance with him. 

I remember well when I first saw him, how much influence he exerted in 
determining me to embark in a cause which had already enlisted my feelings, 
the intimate association which afterward existed between us, until, in his sudden 
withdrawal from earthly responsibilities, the cause suffered a loss which we 
justly deemed irreparable. 

Though I have often occasion to reflect upon the uncertainty of all political 
events, and the uneven and unsubstantial pleasures w r hich are to be reaped in a 
field where such fiery competition is exhibited, I do not venture to doubt that I 
shall, from the force of constitutional bias, be found always mingling in the con- 
troversies which agitate the country. Enthusiasm for the right, and ambition 
for personal distinction, are passions of which I cannot divest myself, and while 
every day's experience is teaching me that the former is the very agent which 
must defeat the latter, I am far from believing that I should be more happy 
were I to withdraw altogether from political action. 

November 24/h. 

The visit of our members of Congress at this moment when the Senate is in 

session has brought about an interchange of opinion in regard to the condition 

and prospects of our party. All seem to agree that the experiment has been 

sufficiently made, and that it is proved that Antimasonry cannot succeed politi- 



232 LIFE A ND LETTERS. [1833-'34. 

cally. In a few counties at the west, if our friends are to be reelected, it must 
be upon Antiniasonic grounds, and it is not a little amusing to see one of them 
insisting upon a general organization of the Antimasonic party throughout the 
State, in order to secure his own reelection next year, while he does not hesitate 
to tell us that the party cannot go further than through that election, and when 
it is disbanded he intends to go in for Van Buren, who will be elected. 

Weed seems, like John Birdsall and myself, not to have inquired whether 
there is a hope of defeating Van Buren, but determined by principle and con- 
sistency to continue in the opposition. For myself, I have not been left to 
doubt for a moment what course duty dictates. Could I stop to calculate 
chances, I have seen too many instances in which political success has fallen to 
those who, to say nothing of talent or worth, had least of worldly wisdom, and 
too many instances in which the most acute have been disappointed in all their 
plans. I shall go on as always, adopting what my judgment and conscience 
approve. If my political career ends where it now is, I shall have enjoyed, if 
not all I deserved, as much of success as is my reasonable share. If success 
comes, as it heretofore has done, when I am laboring in what seems to me the 
right cause, it will be doubly gratifying, because it will bring no remorse of 
conscience. 

Sunday I went to church at St. Peter's. You may have understood that Mr. 
Horatio Potter, a brother of Alonzo, has been settled in that church. 

I have secured rooms for the winter at Bement's. The house is kept so 
clean and warm, and withal will be so quiet, that we shall live very pleasantly 
if we remain well, which I will hope, against past experience. 

Mr. Van Buren has the ladies' parlor, at the foot of the stairs. He has his 
card upon the door, and a constant succession of visitors are seen repairing 
thither. He came into the Senate-chamber on Tuesday, bowed to me, and con- 
descended to inquire of one of the Senators how old I was. I intend before I 
leave here to make the necessary attentions to him and to the other good 
people. 

January, keen and frosty, found the little family circle this year 
gathered round the fire in the parlor at Bement's. The legislative 
session opened, and Seward wrote to Judge Miller : 

January 1, 1834. 
You will have the Governor's message in the Journal of to-day. It is a war 
upon banks, which will probably be unsuccessful. The lobby is already here in 
almost as great force as both the Houses, and almost every member of the As- 
sembly is committed for a hank. From Washington Fillmore writes that there 
is a decided majority of about twenty against the United States Bank. 

Not only all political but all commercial circles were agitated and 
disturbed this winter. The engrossing theme was General Jackson's 
removal of the deposits from the Bank of the United States. The 
subject came up -in the Legislature soon after its meeting, when joint 
resolutions were introduced approving the President's course, and 
denouncing the bank. Seward took the floor in the Senate on the 10th 



1833-'34.] PAPER CURRENCY. 233 

of January. He began by remarking that it required " no soothsayer's 
aid to foresee that these resolutions will pass," but prayed the Senate 
to "remember that neither boldness of assumption nor superiority of 
numbers is always the test of truth." After recounting the history of 
the controversy, he adverted to the financial laws of paper currency : 

Sir, it is settled, whether wisely or unwisely, that the circulating medium of 
the country must he a paper currency. The condition of that currency concerns 
every man's weal in the land. When it is unsound, it produces those " hard 
times " which we have often only imagined, hut are now experiencing. When 
it is sound, it produces those good times, the enjoyment of which makes us for- 
getful of the cause that produced them. It adds to the value not only of the 
annual products of your farms, hut of the farms themselves. Upon its condition 
may depend whether your merchandise shall be profitable or unprofitable ; 
whether your manufacturing or mechanical operations shall yield a reward for 
your industry ; whether you be able to collect your credits, or pay your debts. 
That currency has, until recently, been a long time sound and uniform, and the 
world has never witnessed a scene of greater prosperity than has been exhibited 
in this country. That currency has, at one period of our history, been diseased, 
and then it brought on a train of evils for which legislative wisdom in vain 
tried the efficacy of relief laws. So, sir, it will be now. . . . That currency 
obeys no administration ; the laws of its action are absolute and certain. It has 
none of the subserviency of secretaries, of political congresses, or of partisan 
Legislatures. 

Then, pointing to the results of the removal of the deposits, he 
continued : 

The reproof of your error now reaches you from every commercial city in 
the land. You know it will come, louder and bolder, and, ere you have closed 
your duties here, it will visit the homes of your constituents. Yes, you will re- 
turn to them to witness the depreciation of farms and merchandise, and the 
general gloom which mutual distrust and individual apprehension can so effect- 
ually produce. Your banks will close their vaults, and the applications for re- 
newals and additional loans will be answered by the visits of the sheriff to the 
houses of the debtors. The usurer will be abroad in the country as he is now 
in your cities. You have disturbed and deranged that subtile currency, and its 
vibrations will shake and unsettle all business transactions. 

In the course of the debate some of his opponents charged him 
with having acquired his doctrines from " aristocratical associations in 
Europe " during his recent visit. He remarked, in reply, that if he 
had learned anything by foreign travel, it had been a different lesson ; 
that he had learned, " from the boldness, intelligence, and patriotism of 
the republicans of Switzerland, the value of that democracy which 
spends itself, not in lauding the servants of the people, but in watch- 
ing their conduct ; " and that he had learned from his intercourse with 
Lafayette, in the shades of La Grange, " the value of a consistent and 



234 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1833-'34. 

enduring devotion to the principles of republicanism, not only when 
the people hail the champion of those principles as their deliverer, but 
even when they desert him in his solitude. Although there I have 
been exposed to the seductive influences of foreign manners, my hon- 
orable friend may rest assured that I have returned to love my country 
better, and to understand better the value of her institutions." 

In his letters to Judge Miller, a few days later, he adverted to the 
signs of the coming period of financial trouble : 

February \Wh. 

I think the session will be shorter than usual. Every member is interested 
in the existing pressure. Our accounts of the state of things at New York 
are of the gloomiest character, and no better condition is anticipated. The 
Aliens have resumed, but so crippled in power as to be unable greatly to relieve 
the merchants. Knower has gone to New York to raise one hundred thousand 
dollars, and has expectations of an additional one hundred thousand dollars 
from the four banks of this city. There is no hope of a change in Congress. 

March §th 
The United States Bank will go on curtailing its discounts. It is obvious 
that the banks here fear a general loss of confidence and suspension of specie 
payments. 

The operations of currency are so subtile that it is not impossible such a 
result may come, although it will not come immediately, unless by means of the 
direct agency of the United States Bank. 

March \1th. 

There is a state of excitement here such as I have never seen. Several cruel 

failures have taken place ; among them is that of our friends, B & R , 

who failed for twenty-five thousand dollars, having a fidl and clear balance of 
one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Other failures are anticipated, business 
is stagnant, and public feeling very much excited. 

The Jackson meeting was called by about eleven hundred men, the greater 
part of whose names are unknown in the city. On the list were five merchants, 
and, it is said, only seven or eight mechanics. I looked in upon the meetintr, 
which, of course, was attended largely by members of the Legislature, of the 
lobby, and holders of public offices. The opposition meeting is called by 
twenty-six hundred names, embracing almost every merchant and mechanic in 
the city. It will be held in the City Hall, by daylight to-morrow. For that 
purposo the merchants and mechanics will close their doors. John Townsend 
will be chairman. How great the change here is, you may infer from the num- 
ber who call the meeting. The aggregate vote of all parties, at a contested 
election, is four thousand. 

Tuesday, April 1, 1834. 

It was my intention to set out for home to-day, and we are all ready to go ; 
hut the general and intense solicitude felt by all our friends here and in New 
York, in relation to the public business yet to be transacted in the Legislature, 
has determined me to remain here. 

The six million dollar loan hill will pass the Assembly to-morrow, and, it is 
said, will be acted ujm.ii in the Senate this week. 



1833-'34.] CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR. 235 

The history of the " six-million loan " project, and of the debate in 
regard to it, has already been narrated in the autobiography. In his 
speech of the 10th of April, Seward remarked that the relief proposed 
by the bill was merely local. " It is temporary, and cannot be ade- 
quate." So it proved. The bill passed into a law, but the law never 
was put in operation. 

The next summer was a season of commercial distress. Writing in 
June, in the midst of labors for his clients, he said : 

God be praised, I am no merchant! The incessant labor in estimates of 
debt and credit, the devising of ways and means to pay debts, to save what was 
in danger of being lost, and to convert unproductive into productive property, 
in which I have been employed for the last month for others, wrought my mind 
to a point of excitement yesterday scarcely short of that at which delirium 
commences. I continued the detestable employment till tea-time last evening, 
but I went to bed at eleven, had a refreshing sleep, and arose this morning with 
a mind becalmed. 

Again in Albany, in August, on his way to attend the Court of 
Errors in New York, he wrote : 

Albany, August 20th. 

I have just disposed of a cup of black tea and toast at Crittenden's table, 
and hasten to advise you of my safe arrival here. The moon (and it was one of 
the finest that ever looked down upon this wicked world) was shining upon de- 
serted streets when we arrived, between nine and ten o'clock. The appearance 
of the cholera does make people more careful in their habits. The disease, 
however, has not become epidemic here. Almost all the cases which have 
occurred here were among the wretched inhabitants of what is called "the 
Pasture," in the lower part of the town. It seems that in New York the num- 
ber of cases continues to average about the same, twenty-three or twenty-four 
daily. Still there is no panic there. The disease there, as here, is confined to 
special localities. 

At Utica I met young Freeman, the painter, and engaged him to go to 
Auburn to take Augustus's picture. 

Then, from New York, he added : 

New York, August 22d. 

There was a difficulty at Albany that I was willing enough to escape from. 
In the uncertainty which hangs over the great political question of the Whigs, 
they all look to me as being able in some way to bring order out of confusion. 
This has been impracticable, and in the result speculations concerning myself 
have been pressed upon me, in such a manner that I could not encourage, nor 
yet, regarding the sources of them, resist. In this state of things I was ex- 
pected to prove either that your particular friend would or would not be the 
right candidate, and this was forced upon me by the conversation of Judge 
Woodworth, Judge Spencer, John Townsend, and such men. But the difficulty 
is about the same here. The idea is in the minds of many. Those who like to 
cherish it, naturally obtrude it; those who do not, because they have wiser 
judgments or other partialities, will doubtless hold me responsible for it. 



236 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1834. 

In September the Whig State Convention was held, which re- 
sulted in his nomination as the Whig candidate for Governor. In a 
note to Mrs. Seward he said: 

Sejtiember \§th. 

To-night a meeting is held at the Exchange to respond. It is said to he a 
large one, and to embrace all who have been dissatisfied. Weed has sent me an- 
other long letter written in good spirits, in which he says that Root writes to 
him that "the nomination of one of the finest fellows in the State will revive 
Antimasonry and ruin everything." 

Ilallet and Myron Holley warmly praise the nomination. A large meeting 
was to be held last evening at Masonic Hall, New York ; Gulian 0. Verplanck 
was to preside. The New YorTc American has a generous and handsome article. 
The Argus is yet silent. The New Yorh Times says, " Our candidate is twenty- 
six, has red hair, and a long nose." " Our candidate " has received notice that 
a formal invitation will be presented to him inviting him to go to Syracuse and 
be introduced to the Young Men's Whig Convention, and of course make a 
speech. He has decided that it will not be wise to attend, and of course, if his 
views are consulted, the invitation will not be given. 

This letter brings the story of his life to the period when his auto- 
biography closes. The two pictures thus given of his legislative ex- 
perience in Albany are not without their value, for the opportunity 
they offer of comparing his opinions at the outset of his political career 
with those of the closing hours of his life. That the one should have 
a tone of youthful buoyancy, and the other of graver thought, is nat- 
ural. That there should be no contradiction in regard to facts, theories, 
or principles, is the more remarkable when it is remembered that the 
letters and the autobiography were never compared by him. 



CHAPTER XL 

1834. 

Campaign of 1834. — Seward and Stilwell. — " Young Man with Eed Hair." — The Whig 
Party. — Election. — "Mourners." — Journey with Cary. — New York Hospitalities.— 
Charles King. — Chancellor Kent. — New England Dinner. — End of Legislative Lite. 

On the afternoon of the 2Gth of September, the people who lived 
on the old turnpike-road, between Syracuse and Auburn, were sur- 
prised by a novel sight. Carriages, coaches, and wagons, with music 
and flags, men on horseback with badges and streamers, filled the road, 
rattling and galloping by to the westward. There were several hun- 
dred in the cavalcade. These were the members of the Young Men's 
Whig State Convention at Syracuse, who at the close of their proceed- 



1834.] ORIGIN OF THE WHIG PARTY. 237 

ings had formally resolved to go en masse at one o'clock to visit their 
candidate for Governor, twenty-six miles distant. After a four hours' 
ride, they were received and welcomed at the outskirts of Auburn by 
a similar cavalcade, which had gone out to meet them. Then, greeted 
by a salute of fifty guns, the combined body entered the streets in 
triumphant procession. Of course, the little village was alive with en- 
thusiasm, as they passed on to the residence of the young candidate to 
severally take him by the hand, and assure him of their support. A 
brief interval for rest was followed by a " rousing meeting " at the 
Presbyterian Church, in whose proceedings prominent part was taken 
by Willis Hall, David Graham, Jr., Parliament Bronson, William C. 
Noyes, Mortimer M. Jackson, and W. H. L. Bogart. 

And now the campaign went on with vigor. The despondent and 
defeated little band of Antimasons of the preceding winter had plucked 
up new heart, when they began to carry town-meetings in the spring. 
They had combined with other elements of opposition under various 
appellations in different localities, calling themselves in one place 
"Anti- Jackson," in another " Anti- Mortgage," in a third "Anti- 
Regency," but consolidating at last in State Convention under the name 
of " Whig," which they had derived from New England and the city of 
New York. The new party exulted in its name. The followers of 
every creed, religious and political, love to trace their doctrines back to 
those of the real or supposed founders of their faith. The Whigs of 
1834 announced themselves as the true successors of the "Whigs of 
1776," and found analogies between their cause and that of the rebel 
colonists. They called their movement a " revolution," directed against 
" King Andrew," as its prototype was against King George. They 
charged " King Andrew " with " tyranny " and " usurpation," and 
" denial of popular rights." They accused him and his followers of 
affecting regal state, of reveling in " marble palaces," with " wine- 
vaults " and " British gold." They pointed out how hospitably Van 
Buren had been " entertained at Windsor Castle " by the " king and 
queen." They raised " liberty-poles " again in the streets of Boston 
and New York. They chose, as emblems peculiarly appropriate, the 
national flag, live eagles, and portraits of Washington. They declared 
that the New York charter election was the " Lexington " where the 
first struggle of the new revolution took place. They stigmatized 
their opponents as " Tories." Mr. Webster added to their enthu- 
siastic zeal by avowing himself in a letter to be " the son of a father 
who acted an humble part in establishing the independence of the 
country," and saying, " I have been educated from my cradle in the 
principles of the Whigs of '76 ! " 

The Democrats, who rightly felt that they had, in their own name, 
a tower of strength, replied by pointing to their chief, " the hero of 



23S L^E AND LETTERS. [1834. 

New Orleans," the "stern opponent of nullification," the successful 
"champion of the people " against the "monster bank." 

Strong in the prestige of past success and present power, they 
sneered at the " upstart party " with its high-sounding pretensions, 
recommended Stilwell to " stick to his boots and shoes," and pointed 
to the contrast between a mature and experienced statesman like Marcy, 
and his competitor, a " red-haired young man," without a record and 
unknown to fame. 

Of course the Whigs did not lose the opportunity thus offered to 
call upon all mechanics to observe the indignity shown to Stilwell be- 
cause he was one. Meetings were organized in which not only all shoe- 
makers, but all tinsmiths, hatters, printers, tailors, and men of every 
other handicraft, were exhorted to "rally around him," as the repre- 
sentative of "working-men" against the "Jackson aristocrats." 

As for the "Whig gubernatorial candidate, elaborate biographies 
(one from the pen of William Kent) soon showed that, instead of being 
unknown, he had rendered " good service to the State ; " and William 
L. Stone, with felicitous humor, disposed of the other accusations in 
the Commercial Advertiser. He set forth, in an elaborate " Chapter 
on Young Men," how many of the greatest names in history were 
achieved in youth; how Charlemagne, Charles XII., Lafayette, Napo- 
leon, Pitt, Burke, Warren, Hamilton, Jefferson, Rush, Jay, Byron, Mil- 
ton, Mozart, Pope, Newton, Harvey, nay, even Henry Clay, De Witt 
Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins, and John C. Calhoun, were " young men " 
when their deeds first made them famous. Then, in an equally exhaus- 
tive argument, two columns long, headed "The Last Objection an- 
swered," he pointed out how Esau, and Cato, Clovis, William Rufus, 
Rob Roy, and Brian Boroihme, not only " each had red hair," but were 
celebrated for having it ; how Ossian sung a "lofty race of red-haired 
heroes," how Venus herself was golden-haired, as well as Patroclus and 
Achilles, and closing with this peroration : 

Thus does it appear that in all ages, and in all countries, from Paradise to 
Dragon River, has red or golden hair been held in the highest estimation. But 
for his red hair, the country of Esau would not have been called "Edom." But 
for his hair, which was doubtless red, Samson would not have carried away the 
of Gaza. But for bis red hair, Jason would not have navigated the Euxino 
and discovered the Golden Horn. But for the red hair of bis mistress, Leander 
would not have swum the Hellespont. But for bis red hair, Narcissus would not 
have fallen in love with himself, and thereby become immortal in song. But for 
bis red hair, we should find nothing in Mr. Van Buren to praise. But for red 
hair, we should not have writ (en this article. And, but for bis red hair, "William 
II. Seward might not have liecome Governor of the State of New York! Stand 
aside, then, ye Tories, and "Let go of his hair! " 

The rural press were divided about equally between the two parties. 



1834.] CAMPAIGN POETRY. 239 

In the cities the Evening Journal, at Albany, the Commercial Adver- 
tiser, the American, and the Courier and Enquirer, in New York, 
waged hot battle with the Argus, the New York Times, and the Even- 
ing Post, who supported the Administration. 

The mottoes and songs of a popular contest, while they reflect all 
its absurd exaggerations and personalities, also illustrate the principles 
involved in it. Such were the cries at this election in 1834 : " Seward 
with Free Soil, or Marcy with Mortgage," " the Monster Bank Party," 
and the party of " Little Monsters," " Bank Influence and Bank Cor- 
ruptions," " Regency Spoils," " Perish Commerce, Perish Credit," 
" Marcy's Pantaloons," " Union and Liberty," " No Nullification," etc., 
etc., etc. 

Copper coins or medals were struck bearing the heads of the can- 
didates, and one or another of these inscriptions. Campaign songs had 
not then acquired the popularity which they achieved at subsequent 
elections, but a verse or two will illustrate the character of some of 
those on the " Whig " side. One alluded to the neglected flats and 
overslaugh in the Hudson River, nicknamed " Marcy's Farm : " 

" Those who have land like Marcy's farm, 
Where naught but sloops take root, 
May pawn it and sustain no harm — 
But free soil brings forth fruit." 

Another, a parody on " Duncan Gray," referred to Mr. Van Buren's 
recent visit to Western New York : 

" Van came here to woo the folks. 

Ha, ha, the wooing o't ; 
The ' infected district ' would not veer, 
So back again Mat had to steer, 

Ha, ha, the wooing o't." * 

Irishmen were appealed to by an imitation of " Erin go Bragh," 
thus : 

" Against freedom's foe we unitedly go, 
On Seward and on Stilwell our votes we'll bestow, 
And Columbia's eagle in pride shall be seen 
On our own Erin's flag, with the shamrock so green." 

Again, the sneers at the Whig " boy " candidate were adverted to : 

" At Lafayette Cornwallis railed — 
' That boy,' quoth he, ' is mine ; ' 
But soon to that same ' boy ' he quailed, 
In ' auld lang-syne.' " 

Nominations for Congress and the Legislature this year embraced 
some names since well known in the political history of the State. 



240 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1834. 

Among the former were Gulian C. Verplanck, Ogden Hoffman, James 
G. King, Dudley Selden, Adoniram Chandler, Samuel Beardsley, C. C. 
Cambreleng, John Cramer, Philo C. Fuller, Francis Granger, Gideon 
Hard, Gerrit Y. Lansing, Gideon Lee, Thomas C. Love, Levi Beardsley, 
Abijah Mann, Jr., Rutger B. Miller, John McKeon, Joshua A. Spencer, 
and Peter Sken Smith. 

Among the legislative nominations were Luther Bradish, Austin 
Baldwin, Hamilton Fish, Joseph Blunt, George W. Patterson, Prosper 
M. Wetmore, James J. Roosevelt, Mark H. Sibley, Robert Denniston, 
and Preston King. 

Reports from elections in the other States now began to come in, 
inspiring the Whigs with fresh hopes. Though Pennsylvania had con- 
tinued Democratic, Ohio had given a Whig majority of ten thousand. 
Baltimore had been carried by the Whigs. Elections in Delaware, Vir- 
ginia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Rhode 
Island, and Vermont, all showed gratifying gains. Two elections of 
ominous significance for the future passed then almost unheeded ; those 
in Georgia and South Carolina, where the battle was between " Union " 
and " State Rights," the Union men in Georgia sending to Congress 
James M. Wayne, afterward the just and loyal Supreme Court Judge, 
and the " State Rights " men in South Carolina electing F. W. Pickens, 
who was afterward chosen Governor of that State under the " Con- 
federacy." 

The " three days " of the election came, and the contest began. 

The Evening Journal, on the night of the first day, said : " The 
Whigs made a noble rally." The second night it expressed an appre- 
hension that " the majority will be greatly reduced by the inattention 
of many of our friends." On the evening of the third day it briefly 
announced : " The Regency have carried the State, and probably by a 
majority equal to that of 1832." 

So Seward and Stilwell were defeated ; the new party had failed ; 
and the Democrats still remained masters of the field. 

The results of a State election at that period, when the horseback 
express was the speediest method of transmitting returns, were often 
in doubt for weeks. But in this case the triumph of the Democrats 
w r as too complete to allow the Whigs to entertain any false hopes. 
Marcy was elected Governor, and Tracy Lieutenant-Governor, by a 
majority of over eleven thousand. Every senatorial district had gone 
Democratic, except the eighth, and the Whigs had but a feeble minority 
of the Assemblymen. A few Whig Congressmen were elected — among 
them Granger, Fuller, Lay, Hard, and Love. But most of the Whig 
majorities were in the old " infected district " of Antimasonry in West- 
ern New York. 

In the strongholds of the Democracy, its sway remained unbroken. 



1834.] THE WHIGS DEFEATED. 241 

Its followers celebrated their victory with speeches and festivities, 
amono- them a collation of beer and cold meat in the hall of the Capitol. 
Two days after the election Seward wrote to Weed : 

Evil tidings fly fast enough. I shall not trouble myself to give them speed. 
You will hear all from those to whom they bring joy. So far as I have heard 
I give you the reported majorities in this county. Do not take any grief for 
this result on account of my feelings. Be assured that it has not found me un- 
prepared. I shall not suffer any unhappiness in returning to private life, except 
that which I shall feel with all our political friends. Believe me, there is no 
affectation in my saying that I would not now exchange the feelings and asso- 
ciations of the vanquished William II. Seward for the victory and " spoils" of 
William L. Marcy. If I live, and such principles and opinions as I enter- 
tain ever find favor with the people, I shall not be without their respect. If 
they do not, I shall be content with enjoyments that politicians cannot take 
from me. 

Eemember me with expressions of gratitude to all our friends who may take 
so much personal interest in me as to inquire how the defeat of our just cause is 
borne by him who they were willing should enjoy the best fruits of its success. 

A week later he wrote : 

I have cleared' away the ground since the action ; after a brief visit to Albany 
I shall be ready to engage with a good heart in the labors of my profession and 
devote myself to them, and to the cultivation of what taste I have for study. 
Let me have your assurance that you have acquired the same philosophy. . . . 
Granger spent a day with me. He has had a fortunate escape from his dilemma, 
and I am rejoiced at it. He is a noble fellow ; and I am glad that, if we could 
not make him what we wished, we have been able to put him into a career of 
honor and usefulness. 

The Whigs drew some encouragement even from their defeat. 
Though they had not carried the State, yet the result of the election 
showed that they were stronger, on the whole, than the scattered oppo- 
sition elements out of which they sprung had been in the preceding 
year. They were now a national instead of a local organization, and 
their successes in other States assured them that, with time, success 
was not impossible in New York. In Massachusetts their victory was 
as great as their defeat had been at home. The Whigs had carried 
that State, and elected nearly all its members of Congress, among 
them Abbott Lawrence, Caleb Gushing, Levi Lincoln, and John Quincy 
Adams. 

The political career of Seward had now drawn to its close. His 
legislative duties had ceased in the spring ; the governorship had been 
refused him in the fall ; it only remained for him to attend the remain- 
ing brief session of the Court of Errors, and then to sit down in his 
law-office at Auburn and resume his cases in court. His letters described 
16 



24:2 LIFE AKD LETTERS. [1834. 

his experiences on going to perform his final public duties in Albany 
and New York : 

Utica, November 20, 1S34. 
The end of this day's journey will be Utica, where this letter is dated, al- 
though written on hoard the canal-boat twenty miles west of that place. Al- 
though looked at by all the boys as a " dead lion," I find the majority of the 
traveling public are Whigs, and the " Tories," inasmuch as " he " is on board, 
abstain, from motives of commendable forbearance, from all kinds of glorying in 
their triumph. 

Albany, November 2Zd. 

This journalizing mode of correspondence is, for many reasons, the best, but 
principally because it is most acceptable to you. 

On my journey hither I met Raynor, Brewster, and others of the earnest and 
patriotic politicians, and the interviews were painful to me. They were yet 
smarting under the sore discomfiture of our good cause, and it was evident that 
the only cure for their dejection must be derived from the healing hand of 
Time. The excitement of traveling had roused the Whigs on board the boat 
from the despondency they felt while they remained at home, and as I needed no 
introduction to persons, all of whom had so recently deposited their votes for 
me, we were soon very well acquainted, and had a pleasant voyage. I arrived 
here yesterday morning, and determined to take lodgings in our old quarters at 
Bement's. I found Caleb dejected, as were the whole household, but they were 
evidently gratified that I had adhered to them with the same tenacity they had 
to me. 

After having paid my respects to my old friend John the barber, whom I 
found willing to cut the throats of all the "Tories" for preventing my election, 
I went down to Weed's. I found him dejected beyond measure. Then I went 
up to the Capitol, where the Court of Errors were in session. Although I had 
been the subject of much political action since I had last been among the mem- 
bers, there was nothing peculiar in our meeting. They gave me a greeting 
neither unwelcome nor embarrassed. At dinner I found Mr. Caldwell ; Dr. 
Beck was with him, and I congratulated both upon the tenacity with which 
they cling to the habit of dining together on Saturday. Gary went on with 
his friend to New York. lie is not yet returned. Poor Uncle Cary ! it must be 
very hard for him, at this time, to stay anywhere. He needs, as he deserves, to 
find his friends happy, in order that he may be happy himself . He finds nobody 
happy now but those whose happiness arises from the same cause which works 
all his woe. I found all the young men here who were, as you recollect, so 
ardent and sanguine last spring, now dejected and desponding. My buoyancy 
of spirits had returned as soon as I left Weed, and I succeeded in bringing back 
their hopes and confidence. After dinner, Charles Kirkland, of Utica, and Cush- 
man, of Troy, came in, both in bad enough spirits. I found Weed and Tracy 
in my room; both staid till ei^rlit o'clock; both unhappy. Mr. Benedict and 
Mr. Hart came in and staid till their equanimity, just recovered, was put to 
flight. 

Went this morning to church. The new Baptist church is finished. I dined 
with Rathbone at the Eagle. I found at table three or four of my fast political 
friends; they could not have been more melancholy if they had been attending 



1834.] SHERIDAN KNOWLES. 243 

my funeral. . Henry Webb was with tbem, and was a sincere mourner. They 
were all astonisbed to find tbat I was not. In the afternoon went to Mr. 
Campbell's churcb, and heard a good sermon. I sat in Mr. Caldwell's pew, 
wbere I met the Misses Westerlo, whose acquaintance I made without intro- 
duction, but presuming that I was their candidate at the last election. Alas, 
even these young ladies had bright hopes founded on the success of the Whig 
ticket ! I found none but Whigs, of both sexes, at this church. 

November 2-kth. 
On my way to the Capitol, this morning, I met Judge Spencer coming down 
to see me. He shares in the disappointment of our political labors. Judge 
Conkling fell in with us at the same time, having just come from my room. 
He, too, was a mourner, and I thought it best to pass on and not gather any 
more desponding Whigs in front of the " Regency " offices. 

November 26th. 
The aspect of society is changing so that, in a short time, many of your 
acquaintances will not be found here. John T. Norton is desirous of selling his 
beautiful house, and goes in the spring to reside on a farm in Connecticut. Mr. 
Delavan has grown enthusiastic in the temperance cause. They tell me here 
that, one or two weeks ago, he and Mrs. Delavan brought forth from their cellar 
seven hundred bottles of wine and poured the liquid treasure on the earth. 
Now they are selling their house, so that they may not be hindered in the great 
work of proselyting to temperance. 

Saturday, November 29th. 

I had with me at dinner to-day Mr. Willis Hall, the President of the late 
Young Men's Convention. He is a very intelligent and patriotic man, burning 
with zeal for a new contest, and, I confess, embarrassed me not a little by requir- 
ing me to show him the way to renew the war with some hopes of success. To 
me there is nothing cheering in the signs. The success of the Democrats in this 
State was all that was wanted to rally a corps of adventurers round Mr. Van 
Buren, sufficient in number to fight his way through all opposition to the throne. 
Be it so, I have done my duty ; it is the part neither of philosophy nor patriotism 
to suffer this calamity to oppress my spirits or dishearten me in the performance 
of duties as a citizen. 

Last night Cary and I went to the theatre. It has been considerably im- 
proved. The old drop-curtain has been substituted by a new one, pretty enough, 
and adorned among other devices w-ith the coat of arms of this ancient city. 

Mr. James Sheridan Knowles played the part of Master Walter in his own 
piece of " The Hunchback." Although he is by no means a great actor, he plays 
with judgment and good taste ; and Mrs. Greene, although inferior in talent to 
Miss Fanny Kemble, was very effective in some of the most interesting parts of 
the piece. 

I have just finished the perusal of Bulwer's new novel, " The Last Days of 
Pompeii.'' I wait only for an opportunity to send it to you. There is some 
affectation of classical literature in it, but there is much of that rich philosophic 
vein which is especially pleasing in his other w r orks. There are barbarous scenes, 
based doubtless on historic fact, but enough of talent, morals, religion, and phi- 
losophy, to redeem all the defects of the work. 



244 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1834. 

Tuesday, December 2d. 

Again to the theatre last evening, this time to witness the performance of 
" The Wife," one of the dramas written by Mr. Knowles. The two principal 
parts were taken by himself and Miss Wheatley. The former fell far behind the 
merit evinced by him in " The Hunchback." The latter is a wonder. She is 
the daughter of an actress, and may almost be said to have been brought up on 
the stage. She is only thirteen years old ; yet her stature and person are so 
much developed that she seems to be held responsible to play her part, not as a 
child, but as a woman. 

This morning I saw Mr. Knowles at the American. His manner is some- 
what theatrical, and declamatory withal, yet I was not repelled thereby, for 
who can fail to admire a great mind and a generous heart ? I will give you a 
puzzle in phrenology. His head and face are almost a copy of our worthy 
neighbor Mr. Garrow's. 

Fred Whittlesey came along to-day, on his way to Congress ; he dined with 
me, and was every way interesting to me. He was bound by a new tie, which 
had been woven by generous and manly support of my personal interest in the 
election. Mr. Miner, of the Neio York American, was with us also. We made 
a pleasant party. Afterward, meeting James Horner in the street, I went to 
take tea at his house. The copper-coin bearing my image and superscription 
was carefully preserved, and I traveled over again, to an audience who appeared 
to be willing listeners, my journey to Chamouni and the glaciers. 

TJiursday, December Ath. 

I am performing the last act of the election drama. I have, as you know, 
many calls, and it would be churlish in me to withhold such attentions as it is in 
my power to bestow upon the generous and ardent partisans who have sustained 
me. I have some friends every day at dinner, and visitors every evening, if I 
do not go out myself. I know and feel that this is dissipation, of a fruitless 
kind; but I console myself on that score by reflecting that I shall soon bring it 
all to an end. 

Mr. Rutherford, who carries this letter, goes to Auburn for the purpose of 
studying law in my office. His grandfather, Mr. John Rutherford, is a venera- 
ble and excellent citizen of New Jersey, and has been one of its most distin- 
guished men. 

December 9th. 

Rathbone sent up to me this morning Hannah More's " Letters and Life." 
I have commenced reading them. Although these letters are imbued with all 
that religious feeling which has deterred many from the perusal of the works of 
Hannah More, as from that of Young's " Night Thoughts," I have found it one 
of the most fascinating books I have opened for many years. The letters are 
full of bright, flashing, ami interesting anecdote, and correct conceptions of the 
characters of many of the most illustrious men and women of England during 
the period when Johnson, Sheridan, Burke, Garrick, Montagu, and Barbauld, 
wire living. The universal and perpetual reading of Boswell's "Life of John-* 
son" proves it one of the most interesting books ever written. You will lie 
pleased with a similar work, in which Hannah More is the observer and scribe 
of the sayings and doings of so many brilliant personages. I shall send it to 
you by the first conveyance which offers. 



1834.] TRUMBULL CARY. 245 

The Court of Errors have to-day decided that they will take a recess from 
Thursday next for eight or ten days. Cary and I will go down the river, and 
prohably to Orange County. 

Trumbull Cary, stout and hearty, with mirthful face and benevo- 
lent expression, was a universal favorite. In later life his fine head 
was said to resemble that of Washington. His term as Senator from 
the Eighth District began and ended at the same time with that of 
Seward as Senator from the Seventh. 

President Jackson's message at the opening of Congress had now 
been received. A large part of it was devoted to the claims against 
France ; but the portions which had especial political significance, and 
were accepted as defining the position and future course of the Demo- 
cratic party, were those relating to the National Bank and to internal 
improvements. 

As to the National Bank, the Whigs w r ere not inclined to pursue 
the contest, but rather to accept the result of the election as having 
settled that question. As to internal improvements, while not disposed 
to insist on the powers of the Federal Government in that regard, they 
continued their advocacy of canals and railroads, and of assistance to 
them by the State, to whose development and prosperity they had now 
grown so necessary. 

Newbheg, December lGth. 

Mr. Cary and I came down the river to this place on Thursday evening last. 
We had many passengers ; among others, Mr. B. F. Butler, with his entire fam- 
ily, on their way to "Washington to spend the winter ; it appears they have never 
removed to the capital. Possibly the experience that other chosen cabinet coun- 
selors have had of General Jackson's arbitrary conduct has rendered the At- 
torney-General prudent ; but I think his' prospects are now fair for holding his 
post much longer than his recent predecessors. On board we had a party of 
defeated Whigs. The severity of our disappointment has greatly mitigated, and 
we had as pleasant a season as a December trip on board a steamboat usually 
affords. After spending a night at this place, Mr. Cary and I proceeded by 
stage and private conveyance to Florida. We found the household tranquil 
and in order. The politicians, Van Duser chief among them, spent an hour 
with us at the hotel. We called at General Wickham's, Horace Elliott's, and 
Dr. Daniel Seward" 1 s, and declined invitations to dinner, tea, etc., for the entire 
period of our stay in Orange County. Tbence we came to this place in a small 
stage with nine other passengers ; two of them were Mr. Wisner and S. J. 
Wilkin. 

It was our intention to go to New York last night, but the weather has been 
so severe that the river is closed as far down as Bed Hook. The boats now run 
irregularly ; there has been none here since we arrived. We expect one at 
about twelve o'clock, and so Uncle Cary and I have withdrawn to our room, 
where we have a comfortable Liverpool-coal fire. He is reading " Peter Sim- 
ple," and I am recording for you the journal of our wanderings. 



24G LIFE AND LETTERS. [1834. 

New York, December \§th. 

We arrived and took lodgings at Bunker's on Tuesday evening. "When three 
or three and a half arrives, I go to dine, and of course sit to a late hour. On 
Wednesday I dined with Patterson, Kent, and Hoffman, and spent the evening 
at a party at Colonel Stone's. 

One can eat only one dinner a day, and, being previously engaged at Van 
Schaick's, I disappointed two dinner-parties intended to include me : one at 
James G. King's, the other at this house. To-morrow we have a dinner here, 
and I am to visit Chancellor Kent in the evening. Monday is the New England 
dinner, at which they wish me to attend as a guest. I have been pressed to ac- 
cept the compliment of a public dinner for Tuesday, the last day of our stay in 
town. I have half consented, provided it shall be converted into a private din- 
ner, and everything in relation to it excluded from the newspapers. 

December 2Uh. 

Last Friday, Cary and I dined with Senator Van Schaick on Broadway. 
Rufus H. King, of Albany, was of the party, and my old master, John Anthon, 
was to be, but was detained in court. Mrs. Van Schaick is a daughter of John 
Hone. In the evening I went to a party at William Kent's in Bond Street. He 
is a gentleman delicate in taste, and of high honor, and I value him highly. I 
found Mrs. Kent an intelligent and charming woman, and we arranged that we 
are all to become acquainted next August, when they go to the westward. 
Chancellor and Mrs. Kent have, like yourself, and my father and mother, been 
so foolish as to believe all their son said of me in the flattering biography which 
he wrote, and the former caressed me with almost parental affection. 

Several of the gentlemen at Bunker's were desirous to have a small party on 
Saturday. It consisted of Charles King, Gulian C. Verplanck, Ogden Hoffman, 
James G. King, William L. Stone, William Kent, Nicholas Devereux, Patterson, 
and others. We had as spirited a convivial and intellectual meeting as I ever 
enjoyed. Charles King is rich in literary conversation, Kent animated, Patter- 
son fastidious, Verplanck humorous, Hoffman eloquent and free, J. G. King 
agreeable, and Stone entertaining. 

Cary and I had an opportunity to vindicate Weed from the absurd slander 
of depriving Timothy Monroe's corpse of whiskers, to make it resemble Morgan 
— a slander that had half preserved its credit until this time among some 
of the guests. Kent nobly espoused Weed's cause, and we placed him beyond 
reach of attack from that source. 

It was half-past ten when we rose from the table, and I had yet two engage- 
ments at tea — the one at Captain Rcid's, the other at Chancellor Kent's. I took 
a coach and drove to Laight Street, where I found the Reids, .made my apology, 
drank coffee, and at half-past eleven took my leave. My driver, pursuing my 
direction, erroneously copied from the directory, was unable to find Chancellor 
. Kent's house. After having been driven half over the island, I gave it up and 
went home. 

Sunday morning I had only time, after a late breakfast, to reach Jennings's 
house before the hour for morning church, where I went with him and his fami- 
ly, and saw him with four others ordained, with all formality, elders of the 
congregation. I could not look upon the service (badly as I thought it per- 
formed) without feeling. 



1834.] THE SONS OF NEW ENGLAND. 217 

In the afternoon I went to church to hear Dr. Hawks. In the porch I met 
David Graham with his intended wife, Miss Hyslop. They gave me a seat with 
them, but Dr. Hawks had a substitute in the pulpit. 

Monday morning my table was covered with cards and billets to be disposed 
of, first to decline invitations to tea, next to accept an invitation to dine with 
the young men, then to answer the committee of arrangements of the New- 
England Society, etc., etc. 

I wrote a letter to Chancellor Kent, telling my adventures in search of his 
house on Saturday night. I went to leave it at his office, in the event of his 
absence, but found him there, and made the explanation. He insisted upon 
having the letter to show his wife and daughter. 

December 2Sth. 

Mr. Cary and I, having accepted an invitation to dine with about twenty 
young men on Monday, at the City Hotel, came there at six, and met a very 
intelligent and agreeable party, of which Willis Hall was the chairman. 

After the cloth was removed, Mr. Hall made me a speech, and gave a toast 
in my honor, which was drunk by the company. I made a speech, brief and 
unstudied, in return, and gave for my sentiment, " The young men of the city 
of New York : they have committed but one error in political action, that of 
mistaking the justice of their cause for an indication of its immediate success. 
Their only reproach is, that they could not command the success they deserved." 

The vice-president toasted the Eighth District, and Mr. Cary responded. 
About ten o'clock a committee from the New England Society appeared, and 
invited Mr. Cary and myself into the salon where the descendants of the Pil- 
grims were celebrating their anniversary. We were received by the president, 
and took our seats upon his right. The spirit of the celebration was then at 
its height. I was called upon, and gave the sentiment which you have seen 
much garbled in the newspapers. 

It was received with marks of approbation, and soon afterward a toast was 
announced from the chair, and drunk with three times three, "William H. 
Seward, the independent politician, who received at the late election the largest 
New England vote ever given to any candidate in the State of New York." 

The toast was drunk with great cordiality. The party, of course, expected 
a speech, and I made one ; but I cannot recall more than the substance of it 
now. I told them I had no speech ready for the occasion, as I never anticipated 
such a compliment from the sons of the Pilgrims. It was the more gratifying 
to me inasmuch as the vote alluded to was given me over a son of New Eng- 
land ; while I was not one of that honored race, and had not a drop of Yankee 
blood in my veins. ( " You have ! you have ! You are an adopted Yankee, 
anyhow," said they). I added that I had in public life given the evidence of 
my veneration for New England, by acting in accordance with the principles 
she had inculcated. I would only add that if any citizen of any other State 
was inclined to listen to aspersions on the character of the citizens of New. 
England, or to think their principles unworthy or inferior to those of his own 
State, let him recollect who were the school-masters of the American people. 

Cary's toast in honor of Maynard was drunk with respect and veneration for 
the memory of that great patriot, exceedingly gratifying to us, who were his 
associates. 

We now returned to the party below, where I met for the first time in the 



248 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

city our Lieutenant-Governor (that was to be) Stilwell. The party broke up at 
midnight. 

Your letter received this morning asks how the Courier came to announce 
me as having taken lodgings at the " Masonic Hall." I answer your question 
now, lest I may forget it. Webb wrote his article with the words " Mansion 
House " (meaning Bunker's on Broadway). The compositor who set it up made ' 
it read " Masonic Hall." The other papers soon set the matter right, but the 
most ludicrous part of the matter was, that it could not be corrected without 
giving the Regency papers a good opportunity for a hearty laugh at us. 

Tuesday morning was devoted to receiving visits, answering billets, and 
returning cards. At four o'clock we went to Webb's to dine. There was a large 
party, a luxurious display, and a most fastidious taste ; the dinners at Pompeii 
were not more classical. 

From Webb's we came down-town and stopped at the Opera-House. It was 
the last night. The Italian Opera in New York has failed, for want of patron- 
age ; the ton of the city were there to enjoy it for the last time, and we were 
there to see the ton. 

I had an invitation for Tuesday evening to a large party given by Mrs. D. S. 
Jones, the daughter of De Witt Clinton; a similar invitation on Monday to 
Mrs. Hicks, on Bond Street. Charles King had invited a supper-party .to meet 
us on Wednesday night. James G. King had made a dinner for us the day we 
dined with Van Schaick. We declined, and tore ourselves away from the hos- 
pitalities which pressed us on every side. At five o'clock we went on board the 
steamboat, and arrived about midnight at Poughkeepsie. It was cold and tem- 
pestuous, and we retired to sleep. On Christmas-morning, at six o'clock, we 
took the stage and traveled comfortably enough, although the weather was very 
cold. We arrived at Greenbush about eleven o'clock at night, and, after much 
ado, procured porters to carry our baggage across the river, and reached Bement's 
at midnight. 

I cannot yet say when I shall be able to leave Albany, but I am making my 
parting arrangements. I need not tell you that I have become more than ever 
attached to Uncle Cary, and that here we are inseparable. Mrs. Cary, with her 
genuine kindness, has proposed to meet him at Auburn. They have it so 
arranged that Wednesday of week after next, if there is sleighing, she will be 
with you. Mr. Cary will positively be there, and so will I. And so the part I 
have assumed among politicians has its inception, denoument, and finale ! 



CHAPTER XII. 

1835. 



Return to Private Life. — Law and Chancery Practice. — Judge Miller.— Seward and Beards- 
ley. — Political Speculations. — French Claims. — Personalities in Debate. — Attempt to 
assassinate Jackson. — Advice about going West. — Editorial Life. — " Optimism." — 
Ilenry Bulwcr. 

Returning to Auburn early in January, 1835, accompanied by Mr. 
Weed's daughter Harriet, he announced their arrival in a letter to her 
father : 



1835.] GOVERNOR MARCY. 249 

I am once more, thank God, and I hope for a long time, at home ; really, I 
was so weary of the unprofitable life I was leading at Albany, that I was unable 
to regret as I otherwise must have done, that the time had come when a ter- 
mination must be set to our long, confidential, and intimate association. Keep 
me informed upon political matters, and take care that I do not so far get ab- 
sorbed in professional occupation, that you will cease to care for me as a poli- 
tician. 

Resuming his place among the law-books and papers in the old 
white office on South Street, he resumed with it his industrious habits 
there, and worked early in the morning and late at night at the cases 
of his clients. His practice began to steadily increase and enlarge, 
though it was still confined to Cayuga and the adjoining counties in 
the western part of the State. He wrote : 

January IS, 1835. 

It goes with me, thus far, very much as I supposed it would. An entire 
week has passed, and I have found no leisure. All this would be comfortable 
enough if I were pleased with my employment. But I do not find that certainty 
in the results of long and painful investigation which compensates one for the 
trouble. " Eureka ! " said the Grecian philosopher, when the key to his perplex- 
ing problem presented itself to his mind. But in law there is no "Eureka." 
You search forever, and, instead of finding out the truth of the matter, you 
find out, at the end of a long and troublesome litigation, that you are all wrong, 
or that the court and jury are ; and the consequences to you and your client are 
the same in both cases. 

But I am not indulging any morbid feelings. I would rather pursue my pro- 
fession than any other, and when I once get accustomed to it I shall find it go 
smoothly enough. 

Your hurried letter, written upon the blank page of Fillmore's, was rather 
melancholy. I am so selfish as not to be sorry that you were sad when Cary 
and I left you. I would not have you perform a shorter mourning than a 
widow's prescribed quarantine. It is a graceless world, my dear Weed, and we 
will soon enough forget each other. 

Meanwhile political affairs of some gravity were engrossing atten- 
tion at Albany and Washington. But as this book aims to present, 
not the history of the times, but the story of an individual life, it will 
be sufficient to allude to a few events then transpiring, as news of 
them reached the quiet village home, through the newsjDapers or the 
letters of friends. 

From Albany came the annual message of Governor Marcy, able 
and clear, as all his state papers were. In it he reiterated the argu- 
ments against the United States Bank, now become cardinal doctrines 
of the Jackson party. 

He felicitated the Legislature and the people that the commercial 
panic had passed, and confidence had been restored, so that it had not 
been necessary to make or use the six-million-dollar loan authorized at 



250 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

the previous session, the United States Bank having ceased its curtail- 
ment of discounts. Its renewed expansion of loans was claimed to 
prove that its previous contraction had been made, not under the press- 
ure of necessity, but for political effect. The Governor recommended 
the enlargement of the Erie Canal, in accordance with an almost 
universal public sentiment. He further recommended the suppression 
of all bank bills under five dollars, and warned the Legislature against 
granting State bank charters too lavishly. His party, in the Senate and 
Assembly, followed him in denunciation of the Bank of the United 
States, and voted to use a part of the canal-tolls to enlarge the Erie 
Canal, but took little heed of his warnings against new bank charters, 
which continued at this session to be dispensed among the eager lobby 
that awaited them, and, naturally enough, perhaps, applicants who 
were supporters of the State and national Administrations were 
especially fortunate in obtaining them. 

The Whig minority, hardly numbering more than one-third of the 
Legislature, had no disposition to continue the war in behalf of the 
Bank of the United States after their signal defeat at the fall election. 
To the enlargement of the Erie Canal they gave a hearty support, and 
directed their artillery chiefly against the distribution of the bank 
charters, proposing investigations of the manner in which it was done. 
These, however, were usually tabled by a decisive vote. 

Seward's letters, during this period, to Weed, sketch his domestic 
and business life at Auburn, with occasional comments upon political 
events : 

January 21th. 

Charles King, when I saw him, was wanting Clay to decline in favor of 
somebody, and the only difficulty was, to select the man. None of those who 
protest against White and McLean seem to understand that Clay must decline 
in order to bring out anybody. The truth is, that we Whigs of 1834 are a very 
impracticable set of fellows. We are too independent to become good politi- 
cians. We all agree that the Tories are ruining the country, and that it is our 
duty to avert the calamity. But each man must have his own way of averting it. 

January 30lh. 

Mr. Savage has brought my miniature. It is universally admired, except by 
the very fastidious personage for whom it was painted. She, forsooth, calls it 
hard names, says it is pert, self-complacent, etc., etc., just as if that was not 
the true expression of the original. 

There is a Mr. Goodwin here, who lias spent two years in the village, paint- 
ing everybody. The day before the miniature came, he called upon me. He 
had been diligently pursuing his art, as all artists must do in the country, until 
he was prepared to advance toward the city. He wished in the spring to make 
a stand in Albany, and was desirous to have a likeness of me, by way of intro- 
ducing himself. Now, this painter had been a good and ardent Whig when it 
would have been better for him to have been a Tory. I assented, of course, 



1835.] TROUBLE WITH FRANCE. 051 

and that without having seen one of his pictures; and have heen to give him 
my first sitting. 

I never was more gratified by any political movement than I have been in 
the extraordinary tact and talent exhibited by our minority in the Legislature 
since the commencement of the session. Sibley has made a fine dclut. Young's 
resolution was rightly disposed of by our friends in both Houses. 

February 8th. 

Tour long silence has produced much anxiety in our house. Harriet is 
apprehensive that you or her mother are ill. I do not so infer. But young 
ladies do not so well understand the difficulties which old fellows like us have in 
being punctual in our correspondence. 

I have not yet found time to read the Bank Commissioner's report, or the 
State-prison report. I take, perforce, your account of all these matters for 
truth. You will see how imperative your obligation is not to commit any of 
that offense which your sweet cousin of the Argus so often reminds you of in 
his amiable kind of way. But there are some tilings which I do read: Primo, 
all Mark Sibley's bold, talented speeches; sccondo, your editorials; and tertio, 
all my dull letters from Paris. ... I think you are sustaining yourself with 
great success. You are yet, my good fellow, only at the threshold of your edi- 
torial career. You will be at the head of the profession in a few years. As for 
my letters, I am glad the manuscript you have of them is nearly out. The last 
letter was written so carelessly that I am ashamed of it. The one in Thursday's 
paper was both carelessly written and printed, but the fault is more mine than 
the printer's. I am made to speak of "elegant prison-walls," instead of "elo- 
quent " ones ! 

A great rage for speculation in real estate has arisen here. Property has 
advanced twenty-five per cent., and sells readily. This gives me reputation of 
an increase of property. Whether I realize it or not will depend upon whether 
I sell while the fever is upon us. I have real estate which I would be glad 
enough to sell, but the speculators pass me by to find thore whose necessities 
they deem greater. 

Now came intelligence of the debates going on in Congress in "re- 
gard to the French claims ; and then that the French Government, 
taking umbrage at President Jackson's recommendation of reprisals on 
French commerce, had recalled M. Serrurier, their minister, and sent to 
Mr. Livingston, the American minister at Paris, his passports. Con- 
gress, the press, and the public, evinced alarm at the prospect of war 
with France. But the next arrival from Europe tended somewhat to 
allay it, by the news that the French Government, after " vindicating 
the national honor from insult," as they said, by suspending diplomatic 
intercourse, immediately passed a law to pay the United States what 
was claimed. With this law, however, they coupled a proviso that 
they should have an apology from President Jackson. This condition 
neither he nor the American people were likely to comply with ; but 
the whole dispute, after a few months, was amicably arranged by the 
mediation of the British Government. Congress, with that curious 



252 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1885. 

inconsistency which sometimes characterizes legislative action, after 
being apparently unanimous in favor of appropriating means for 
national defense in the coming contest, differed about the amount to 
be inserted in the " Fortification Bill ; " and, as the two Houses were 
unable to reach an agreement on the night of the 3d of March, before 
the adjournment, the bill failed entirely. So the country was left with- 
out any appropriation at all to meet the war if one had come. 

Two other affairs occurred, tending to strengthen General Jackson's 
hold on popular favor, by identifying him as personally bearing the 
brunt of all assaults upon the Government. One was an attempt by 
a lunatic to fire a pistol at him, as he was attending the funeral of a 
member of Congress at the Capitol. The other was the defeat of 
Colonel Benton's resolution to " expunge " from the Senate Journal 
its censure of the President in 1833 ; which defeat was followed by the 
prompt announcement of Colonel Benton that he would renew his 
resolution for such " expunction " at the opening of the next session. 

Strong as the President unquestionably was, he had been elected 
twice, and so could not be a third time a candidate. The Whigs in 
various States began to organize for the presidential canvass against 
his probable successor, Martin Van Buren. Judge McLean was nomi- 
nated by a gathering at Columbus, in which the Whig members of the 
Ohio Legislature took prominent part, and Daniel Webster was simi- 
larly nominated by a convention of the Whig members of the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts. On these topics Seward said : 

Clay quits the field, and I have no ability to believe that "White can get votes 
enough at the South to make a diversion from Van Buren. To run "Webster as 
a candidate now is useless. I have seen no suggestion which pleased me so 
much as that which presents General Harrison ; certain it is, there is none so 
safe. We can give him all the votes we can to anybody. If we fail with him, 
we are a patriotic party and a great one. I agree with you that the charm of 
McLean's name is gone, unless he should resign his judgeship, and that, I think, 
he will not do ; and he would be very unwise if he should. I am serious in this 
ITarrison business, and hope that, if you agree, you will exert yourself to give 
it a popular aspect. Let me know your best opinion, before I commit any 
overt act in regard to it. 

March 13, 1835. 

My conscience reproaches me for concurring with you in the disapproval of 
Webster's nomination. I cannot support it, and why? Because he is too great, 
too wise? But I cannot doubt that it is our duty to defeat Van Buren. To vote 
for "Webster is, indirectly, to elect Van Buren. You are right about Harrison, 
but do not go too fast, too soon. 

The bold attempt to assassinate the President is an incident so unique and 
so full of horror that it made a deep impression upon a large class of voters. 
They anticipated the party papers in saying it was a " Whig conspiracy." They 
would shut their ears to evidence which should exculpate any member of the 



1835.] THE LAW-OFFICE. 253 

Senate, and abhor to be undeceived. "Wbile Harriet and I were waiting in the 
wagon, at the door of an hotel in Springport, we overheard a conversation be- 
tween two old farmers, in which one said tbat he had always adhered to Jackson, 
and should, as long as Jackson lived. " "Well," said the other, "you had like to 
have been discharged last month ; he came near being killed." " They can't kill 
him," said the first ; " they've tried it more tban once, and would again, but his 
time hasn't come. Thank God," said he, "they've at last shown what they 
would do to get rid of the old hero ! " 

Now, I am very much inclined to believe, with this old man, that there is a 
destiny in relation to General Jackson. . . . The maniac who leveled his pistol 
at the President accomplished one step toward converting this Government into 
a monarchy. I shudder when I reflect upon recent indications, that mankind in 
Europe choose to be governed by kings. Even the people of this country set a 
higher value upon the life of their ruler than they do upon the safeguards of 
their own liberty. . . . My word for it, we shall yet see that the effect of the 
attempt has been greater tban you now believe. 

In regard to his business affairs he wrote : 

Aceurn, March Zd. 

It is a matter of astonishment to me, in view of my long neglect of my office, 
that its income should be so much as it is. I had bought a few despised village 
lots, several years ago, and had built dwellings upon them to rent. These are 
productive, and my unoccupied lots have risen in value. I am now doing a very 
fair business, dividing to my partner, as before, one-third. If I could continue 
to attend to it, as I have done since my return from Albany, it would be worth 
more than three thousand dollars per annum to me. I am endeavoring to accu- 
mulate a reasonable surplus out of this, so as to be able to cast my books behind 
me, and take into my hands others that I like better. If our side keeps under, 
I shall make some money ; if it gets upward, my " spoils " may again be endan- 
gered. (This consummation, however devoutly it may be wished, does not give 
me any alarm.) 

Auetjrx, March 11th. 

You are right on the French question, and have, in my poor judgment, been 
right from the beginning. It is neither patriotic nor wise to oppose the Ad- 
ministration, when the question involves an issue between us and any European 
government. 

He was now steadily and diligently building up his law practice. 
At first he had encountered some jealous opposition on the part of older 
practitioners, who feared his rise in the profession might draw off 
business from their own offices. But this was now all past. He had 
pursued in court the same rule as in the Legislative Chamber. He dis- 
regarded and ignored all personalities ; and with resolute self-possession 
addressed his arguments to the points at issue — it is needless to say, 
with additional advantage from that self-control. His position was 
becoming an assured one ; and the engrossing of the prolix chancery 
papers, from his drafts or dictation, soon afforded labor for several 
clerks. Mr. Nelson Beardsley, who entered his office as a student in 



254: LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

1828, was his chief assistant. He was taken into partnership, and left 
in charge of the business on Mr. Seward's departure to Albany, to enter 
upon his duties in the Senate. This relation continued during his 
senatorial term, and until 1836. 

The business of a country lawyer in those days, while equally labori- 
ous, was much less methodical than that of a city attorney. All hours 
alike were considered by visitors fox business or pleasure as open to 
them ; and legal advice, while freely solicited, was not expected to be 
paid for, unless under previous and definite contract. The old office on 
South Street continued to be Seward & Beardsley's place of business 
until, in 1835, the Exchange Block was erected on Genesee Street. 
Then the office was transferred there. 

It was a favorite habit of his then, as in later life, to concentrate all 
his attention upon the work in hand, and not allow himself to be di- 
verted from it until it was finished. The custom of carrying forward 
several different sorts of work at one time (though often an indispen- 
sable one, especially in official life) he always regarded as occupying 
more time, and as less productive of satisfactory results. This persever- 
ing concentration enabled him to accomplish tasks with marvelous 
rapidity. Mr. Beardsley relates some incidents of their practice. One 
day, just as they were closing its labors, a client came in with a case 
in which success was hopeless unless an injunction could be obtained 
before eleven o'clock the next morning from Judge Mosely, at Onon- 
daga Hill ; and to obtain it would require a review of the entire case, 
and an analysis of the papers, which his lawyer had told him would 
occupy at least a week. 

Seeing the situation of the affair at once, Seward said, " Beardsley, 
did you sleep well last night ? " 

" Tolerably well," was the answer ; " why do you ask ? " 

" Because I think you will have to sit up all night to-night." 

Lighting the candles, and closing the doors, the two partners set 
vigorously to work, Seward drafting, and Beardsley engrossing, until 
daj'break found them completing the last pages. A hasty breakfast 
and cup of coffee followed ; and then, taking a horse and buggy, Sew- 
ard drove twenty-five miles to Onondaga Hill, obtained the injunction, 
and saved his client's case. 

On another occasion, half a dozen rural friends came into the office 
with disturbed and anxious looks, and, taking Seward aside, said to him : 

"Here is the Whig County Convention in session at the court- 
house, and we have only just discovered that no resolutions or ad- 
dress have been prepared ; and there is not a man in it who can under- 
take the work. Besides, there is no time. If we adjourn without any 
we shall be laughed at, and the whole thing will be a failure. Can't 
you help us ? " 



1835.] JUDGE MILLER. 255 

Seward considered a moment, and said : " The convention will want 
its dinner, I suppose ? " 

" Yes," they answered, " of course." 

" Very well. Go back ; appoint a committee on resolutions, who- 
ever you like, and then adjourn the convention for dinner. After 
dinner send the committee to me." 

" Now, Beardsley," turning to his partner, " Loco-f oco as you are, 
you will have to copy some good Whig resolutions, and an address." 

Going into the back-room, and locking the door, he commenced 
drafting as fast as pen could travel over paper — Beardsley engrossing 
each sheet as it was completed. 

The convention reassembled in the afternoon, and were as much 
astonished and gratified with the address and resolutions laid before 
them by their committee as the committee themselves were at having 
done it. 

Judge Miller had gradually withdrawn from actual business in the 
office, though continuing to give his counsel in many cases, where his 
judgment and experience rendered it valuable. His tenacious and 
accurate memory of historical facts made him an authority on all ques- 
tions of land-titles. A story is told of a case in court, involving title 
to lands, which had formed a part of "military lots," originally belong- 
ing to old soldiers of the Revolution. It happened that a defective 
point in the evidence was the date of a battle where one of the pen- 
sioners received a wound, which entitled him to a land-warrant. The 
old pensioners themselves were called as witnesses ; but their recollec- 
tions were confused and conflicting. There were no books or docu- 
ments at hand for reference. Just then the court-room door opened, 
and Judge Miller entered. He was, of course, ignorant of what was 
going on ; and w T as somewhat startled on hearing the presiding judge 
say, " Crier, call Judge Miller to the stand." 

The crier made proclamation accordingly. 

Judge Miller demurred: "What do you want of me ? I don't know 
anything about the case. I don't even know what the case is." 

"No matter," was the reply from the bench ; "take the stand." 

He took the stand, and was sworn. 

" In what year," asked the presiding judge, " did the battle of Mon- 
mouth take place ? " 

"On the 28th of June, 1778," replied Judge Miller, without hesita- 
tion. 

" That is all, judge. The court called you because it knew that it 
could rely on your memory, and is much obliged to you." 

The almost interminable prolixity of bills in chancery, which were 
paid for " by the folio " (one hundred words), was a source of profit to 
lawyers, though a delay of justice to their clients. Yet the usages and 



256 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

requirements of the courts rendered it difficult to omit any of the pro- 
fessional tautology, without risking dissatisfaction of the client, or loss 
of the cause. It is related of Judge Miller, who abhorred indirection, 
that, coming into the office one day, he took a mortgage foreclosure 
just completed, and, counting the words, found that there were forty- 
five hundred. Taking his pen, he drew up one containing but four 
hundred and fifty words, which comprised everything required of law 
or facts that had been set forth in the one ten times as long. 

March Ihth. 

Last evening I received an unusually interesting letter from you, and this 
evening I am quickened to answer it by the further obligation for the docu- 
ments, reviews, and magazines, you send me. I regret continually that I have 
not time to write deliberately. I might, in that event, make our correspondence 
a poor substitute for the long tete-d-tete of by-gone days. But, in truth, I go 
floundering on, from Monday's sunrise until Saturday's expiring hour, hurried 
with occupation. 

You talk about building more political " cob-houses " with me. Pardon me, 
I have exhausted the entire interest of the game. No inducement would now 
prevail upon me to be reinstated in the Senate. I am happy in being out, with 
the consciousness that I got honorably out. 

Aubuen, March 29tk. 

Don't start, my dear Weed, at this long sheet of foolscap. I have not alto- 
gether relapsed into barbarism. Harriet, like a dutiful child, has used the last 
sheet of letter-paper in writing to her mother. To-morrow will be a secular 
day, and then I can replenish my stock. 

I have " matter in excuse, though not of justification," as the lawyers say, of 
my long silence. When I have written to the foot of this page, I shall have 
completed the one hundred and fifty-second part of the amount of labor which 
I have bestowed, during the last ten days, upon a single " answer in chancery." 
Now, if you wish to understand how incompatible it has been for me to write a 
letter to you or anybody else while that pleasant occupation was in band, I 
entreat you to take thirty-eight sheets of paper of this size, ruled as this is, 
write closely, as I do (and not scrawlingly, as you do your editorials), until you 
have a complete conviction that I could not by any possibility write to you 
before this day of sacred rest, and rest from folios in chancery. If you choose, 
the manuscript you produce shall be an epistle to me. I will preserve it as 
faithfully as the saints did those of the apostles. 

Granger and Whittlesey came here last Tuesday evening with William B. 
Rochester, Jewett, and Jared Wilson. They spent the night here. Granger, 
Whittlesey, and I, had a session (which commenced with a cup of tea at seven 
and closed at twelve), on the subject of the presidential nomination. You may 
show up the grounds of belief thai we ran succeed. 

'• It never yet did hurt 
To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope." 

There are many difficulties; I know not but insuperable ones. 

A pi'opos, the improvement of the Journal is very fine. It is altogether the 



18S5.J FOREBODINGS. 257 

handsomest paper in the State. I have an affection for it for your sake, and 
because quorum pars fui. 

Auburn, April 1th. 
"Who reports your debates in the Senate ? I have been pleased with the skill 
manifested in the report of the altercation between Young and Hubbard. What, 
an immense deal of learning the former has, and how little practical wisdom on 
this occasion ! No man ever appears to advantage in a legislative debate when 
he volunteers an issue relating to himself personally. Legislators, statesmen, 
and politicians, only appear great when identified with great popular interests, 
measures, or excitements. How admirably the French understand this ! Louis 
XVIII. understood it when he returned (on the downfall of Bonaparte), after 
a long exile, and, supported by foreign bayonets, he said, "Jelarevois — cette 
France, et rien n'est change excepte qu'il y a un Francais de plus." 

Seward always looked upon personalities in debate, or " rising to a 
privileged question," to repel newspaper attacks, as worse than use- 
less. Members of the Legislature, he said, ought to understand that 
they can never safely bring their private grievances into the debates 
of the House. The confidence of their political friends is never shaken 
by newspaper calumnies ; and the dignity of legislation is compro- 
mitted by their efforts to retaliate. 

Auburn, April Wth. 

The advance of spring in the country was always interesting to me ; and this 
is the first time I have enjoyed it in four years. I watch the development of 
vegetation with a lover's interest. I have my hot-bed in delightful success. 
My cucumbers are commencing their ramblings. The radishes begin to gather 
roughness upon the leaf. The sap starts from my grapes, and the polyanthus io 
in full bloom. To add to these pleasures, I have mastered the oppressive labor 
of my office, and left it last night with the proud satisfaction that its business 
was now behind me. 

We are yet undecided concerning our summer's journey. My mind inclines, 
if Mrs. Seward can endure the voyage, to a trip up the Mediterranean and to 
the Levant. Her sister protests, and we are without medical advice. It would, 
in my judgment, be the surest means of recovering her health, provided she ■ 
should spend the next winter in Italy. But to make a voyage to Europe re- 
quires the assent of all one's friends. I may as well, in, this place, inform you 
that the professor of phrenology here has favored me with a chart of the geog- 
raphy of my skull ; and that it is distinguished by two great mountains. Can 
you guess them? "Conscientiousness" and "Fondness for Foreign Travel- 
ing! . . . ." 

I have during the past week been speculating upon politics, and I will tell 
you my conclusions. It is utterly impossible, I am convinced, to defeat Van 
Buren. The people are for him. Not so much for him as for the principle they 
suppose he represents. That principle is Democracy ; and the best result of all 
our labors in the Whig cause has only been to excite them, while they have been 
more and more confirmed in their apprehension of the loss of their liberties by 
an imaginary instead of a real aristocracy. It is with them, the poor against 
the rich ; and it is not to be disguised, that, since the last election, the array of 
17 



258 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

parties has very strongly taken that character. Those who felt themselves or 
believed themselves poor, have fallen off very naturally from us, and into the 
majority, whose success proved them to be the friends of the poor ; while the 
rich we " have always with us." Our papers, without being conscious of it, have 
been gradually assuming their cause ; not from choice, but by way of retaliation 
upon the victors. 

It is unavailing to discuss candidates. We can support White or Harrison or 
anybody. We can give them all our votes. But we can give no one any more ; 
and, what is the worst feature of all is, that this party of ours in its elements 
is such that it cannot succeed until there is a time of popular convulsion, when 
suffering shall make men feel, and because they feel, think ! Without by any 
means admitting that in the present instance the popular will is vox Dei, I be- 
lieve and know it to be absolute. I make these observations because I am where 
you never are, in the country, among the people. 

You will ask me, " To what end are these speculations ? " I answer, they are 
for your use, the deliberate and mature judgment of a friend who has examined 
the ground. They are intended to guard you against the indulgence of dreams 
of political reform and retribution which will not come to pass. They mean no 
further. For myself, they lay the basis of this resolution — 

Auburn, April iMh. 

The church-bell last Sunday morning called me off from a rambling letter I 
had been writing to you. In the evening I thought, without reading it, that it 
was calculated unnecessarily to make you unhappy by the gloomy view it took 
of the political field. As I could not doubt that you enjoy more satisfaction in 
your vocation, while you indulge hopes of success, I thought it unwise to ob- 
trude forebodings which would be of no avail. On Friday Mrs. Seward, who 
had read the letter, asked me why I did not send it. When I gave her the rea- 
sons, she pronounced them insufficient. She insisted upon it that I should then 
add the "resolution," which, it appeared, was to be the conclusion of the letter. 
This was impossible, for the sufficient reason that the resolution was not formed. 
So, in a merry mood, we concluded to send you the letter and leave you to 
draft a resolution to suit yourself! 

I have now no resolution about the matter except this ; that for myself, my 
own interest, reputation, or advancement, I will not send out a single exploring 
wish over the political deluge. The safety of my friends, and their success and 
happiness, will afford motives enough to excite hopes and exertions if such 
hopes and exertions shall be expected from me. 

This letter, and others like it, hardly show him to be the " optimist" 
that many thought him. Its predictions of adverse political fortune, 
in the next four years, were all verified as time rolled on. That he was 
seldom an over-sanguine counselor his private letters attest. That in 
public utterances he sought to animate and encourage his party, is not 
strange. No leader can expect success who begins by disheartening 
his followers. Nor were his cheerfulness and confidence assumed. 
They grew naturally out of his life-long belief that he was advocating 
principles destined to ultimate and permanent triumph. Yet he had 



1835.J "GOING WEST." 259 

always the presentiment that the struggle would be a fearful if not a 
sanguinary one. That presentiment appears in his first parliamentary 
argument, when he warned the State Senate to prepare their militia 
for " the dark and perilous ways of national calamity yet unknown to 
us." It reappears throughout his writings and speeches down to the, 
day when he finally announced to the nation that its "irrepressible 

conflict " was at hand. 

May Zd. 

.... By-the-way, have you ever read Bulwer's "France" (Henry Bulwer)? 
I think you have not. Imagine how much I was struck with the paragraph I 
am going to quote, which I happened to read just after perusing your letter : 
" No fault is so absurd, in a public man, as that of confusing the nature of his 
position. As long as he is the decided enemy of one party, the decided friend 
of another, ho never has any occasion to halt or to hesitate. He knows those 
from whom he may expect enmity, and those to whom he may naturally look 
for assistance. But the instant he complicates his relations, every action and 
consideration become uncertain. He has something to hope, something to fear, 
in either course he may -adopt, and doubts as to the manner in which he may be 
most certain to succeed, prevent that concentration of purpose which is so es- 
sential to success." 

The remark is in relation to Bonaparte seeking alliance with the legitimists 
of Europe after having acquired all his power by humbling them to the earth. 

The two friends were accustomed to counsel each other in regard to 
private affairs, as well as public policy. Advising Weed on the subject 
of going West, he said : 

May 10th. 

I have read with more concern than my answers have indicated, the allu- 
sions in your letters to a desire to leave Albany to emigrate to Michigan ; and 
they have brought on cogitations whether a change would be desirable. I have 
(I use a friend's freedom) been confirmed in tbe conclusion that you ought to 
indulge no thought of change. The Journal has now established so strong a 
hold upon tbe favor of the people, that it is sure to support you, and yield you 
a surplus as long as you have health to continue. Make up your mind under 
no circumstances ever to be the editor of any other paper. The editorship of a 
city newspaper is a great capital, and that capital is like the usurer's, continu- 
ally increasing with the lapse of time, if the investment is continued without 
change. You are now realizing a little surplus, and have dreamy notions about 
laying it out in Michigan lands. It is all wrong. You have astute friends 
among the merchants ; they will easily convert it into good stocks. You are 
not the man to buy lands. Only two classes of men ought to buy them : those 
who will go upon them and cultivate them, and those who have ample surplus 
funds besides their land investments. Neither class is likely to reckon you 
among its number. Do not neglect to invest because the sums you can 
command seem trifling. It will be either investment or waste. 

As I have been very free and plain in my advice to you, I will excuse the 
boldness by telling you my own calculations. First, I am, as rapidly as I can, 
converting my little means into an investment in some stores which I know will 



260 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

rent pretty well, and will be a property that will increase in value, as this town 
must increase. My impression is that this arrangement is safe ; and I shall thus 
be freed from the commercial operations which my soul abhors, of lending 
money, taking notes, buying and selling, etc. 

With just enough experience of success and disappointment to chasten my 
spirit, I begin to love Philosophy as a companion and friend ; and I begin to be 
restive under the restraints which deprive me of her association. It is this re- 
straint which makes me dislike my profession. 

Your view of matters presented in your letter is correct and true. But I 
entreat you, " no more of Michigan, an thou lovest me. 1 ' It is too late in your 
life to enter a new country, and live au sauvage. It is too late to abandon your 
profession. You cannot succeed in it so well, in any other sphere, as that in 
which you now are. You cannot be on the successful side in politics, under 
present circumstances, in Michigan, more than here. The delusion is, or soon 
will be, wide as the Union. If popular principles change, and ours come into 
vogue, it is likely to happen here as soon as there ; and, if they never change, 
you are the core in the heart of a generous, disinterested, great party ; and 
you (as well as all of us) are far better situated, eo far as your own happiness 
is concerned, in being in a minority, without responsibility, and safe from envy 
and malevolence. I preach the doctrine I practise in this respect. 

I have been during the whole of last week employed in preparing causes 
for the Circuit. Next week, the Circuit Court will be held. Next after that, 
our Court of Chancery ; and then I am off, with Frances and little Fred, in pur- 
suit of health on the banks of the Susquehanna and in the shades of the Blue 
Ridge. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

1835. 



A Summer Tour.— The Pennsylvania Mountains. — The Susquehanna Valley. — Harrishurg. 
— Harper's Ferry. — The Valley of Virginia. — Weycr's Cave. — Natural Bridge.— Slaves 
and their Master-. 

Towakd the close of May the weather had grown propitious for the 
contemplated summer trip. A light, strong carriage, having two seats 
and an extension-top, was provided with a pair of gray horses, "Lion" 
and " the Doctor." Mr. and Mrs. Seward occupied the back-seat. Only 
the younger of their two little boys could be taken, and he shared 
the front-seat with the colored driver, William Johnson. What little 
luggage was necessary was carefully stored in the boxes under the 
seats. A stout fishing-rod, and a few ropes and straps in case of acci- 
dent, packed in front, and a tin cup and a pail hanging behind, for 
use at the roadside streams, completed the equipage for the journey, 
which was commenced on the 23d of May. 

The letters written at various points on the way described the inci 



1835.] TOILING UP A MOUNTAIN. 261 

dents and impressions of this tour. They give a picture of American 
rural life, at that day, in those secluded regions. 

Our first day's ride was to Seneca Fails, twelve miles. We spent the even- 
ing with our old friend Colonel Mynderse, to whom our visit was a duty ren- 
dered melancholy by the apprehension that it was probably the last one that we 
might make to him. The second day's journey was to Mrs. Seward's sister, at 
Aurora, where we spent the night. 

Athens, Tioga Point, May 28<A. 

I begin at half-past four this morning to write you a long letter. "We had a 
delightful ride the morning we left Aurora, and enjoyed very much the lake- 
scenery. When we arrived at the bridge below the Long Point (I think you 
call it), we found a pen, made of the bay which the road crosses on a bridge ; 
and my old friend and client, Captain Avery, with a dozen men and boys, hav- 
ing the bridge fenced in at both ends, were employed in performing the service 
of annual ablution of his thousand sheep, preparatory to taking off their fleeces. 
The captain was very kind to us, and inquired whether our horses would be 
afraid to go through the water below the bridge, in a tone so strongly marked 
by decided desire that I was induced to consent. But an athletic fellow, with a 
powerful and docile horse, was just behind us, in a one-horse wagon. Think- 
ing his risk of much less importance than that of my freight, I indirectly sug- 
gested that, as he was probably acquainted with the fording-place, we would 
give him precedence. But the gentleman bolted, and, finding that I was unwill- 
ing to lead him, raised a clamor of remonstrance, which caused the captain speed- 
ily to remove the obstructions he had thrown across the highway. 

We came on very comfortably to Calvin Burr's, and there we had a very - 
agreeable visit. Mrs. Miller and Miss Julia were happy to see us ; their room 
was airy, their shrubbery beautiful, and the veal-cutlets and tea set before us 
such as we may not hope to find again in many a day. Mr. Burr broke a bot- 
tle of champagne. Emily was sent for from school, and was presented to us. 
At five o'clock we took leave of our friends at Ludlowville, and had a safe and 
comfortable ride along the lake-shore " in the gloaming." Spencer's house at 
Ithaca was airy and comfortable, beyond all our reasonable wishes. The 
next morning (Tuesday) we started at nine o'clock, and rode two hours, so 
much enjoying the views of lake, hill, and valley, that we took no note of 
our road until we found ourselves closing the rear of a grand "moving" 
cavalcade, ascending a prodigious hill by a rough path. The movers were a 
very comfortable family of colored folks, who seemed to have been able to 
charter Caucasian men and horses. Our little barouche and horses fell so natu- 
rally into this train that the lumbermen stared at the great grandeur of our 
establishment, mistaking the real owners of the caravan for our serving men 
and women. Great were our amusement and mirth over the mistakes into 
which the passers-by were drawn. And thus we pursued our rough ascent 
until we reached the last rise of the mountain, where we stopped to give our 
horses breath, and inquired how far it was to Spencer, our destination for that 
day. "Spencer," said the interrogated; "I should guess you are a good deal 
out of your way if it's Spencer you want to go to." 

And so it most assuredly was ; and I had the mortification of finding that I 
lad followed this sable procession two miles and a half up a mountain, only to 



262 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

return again, unhonored, unnoticed, and alone. This accident made our morn- 
ing's ride a long one. We stopped at noon at a secluded tavern ten miles from 
Ithaca, where, having brought with us some lemons, we were refreshed with 
lemonade. The landlady, an exceedingly smart and agreeable person, was a 
Swedenborgiau. We discussed with her for an hour the mysterious and strange 
doctrines of that faith, and obtained a much better knowledge of it than I ever 
had before possessed. She had a little locker stored with ponderous tomes of 
the founder of the sect. So desirous was she to proselyte us that she proposed 
to lend us her books to read on our journey. I bought one, which she very 
much recommended, and it has already afforded us much instruction concerning 
the principles of the sect and the secret of its success. Swedenborg has a 
dreamy German romance of benevolent thought and action. He addressed the 
passion for the marvelous by what he claimed to be revelations, which, though 
deemed to be impious and false by other sects, would as allegories be considered 
to have much beauty. 

We reached Spencer at five o'clock, and found a good house and pleasant 
family. William fitted up my fishing apparatus, and, as soon as we had taken 
our dinner, Fred and I repaired to the brook, where I drew out a dozen little 
fishes, weighing from two ounces to half a pound. We wrote letters home in 
the evening, and in the morning resumed our journey, which was through the 
valley of the Cayuta Creek, a branch of the Susquehanna Eiver. The road, for 
the distance of fourteen miles, is on the immediate bank of the creek, which 
flows through a dense forest. Some enterprising people, years ago, made this a 
turnpike-road, in the hope that it would become a thoroughfare for the travel- 
ing between Tioga Point, in Pennsylvania, and Ithaca, Auburn, and Geneva, in 
our State. But the road was made so very narrow, and hangs so much over 
the creek, that it is a dangerous one. The travel has left it, and is now divided 
between the roads leading from Elinira and Owego to Tioga Point. The Cayuta 
has a continued succession of falls, and at distances of about every mile a saw- 
mill. We met great numbers of wagons, loaded with lumber, which seems to 
be the only trade that the country affords. The only tillable land lies along the 
valley of the creek, and is very narrow. 

After riding ten miles, we came to a house which had once been a tavern; 
and, as we were much wearied, we petitioned the old lady for shelter from the 
noonday heat. She bade us welcome. We brought out our store of oranges 
and lemons, but there was not an ounce of sugar in the house. Clear spring- 
water from the hillside was very good with lemon-juice ; and, after having 
taken our rest, we resumed our ride. We gathered bouquets of wild-flowers, 
of every hue and form, and arrived, wearied with enjoyment and exercise, at 
this place yesterday, at 3 p. m. It is one of the brightest, greenest, and 
loveliest spots the sun shines upon. Athens is a very old village, situate at the 
junction of the Chemung and Susquehanna Rivers. Its inhabitants suffered 
much from the depredations of the Indians in the Revolution, and had the satis- 
faction of ample retaliation when Sullivan arrived there with his brave little 
army. There are still shown the spots which were cultivated by the white 
men, when the Indians desolated the frontier. 

Towanda Ceeek, Bkadfobd County, Pa., May 292/*. 
It is six o'clock in the morning. While my companions are dressing for the 
day's journey, and the landlady is preparing our ham and eggs, and William is 



1835.] THE SUSQUEHANNA AND LYCOMING. 263 

rubbing down tbo horses, T have half an hour to tell you where we are. 
We secured a whole house of friends in our stay at Athens, and they all 
bade us a kind farewell at eight o'clock yesterday morning; when we took our 
departure, following the road down the west bank of the Susquehanna. It 
a beautiful ride. The road is excavated along the steep hank of the river, and 
seems like a shelf hanging over the broad bosom of the clear water. Some- 
times we were twenty feet, sometimes one hundred feet, above the river, while 
above us the mountain rose almost perpendicularly to the height of one hundred 
and fifty feet, covered with a dense pine-forest with laurel underbrush. The 
roadway was so narrow that in many places the variation of one or two feet 
would have precipitated horses, carriage, and cargo, into the river. The beauti- 
ful wild-flowers were more abundant than ever on the banks of the Cayuta 
Creek, and wo decorated our wagon with the richest. Among them was a 
shrub honeysuckle, fragrant and redundant in flowers. We dined in one of 
the neatest of houses at Towanda, which is the county-town of this (Bradford) 
County, and is on the bank of the Susquehanna. The town is laid down on the 
map by the name of Meansville. Having rested two hours there, we resumed 
our journey. We left the Susquehanna a few miles below Towanda, and fol- 
lowed to this place the valley of the Towanda Creek. 

Writing next to his law-partner, Mr. Bearclsley, ho said : 

Monday, June 1st. 

It is not very easy to "affix a venue " more particular than the name of a 
county for the date of this lotter; but, if you will turn to any map of Pennsyl- 
vania, you will find, in Lycoming County, a village of Pennsbrough, situated at 
the bend of the west branch of the Susquehanna. Six miles below that village. 
on the main road to Northumberland, is Shannon's tavern, with the sign of tic 
"green tree ; " and in that tavern are my little family located at the date of this 
present writing. 

Our seventh day's journey brought us to the wildest and most romantic dell 
I over saw. It was situated in the valley of the Lycoming, a distance of twenty- 
three miles from the place where we staid the preceding night. The eighth 
day's journey was twenty-eight miles, and brought us to "Williauisport. 

Switzerland possesses no more romantic valley than those of the Towanda. 
and Lycoming. These streams are, strangely enough, sent forth from the same 
fountain, situate on high ground in Lycoming County, and known formerly as 
tlie place of " Seaver's Dam.*' The Towanda runs northwest, and discharges 
its waters into the north branch of the Susquehanna. The Lycoming takes a 
southerly direction, and swells the west branch. Our route was through the 
valleys of both creeks, ascending the Towanda from its mouth to its source, and 
following the Lycoming from its source to its mouth. The scenery of th 
two creeks is as diverse as their course. That of the Towanda is marked b] 
rugged and rocky banks, of no very great height, and bounded by a cultivated 
region. The Lycoming passes through a narrow valley like some parts of the 
valley of tho Rhine, always between steep, frowning mountains, which rise 
gradually to a height of one thousand or twelve hundred feet. The simple, 
half-formed road is forced to cross, alternately, from one side of the stream to 
the other. In a distance of about thirty miles we forded the Lycoming nine- 



264 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

teen times, and crossed it on five bridges. My fishing-line was sure to bring out 
the dainty little trout from the clear, cold stream whenever I applied it ; but I 
was not required often to do so, as the table has been set, at every meal, for the 
last three or four days, with this luxury, which is the cheapest provision of our 
hosts. The mountains are filled with coal and iron-ore ; the state of society is 
simple and poor; the wolves were heard in the mountains, and our last meal 
in the Lycoming Valley was graced by vension, shot down in the road by the 
tavern-door. At Williamsport we were misdirected as to lodgings, and were 
placed in a room over the bar-room, at a very noisy hotel. Some drunken 
fellows were reveling over their cups at midnight; and as the ceiling was of 
boards, and there was an aperture for a stove-pipe through the floor, we were 
disturbed by the noise so much that I rose, in the chilly part of the night, and 
effected a change of apartments. 

I have been concerned for you, in regard to the labor which must fall upon 
you, and would show my sympathy for you, if I knew what particular trouble is 
heaviest on your hands at this time. But it would be idle to conjecture, and I 
have learned this much philosophy, that both duty and interest dictate the un- 
divided application of our powers to the immediate occupation. Mine is to save 
the health of one without whose society and affection the most successful re- 
sults of all my most diligent exertions would be valueless ; you must attend to 
the more profitable duties. 

Mrs. Seward, continuing the journal of the tour, wrote to her sister : 

Haeriseueg, June 5th. 

Our road has been through charming valleys and along mountain-sides, 
through scenery everywhere attractive, though Fred and I thought it a little too 
solitary when we heard the wolves howling in pursuit of deer, and were many 
miles from any human habitation. William had heard many fearful stories of 
attacks by wolves, robbers, and rattlesnakes, but wo came through the danger- 
ous passes unharmed, and dined at Trout Bun, where, of course, the trout were 
the principal attraction. 

Three miles from Williamsport we stopped at the door of Colonel Burroughs, 
lie lives on a farm of five hundred acres, in a high state of cultivation. The 
house is a little low cottage, just large enough to accommodate an old couple 
and their friends when they come to visit them. They are both upward of 
nty-five years old. LTo is very dignified and gentlemanly in his manners, 
and was one of Washington's commanders. He is a Whig, an Antimason, and 
warm in his regard. She is the personification of good health and good-nature, 
and really seemed to take the pleasure she said she had, in making us comfort- 
able. They urged us to remain two or three days, but wo could only stay to 
dinner. 

The next morning <>ur ride to Milton was delightful. I cannot describe the 
picturesque scenery along the Susquehanna, the glassy appearance of the river, 
the blue mountains in the distance reflected by its smooth surface, and the beau- 
tiful little villages on its hank-. The fine, smooth roads and handsome bridges 
added to the interest of the scene, i thought we could not have chosen a more 
pleasant route. There is an air of quiet repose about these villages which, with 
the primitive appearance of the buildings, gives them an especial charm. The 



1835.] A CITY OF REFUGE. 265 

log-houses in this country are altogether superior to ours, and may he called cot- 
tages with propriety. They are built of hewn logs, filled in with wood, and 
then plastered between the logs. The plaster is whitewashed so as to make a 
white stripe between each two logs. They are generally kept very neat. Rose- 
bushes are trained against the sides of the house and over the whitewashed 
fences. I never could have imagined a log-house so attractive as many I have 
seen here. We passed through Milton, dined at another small village called 
Lewisburg, and staid that night at Cumberland, where we found a comfortable 
tavern. Here the two branches of the Susquehanna meet and mingle their 
waters. A pretty canal runs along the bank of one of them. 

"We continued to drive by the side of these united streams, passed through 
two or three small towns, and lodged the nest night at Liverpool. Having be- 
come impatient to get letters from home that we knew must be waiting us at 
Harrisburg, we rose at half-past four and commenced our journey. We dined 
yesterday at a place on a small island — the Susquehanna is full of islands. 
The house kept by Mrs. Duncan, a widow, is large, handsomely finished and 
furnished, well conducted, and surrounded by beautiful grounds. There we met 
ladies and gentlemen from Philadelphia, and others from Sunbury. The dinner 
was a little too stiff, but everything comme ilfaut. Sixteen miles more brought 
us to Harrisburg. We arrived here weary, at six o'clock, and found no letters. 
The mail came again last evening, but no letters! I will keep this open till 
to-morrow morning and hope in the mean time to be more fortunate. Harris- 
burg, you know, is the State capital. It is larger than Auburn. The house we 
are in reminds me somewhat of Bement's; the servants are all colored, and 
neat in their personal appearance. It is midsummer here, the honeysuckles, 
pinks, etc., are in full bloom, and there are ripe strawberries on the table. 

Seward, resuming the journal, wrote : 

June 12th. 
Our friends at Harrisburg are earnest for the nomination of General Har- 
rison for the presidency, and have done much to prepare the people's mind 
for that course. 

Winchester, Virginia, June 14th. 

Monday morning, rested and refreshed, with spirits restored by receiving 
letters from home, we rode to Carlisle. The country there is highly cultivated, 
and exhibits the appearance of much wealth and ease. Carlisle contains about 
four thousand inhabitants, and is principally distinguished as the seat of Dick- 
inson College. The aspect of the town is somewhat more staid and ancient 
than that of villages of equal population in our State. As far north as Carlisle 
the places begin to assume the peculiar appearance which belongs to southern 
towns all over the world. The public square, carefully preserved shade-trees, 
balconies, and verandas, indicate to the traveler that he is arrived in a more 
genial clime. 

The southern part of Pennsylvania discovers also a great augmentation of 
the negro population, with all its different shades of color. It is the emigra- 
tion ground, or rather the city of refuge, of fugitive slaves, each of whom, once 
securely settled after the danger of pursuit is over, furnishes in his cabin a 
harboring-place for others who seek the same mode of emancipation in prefer- 



266 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

ence to waiting their deliverance at the hands of either the Colonization or the 
Abolition Society. 

"We remained at Carlisle until late in the afternoon, and then proceeded ten 
miles on what is called the " Walnut Bottom road " to a country inn, where we 
lodged that night. At this place we saw a small vineyard, planted and cultivated 
after the European manner. I was curious to learn what was its productive- 
ness, as I have long hfilieved it feasible and desirable to introduce the cultivation 
of the grape. I sought the owner, and soon learned from him that he is very 
tired of the experiment. He finds, in the first place, no person competent to 
manufacture the Avine ; and, in the next place, the wine being of that kind 
which, in Europe, is used as freely as we use cider at dinner, and in lieu of 
coffee or tea at breakfast, there is no sale for it in this country. The owner 
called his overseer to converse with me, but he could not speak one word of 
English, and I was quite as ignorant of the German. I tasted the wine, and 
found it was a good Burgundy, worth seventy-five cents or a dollar in Paris, but 
almost valueless here. 

Our ride on Tuesday was to Chambersburg, a border town in Pennsylvania, 
twenty miles from the inn whence we set out. It is decidedly handsome. It 
contains four thousand inhabitants, and has extensive manufactures, on a very 
small stream. The description I have given of the aspect of Carlisle is appli- 
cable also to Chambersburg, except that there is much more taste and beauty in 
the latter town. 

We left Chambersburg at half-past seven on Wednesday morning, and about 
two in the afternoon, after traveling a very rough road through a limestone 
region, arrived at Hagerstown, in the State of Maryland. We were now in a 
climate which yielded us the early fruits and vegetables freely. The young 
chickens also are served up to us at every meal, and peas, strawberries, and 
cherries, are no longer new. Hagerstown has reached what seems the maxi- 
mum of population for towns in that region, four thousand, and is stationary. 
It has the aspect of much wealth and some ostentation, as well as dissipation ; 
but, as regards the tasto exhibited i)i its dwellings, is inferior to Chambers- 
burg and Carlisle. 

At Chambersburg we came to the Baltimore turnpike, a continuation or 
branch of the great " National Road." It is tho finest road in America, and 
may very well be compared to the great roads in England. A delightful ride 
through a luxuriant wheat-country, upon this road, brought us in the evening 
to Boonesborough, ten miles distant from Hagerstown. Here wo had clean, 
pleasant rooms, and enjoyed a repose which renewed our strength. 

Boonesborough is a small, obscure village. We set out again on Thursdaj', 
at 7 a. m., and at ten, after a pleasant ride on a turnpike-road, arrived at the 
north branch of the Potomac. One glance at the scene before us would have 
been sufficient to assure us, had we been ignorant of it, that we were on tho 
border of the "Old Dominion." On the Maryland shore was a large stone 
tavern, with piazzas, which, however pleasant it might otherwise have been, 
was repulsive to us, the court-yard being occupied by swine and the piazza by 
lounging topers. There was an intense sunshine pouring down on us, a nar- 
row, muddy river before us, on the opposite shore of which stood the village 
of Shepherdstown. It was obvious, at the first view, that a bridge might, 
with tho greatest ease, and nt a very small expense, be erected there; but this 



1835.] HARPER'S FERRY. . 267 

would be too great an enterprise. A small ferry-boat, or rather a scow, was 
fastened on the other side, and the sable boatmen were enjoying the shade 
of the mill. After we had made ineffectual attempt to quicken their action, by 
sounding a horn, we sought a refuge for ourselves from the sun's rays, and 
waited there the due time of the negroes. At length we were " put across," 
the scow being propelled by poles which reached the bottom in every part of 
the river. Shepherdstown is an ancient, dull-looking place. We waited two 
hours there, when, the sky having become overcast, we again started. And 
now we discovered evidences on every side that we had entered Virginia. We 
no longer passed frequent farm-houses, taverns, and shops, but our rough road 
conducted us through large plantations, in which the owner suffered the wood 
to stand by the roadside. The road had been very little labored, and was as 
obscure as those in the newer parts of our own State. The farm-houses had 
as appurtenances low log-huts, the habitations of slaves, and the farms, now 
covered by wheat and rye, were of greater dimensions than we usually see in 
New York. We met many travelers on horseback, but few carriages. Almost 
every white man was dressed with some pretension, like that of those who 
are, or affect to be, of the higher class in our villages, and this circumstance, 
among many others, indicated that we were in a land where color determines 
caste. 

After winding our way through circuitous passes for eight miles, we came 
again to the Potomac. We climbed its bank until we were three hundred 
feet above the water. Here was a waste, broken tract of land, with here and 
there an old, decaying habitation. Then we plunged into a ravine, over lime- 
stone-rocks that rendered our road dangerous and difficult. Finally, climbing 
the opposite side, we reached Jefferson's Eock, the position taken by him in 
describing Harper's Ferry ; and there was that scene, just as he has described it, 
the site of which he pronounces worth a voyage across the Atlantic to see. The 
Shenandoah was on our right, the Potomac on our left ; the rivers united almost 
beneath our feet, and flowed on through what is supposed to be a passage effect- 
ed by their pent-up floods to the ocean. But, after all, the Potomac was a 
shallow, muddy stream ; the Shenandoah figures larger in description than in 
reality, and the violent abruption of the mountain seems too great a work to 
have been effected by their united power. 

Harper's Ferry is a village, as we had been told, of twenty-five hundred 
inhabitants ; and the directions given us assured us that, if on the right road, we 
must now be within half a mile of that place. But no towers, steeples, or other 
objects appeared, to relieve our painful doubts whether we had not lost the way, 
until we had descended, by a winding road, a hundred and fifty feet, when we 
found ourselves in the midst of a train of carts employed in carrying earth from 
the hill to form an embankment of the new railroad across the valley. The 
weather was dry, and the dust rose in a cloud. We were left no discretion but 
to continue in this disagreeable procession, without even being able to see the 
cart next before us, and trusting that we were right because we were in the 
cloud. We thus wound our way down the declivity, and in the lowest depth of 
the valley, in a dell, we found Harper's Ferry. Here it was our intention to 
remain until Monday, but we fell into disagreeable lodgings. The next day we 
made our escape. We lodged at Charlestown on Friday night, and yesterday 
afternoon reached this village, Winchester, at an early hour, much gratified 



20>8 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

with the promise which the general aspect of the village, as well as the hotel, 
afforded of a quiet, easy resting-place for the Sabbath. 

Winchester lays claim to antiquity as venerable as any settlement west of 
the Blue Eidge. It was " Fort Loudon " in the old Indian War, and is the 
spot to which Washington retreated after Braddock's defeat. It bears un- 
equivocal marks of this antiquity. The style of architecture, not only here, 
but in all this region, is fifty years behind that in vogue in our State. It is 
substantially built of bricks and logs, and wears the appearance of consider- 
able business, but not of enterprise. The house in which we stop is celebrated 
far and near in the " Valley of Virginia." Life in this part of Virginia seems 
marked by profusion of luxury at the table, and in dress, poverty, meanness, 
and much uncleanness, in the style and ordering of the household. 

Winchester is destined, however, soon to experience a renovation of its for- 
tunes. A railroad will speedily be completed to Harper's Ferry. This will give 
Winchester the advantage to be derived from the transfer of goods and produce 
from the railroad-cars to the great wagons. In our ride up the Valley we have 
met hundreds of these six horse-wagons, employed in the transportation be- 
tween Baltimore and Eastern Tennessee. The road we traveled is a thorough- 
fare that seems not unlike the Great Western Turnpike in our State before 
the construction of the Erie Canal. 

You will understand, not only our past progress, but our future wanderings, 
by taking the map of Virginia, and following the main road from this place, 
through the valley between the Blue Eidge and the Alleghany Mountains. We 
seem to be continually in an amphitheatre. Whenever on a lofty eminence 
both these ridges are in sight, and to the eye appear to convergo and meet, form- 
ing a circle and blending with the horizon. We are upon the site of headquar- 
ters occupied by Washington in the Indian War, and traveling in a region sur- 
veyed by him. 

"Woodstock, Shenandoah: County, Virginia, June lbtA. 

We are thus far arrived in our journey to the Natural Bridge with as much 
of comfort as we could reasonably anticipate. I selected the Natural Bridge as 
our destination, because it is necessary in every journey, although it bo taken 
for pleasure and health alone, to have some point before us, so that traveling 
may assume something of the character of employment, and for the further rea- 
son that curiosity to see that wonderful work of Nature serves partially to 
keep down that feeling of sadness which Frances and all persons like her must 
have in traveling through a slave State. On cur way we intend to visit Wey- 
er's Cave. Both theso singular instances of the caprice of Nature are well de- 
scribed in Jefferson's " Notes on Virginia," as you doubtless recollect. 

It was necessary that I should travel in Virginia to have any idea of a slave 
State. Wo have now penetrated about seventy miles into the interior, and our 
travels have been confined to the valley between the Bluo Eidge and the North 
Eidge, or Alleghany Mountains, a valley celebrated as the most flourishing in 
the State. An exhausted soil, old and decaying towns, wretchedly-neglected 
roads, and, in every respect, an absence of enterprise and improvement, distin- 
guish the region through which we have come, in contrast to that in which we 
live. Such has been the effect of slavery. And yet the people are unconscious, 
not merely of the cause of the evil, but aro in a great degree ignorant that 
other portions of the country enjoy greater prosperity. 



1835.] THE "VALLEY OF VIRGINIA." 269 

Shepherdstown, on the Potomac, is an old dull town of fifteen hundred peo- 
ple, apparently destitute of trade. Harper's Ferry is becoming a considerable 
town by reason of its commanding position ; but nobody there seems to real- 
ize its advantages. It contains about two thousand persons, crowded together 
upon a shelving, rocky point, at the confluence of the rivers, and it seems as if 
Nature herself had set barriers to any further extension of the village. You 
are aware that it is the place of manufacturing fire-arms, under the authority of 
the General Government. I visited the armory and the manufactories. There 
are in the former about eighty thousand muskets and rifles. The manufactories 
form a vast establishment, turning out one thousand stand of arms monthly. 
Oharlestown, the county-seat of Jefferson County, is a very dull-looking place, 
about as large as Ovid, but far behind it in its general aspect. To-day we have 
reached Woodstock, the shire town of Shenandoah County. I should do injus- 
tice to neglected and abandoned East Cayuga if I were to bring it into compari- 
son with this place, the only one of importance in the county. 

Henceforth you may place no reliance upon newspaper assertions of the 
political change here. Virginia is a Van Buren State, by a majority of five 
thousand or more ; and the " caucus system," now barely received by her poli- 
ticians, will, in the end, abolish her glorious system of self-nominations — the 
true secret, heretofore, of Virginian political independence and power. 

To his law-partner he nest wrote : 

Natural Bridge, Virginia, June 21, 1835. 

My dear Beardsley : If I cannot help you examine witnesses in chancery 
suits, or fight special motions, or build houses, I can at least prove that I am not 
forgetting you. Our route through the " Valley of Virginia " has passed a suc- 
cession of wretched-looking and dilapidated towns, built half of bricks and half 
of logs, whose retrograde aspect is in melancholy keeping with the sterile coun- 
try. The road, for a great part of the distance, lies upon naked limestone-rock, 
and is rough enough. 

The average value of land is sixteen to twenty dollars per acre. I had 
thought that this part of Virginia, by reason of its being less oppressed under 
the curse of slavery, was exempted, in a great degree, from the evils suffered 
in that part of the State lying east of the Blue Ridge. But the " Valley," as 
this region is proudly called, has participated too deeply in the infatuation, not 
to say the guilt, of purchasing slaves, and lies " under the same condemnation." 
The great, chivalrous, proud Virginia— the mother of Washington, of Jefferson, 
and Patrick Henry— is reduced to the humiliating condition of a breeder of slaves 
for the Southern and Western markets, and the staple of her commerce is young 
slaves of both sexes. It adds to my commiseration for her that I find too much 
evidence that her political virtue has fallen with her pride and power. 

But there are monuments in Virginia which are unchanged and unchangeable. 
They are the works of the great God, who has stamped upon them something of 
his own sublimity. On Thursday last we visited Weyer's Cave, in Augusta 
County. 

It is one of the greatest curiosities of Nature. Situated in- a mountain lying 
midway between the Blue Eidge and the North Ridge, the entrance to it is in 
the steep declivity of the mountain-side, about two hundred and fifty feet above 



270 LIFE AND LETTERS. [188(5. 

the plain. Over the roof of the cave, the earth and limestone-rock are two 
hundred feet thick. The spacious subterranean region is divided into about 
thirty different chambers, varying in form and dimensions, some very regular, 
and some constructed as if to show by their height and graceful proportions, and 
their variety of decoration, the vanity of human efforts in the production of the 
sublime. The roof is adorned with rich and varied magnificence of stalactites, 
and the chambers seem as if constructed to please the fancy of some Oriental 
monarch. The stalagmites rise from the floor in every diversity of shape, re- 
sembling monuments and devices of architecture. The grand scene is that called 
11 Washington's Chamber," which is two hundred and seventy-five feet long, and 
has a glittering roof ninety feet high. The floor is a uniform level. As you ad- 
vance, you see rising, in the light of your glimmering candle, a solemn, colossal 
statue in solitary grandeur in the very centre, whose size and drapery cause it 
to be regarded as the monument of him whose name the chamber bears. 

Figures of various size and shapo are ranged along the sides of the apartment, 
which it is difficult not to regard as having been placed there by human hands. 
Certain it is that human gratitude and human talent could not devise so fitting 
a sepulchral tribute to the memory of the worthiest of Virginia's sons as this 
subterranean vault found in her mountains. 

Natural Bridge, June 21«£. 

Leaving the cave on Thursday, we passed through Staunton and Lexington, 
two very handsome towns. The country began to assume a broken and moun- 
tainous appearance, and we made our way very painfully by winding between 
the rocky hills. This morning we have visited the bridge, and are deeply im- 
pressed with its sublimity. It is a stupendous arch, which appears to have been 
hewed out of one great living rock. 

This creek is about one hundred feet wide. The banks, being the abutments, 
are perpendicular, and rise under the arch to about the height of one hundred 
and eighty feet. Tho bridge seems to have been formed by excavating all the 
rock below it. There is no perceptihle seam or fissure. It lias all the regularity 
of work done with tho chisel. It is fifty feet thick, and about forty to sixty 
in width. We crossed it without the slightest apprehension in our carriage. 
We descended into the chasm beneath, and spent hours in the luxury of looking 
at the gigantic arch. 

The letters frequently refer to the scenes that greet a traveler 
through a slaveholding and slave-trading region. One of these he 
afterward described : 

What is this slave-trade that we must favor and protect with such sacri- 

.' I have seen something of it. Resting one morning at an inn in Virginia 

a woman, blind and decrepit with age, turning the ponderous wheel of a 

bine on the lawn, and overheard this conversation between her and my 

wife : 

" Is in.t that very hard work?" 

" Why yes, mistress ; but I must do something, and this is all I can do now, 

I am so old." 

" How old are you? " 

■• 1 don'1 know ; past sixty, they tell me." 



1835.] VIRGINIA SLAVE-LIFE. 271 

" Have you a husband ? " 

" I dou't know, mistress." 

" Have you ever had a husband?" 

" Yes ; I was married." 

'• Where is ho now ? " 

" I don't know, mistress; he was sold." 

"Have you children?" 

" I don't know, mistress ; I had children, but they were sold." 

" How many? " 

"Six." 

" Have you never hoard from any of them since they were sold? " 

" No, mistress." 

" Do you not rind it hard to bear up under such afflictions as these? " 

" Why, yes, mistress ; hut God does what he thinks best for us." 

A still sadder spectacle was that at a country tavern on the way, 
where the carriage had arrived just at sunset. A cloud of dust was 
seen slowly coming down the road, from which proceeded a confused 
noise of moaning, weeping, and shouting. Presently reaching the gate 
of the stable-yard, it disclosed itself. Ten naked little boys, between 
six and twelve years old, tied together, two and two, by their wrists, 
were all fastened to a long rope, and followed by a tall, gaunt white 
man, who, with his long lash, whipped up the sad and weary little pro- 
cession, drove it to the horse-trough to drink, and thence to a shed, 
where they lay down on the ground and sobbed and moaned themselves 
to sleep. These were children gathered up at different plantations by 
the " trader," and were to be driven down to Richmond to be sold at 
auction, and taken South. 

William Johnson, the coachman, came, very soon after arriving in 
Virginia, to say that he was stopped in the street whenever he went 
out after sundown. 

" But you are a free man, William." 

" I told them so ; but they say it don't make any difference, that I 
have got to have a pass." 

So, on inquiry, it proved. There seemed to be no special police- 
regulation, or person in authority, to control the matter ; only a sort 
of general understanding that no colored man was allowed to be out 
after dark without a written permit from some white man, presumedly 
his employer, and that anybody who chose might stop him and demand 
to see it. 

At several of the places where they stopped for the night, the door- 
yard and barnyard, near the house, seemed to be literally swarming 
with black children, naked for the most part, engaged in antic capers, 
and chattering like so many monkeys. It was a merry sight, but the 
precursor of dismal consequences. Virginia was then " raising" slaves 
for the Southern market ; and these, as soon as they were old enough, 



272 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 



and " likely" enough, were to be disposed of to "traders," who went 
about the State, very much as drovers do who gather up cattle for 
market. 

Mrs. Seward, writing to her sister, remarked : 

We are now in the land of "corn-bread and bacon," where people " reckon" 
instead of "guessing," and call stones "rocks." We are told that we see 
slavery here in its mUdesI form. The plantations are cultivated much like our 
farms, and the slaves are principally domestics. But, " disguise thyself as thou 
wilt, still, slavery, thou art a bitter draught." I often think over the wrongs of 
this injured race. 

The feelings I have in regard to it have always made me feel a strong disin- 
clination to travel in the Southern States, but I have so often been told that I 
might go from Maryland to Florida without meeting anything painful, that I 
began to believe my own impressions were incorrect, and my opinions preju- 
diced by education. So I consented to try the experiment, with a faint hope 
that my fears were unfounded. I can only say that I envy not the apathy of 
those who ran see every natural tie severed, their fellow-creatures transferred 
from one owner to another like brutes, without the least regard for their suffer- 
ings, and yet experience no painful feelings! 

Scenes of this kind continued to multiply as they approached Rich- 
mond. The travelers, therefore, willingly gave up their intended visit 
i" thai capital, and at the Natural Bridge turned their horses' heads 
northward and homeward. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
1835. 



Virginia Hospitality.— The Blue Ridge.— Monticello.— Jefferson.— Fredericksburg.— Mount 

Vemon. The Washii i ] . The National Capital in 1835.— Visit to "Old 

Hickory."— Baltimore i Iphia. The Biddies.— Sully.— Dr. Physick.— Joseph 

■'•'■' t Br " nones and Traditions of Florida.— The 

" - N1 ' ' ! Mrs. Miller.— The " Neutral Ground." 

Much of the r [rion they were now passing through was so sparsely 

inhabited, and so unfrequently traveled, that there were no taverns, in 

the ordinary acceptation of the term. Travelers, however, fared all 

,| "' better for this. On inquiry, they would be informed that there 

were families of planters, living near the road, who "entertained 

strangers.'^ This meant thai they were willing to give passing way- 

a dinner, or a night's lodging. Some desired no recompense, 

w *'" 1,1 receive in return some suitable compensation on their 

'departure. Usually, this was pleasant for both parties. The 

family in that secluded region, while not seeking to make money out of 



1835.] TRAVELERS' EXPERIENCES. 973 

their guests, were quite willing to see such rare visitors, and to hear 
from them the latest news of the outer world. The travelers findin<r 
themselves taken into the family circle, seated at a table loaded with 
rural luxuries, and treated with hospitable kindness by the entire house- 
hold, white and black, congratulated themselves upon having such com- 
fortable quarters, instead of the usual rough and noisy experiences of a 
country inn. These houses had no signs or advertisements ; but, on 
leaving one of them, the traveler would be told where he would find 
the next. 

For mid-day refreshment, there were also occasional " cake and 
beer" shops — the cake being fresh gingerbread, and the beer often a 
home-brewed mixture. Provender for the horses could be obtained at 
almost any house ; and the streams through which the road ran afforded 
opportunities enough for watering. 

The journal was continued by Mrs. Seward : 

"We left the Natural Bridge on Monday, drove fourteen miles to Lexington, 
where we spent the night. On Tuesday we went only eighteen miles to a Mr. 
Steele's, in the country, a nice log-tavern, where we were very comfortable. 
"We were often told before we left home that we could not travel in Virginia with 
any pleasure, because the taverns were so poor ; but we have found it quite the 
reverse. "With but few exceptions, and those principally in large towns, we 
have found the accommodations better than in our own State. The houses, to 
be sure, are not large, nor splendidly furnished ; but they are so neat, and the 
people so hospitable, that we do not feel these deficiencies. The little taverns 
in the country are just like private houses, no noise, no bustle, no dram-drinking. 
Few of them keep spirituous liquors to sell, and of course they are not annoyed 
with the crowd of loungers who frequent a tavern in New York. The ladies 
are always ready to talk with you when you are inclined, and do not persecute 
you in that way when it is not agreeable. 

From Mr. Steele's we drove on Wednesday about thirty miles, passing through 
Greenville and "Waynesboro, crossing the Blue Ridge at the Rock-Fish Gap. AVe 
intended sleeping that night on the mountain-top, where there is a fine house, 
but we arrived there so early that we concluded to descend. There is a charming 
prospect from the top of the ridge. That night we staid at Mr. Brooks's, at the 
foot of the mountain. Having now come into what is called " Old Virginia," 
which signifies that part east of the Blue Ridge, there is a perceptible increase of 
the colored population, and a waiter at the back of almost every chair at table. 

The next morning there was a drizzling rain ; but it did not prevent our 
starting after breakfast. The appearance of the clouds hanging on the moun- 
tain declivities was very beautiful. Sometimes the entire mountain-side would 
be enveloped in this fleecy covering, with nothing but the base and top visible. 

Thursday we arrived at Charlottesville. Here we passed the remainder of 
the day, for the purpose of visiting Monticello, where Jefferson lived and died. 

From here Seward wrote : 

The tavern at which we stopped was an immense, old-fashioned edifice, greatly 
out of repair. On my remarking this to our landlord, he gave me its history, 
IS 



274 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

saying that it was built by Eobert C. Nicholas, for a private dwelling. lie pro- 
ceeded to tell me of Nicholas's death, and the emigration of one of his sons with 
a brother-in-law, a Mr. Rose, to the "Genesee country." "On this hint I 
spoke," saying that I knew the family of Mr. Nicholas, and also knew Mr. Robert 
S. Rose. This brought to me within a few minutes Mr. Rose, of Charlottesville, a 
brother of our friend ; and after a few moments' conversation it seemed as though 
our old friend Robert S. Rose was with us. 

From the chamber in our hotel we had a view of Monticello, distant three 
miles. The mount rises to a height of six or seven hundred feet, and is 
covered with a native forest. The western angle of the edifice is discernible be- 
tween the shade-trees, and they show us very plainly the oak which shades the 
grave of the man whose character has so long agitated the discussions of his 
countrymen, and whose principles have exerted a greater influence upon his 
country's destinies, for weal or woe, than those of any other of her sons. 

We drove the same day to Monticello, making our ascent by a steep road 
winding up the mountain-side. Mr. Jefferson was prodigal in expenditures. 
His cultivated lands were in the valleys ; the mountain was retained in its prim- 
itive condition. The estate, after passing through the hands of an intermediate 
owner, came to be the property of Mr. Levy, of New York, a lieutenant in the 
Navy. He is said to have bought for twenty-seven hundred dollars what had 
cost Mr. Jefferson and his ancestors seventy thousand dollars. On arriving at 
the summit of the hill we found every door closed, and were fain to be content 
with a view of the exterior. But we had before us one of the most glorious 
prospects I ever looked upon; the view terminated on the west by the long 
range of the Blue Ridge, and on the south and east by Carter's Mountains. In 
the intervening distance lay a highly-cultivated agricultural country, here and 
there interspersed with villages and country-seats. 

The mansion is built in imitation of European villas. It was evident that 
money had been lavished with a reckless hand. The annual expense of keeping 
the edifice and its appurtenances in repair must have been great. So with the 
gardens and grounds. We walked through a long avenue of tasteful shade-trees, 
and noted the rich profusion of shrubs and plants, carefully reared and culti- 
vated ; but desolation is now coming over the scene. From the terraces we 
descended the hill to the burying-ground. It contains the ashes of the philoso- 
pher, his wife, daughter, and some few relatives. A plain granite obelisk, eight 
or ten feet high, surmounts the grave of Jefferson. It bears no inscription, 
except the dates of his birth and death. The wall around the graveyard is in a 
very rough, dilapidated condition, and the whole scene seems to imply that, 
while the walks are daily trampled by the rude feet of the curious, visits of love ' 
or affection rarely greet the spot. 

^ Monticello, as its name imports, is a small eminence. Although neglected, 
it is still a magnificent place. The summit of the mount is leveled, and was once 
ornamented with a variety of choice trees and shrubs. Many of these have 
been cut down ; many have been dug up and carried away by the inhabitants 
of the neighboring country. I could not look upon these ravages unmoved. It 
must occasion much pain to his surviving daughter, Mrs. Randolph. There was 
a fine terrace in front and on two sides, which is now in a ruinous condition, 
and a beautiful lawn below is converted into a cornfield. Everything bears 
marks of neglect, and no one can visit the place without feeling regret that his 



1835.] MONTICELLO AND MOUNT VERNON. 275 

loss of fortune compelled Ids immediate descendants to allow it to pass into the 
hands of strangers. 

The day after visiting Monticello we visited the University of Charlottes- 
ville, of which Mr. Jefferson may he regarded as the founder. 1 know not what 
the obstacles are to successful collegiate education in the South; but I am bold 
to say that the plan and system of education in this institution are superior to 
those adopted in any other American college with which I am acquainted. The 
buildings are spacious. They are constructed upon a scale which dues honor to 
the State. In the library we found a portion of Mr. Jefferson's collection of 
books, and his entire museum of natural and artificial curiosities. 

Continuing the journal, Mrs. Seward wrote : 

Yesterday we came to Orange Court-llouse, twenty-two miles, and here we 
stay over Sunday. I have just returned from "meeting," where we heard a 
very absurd discourse from a young divine, who attempted to explain the chem- 
ical process of the transformation of Lot's wife. Sunday morning the blacks 
are allowed some hours to dispose of any little articles of produce they may 
have, at the store, in exchange for goods. The streets were thronged this 
morning with them, although this is a very small town. Most of them were 
miserably clad, many disabled by age, accident, or infirmity. Of course such 
scenes do not attract the attention of the people here who are accustomed to 
them ; but to me they were the source of many unpleasant reflections. 

■ July 3d. 

We left Orange Court-IIouse in the evening, rode ten miles, and staid over- 
night at a small country-tavern. The next day, a ride of twenty-six miles over 
a wretched road (a turnpike, by-the-way) brought us to Fredericksburg. This 
is one of the largest towns in Virginia. It is well built, a city resembling, 
though not so large as. Auburn. Fredericksburg is sixty miles from Washing- 
ton. The road lies through a barren, uninteresting part of the country. The 
traveling between the two places is chiefly by steamboats; consequently the 
road was bad, and the accommodations were poor; I may say there were none 
at all, and we were obliged to stop at a house which had once been a tavern. 
but was discontinued for want of custom. We were treated with much kind- 
ness and hospitality, and made as comfortable as circumstances would permit. 

Wednesday morning we started early, having a long ride in prospect, as we 
were obliged to go some miles out of our way in order to visit Mount Vernon, 
and there was no tavern nearer than Alexandria. We found a pla e to I the 
horses, and ate our own dinner in the carriage. It consisted of cold bam, chicken-. 
and biscuit, put up for us by the kind old lady with whom we passed the night. 
William gathered some fine, large blackberries for a dessert, and Fred's little 
tin cup supplied us with water from the spring. About four miles from Mount 
Vernon we found a church, which Washington used to attend. Of conrse we 
stopped to examine it. It must have been a very expensive building at the time 
it was erected. It is now occupied only by the birds, bats, and hornets. It i- 
situated in a beautiful retired spot, and the fact of its having been Washington's 
place of worship invested it with sufficient interest. The road which we took 
to Mount Vernon apparently had not been passed over by a wagon in a year. 



276 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

It was overgrown by grass in many places, and the dry leaves of the last year 
remained undisturbed. We thought many times that we had lost our way, but 
were finally reassured by meeting a gentleman in a carriage, who directed us 
to the house, which was tben about three miles distant. The Washington 
estate at Mount Vernon was formerly four thousand acres. It is now reduced 
to twelve hundred. There is something imposing in the approach to the seat 
of a country gentleman in Virginia. You enter by a gate, sometimes two or 
three miles from the house, which is hidden by the intervening forest. In the 
present instance we entered one gate, and drove about two miles to a second, 
where we found the porter's lodge ; and here commences at this period the 
Washington estate. Another mile brought us to the house. It is built of plank, 
in a manner which so well imitates stone that we supposed it to be the latter 
materia], until we were informed to the contrary. We found the old guide near 
the door of one of the numerous houses which are attached to a gentleman's 
residence, for the accommodation of his slaves. Here, as at Monticello, they 
were well built and rather an ornamental part of the establishment, which is 
not always the case. The old black man said he " was raised by Mrs. Washing- 
ton, the mother of the President." His next home was with her son, the father 
of Judge Washington. He passed from the father to the son, and came here to 
live when Judge Washington took possession of Mount Vernon. The judge 
died six or seven years ago, leaving no children ; and Mount Vernon became 
the property of his nephew, John A. Washington. He also died two years ago, 
and his widow and children are the present proprietors. The old slave spoke 
with much affection of his former master, the judge, who, he said, had never 
sold one of his children, and had made provision for him in his well. But 
John, the nephew, did not walk in the steps of his uncle ; and, when he suc- 
ceeded to the estate, he divided the slaves among his relatives, and sold some 
of the old man's children, retaining only a small household. 

Henry sent in a card requesting permission to see the house, which was very 
politely accorded, and we were shown through the lower rooms by the lady's 
maid, a smiling mulatto woman. 

The house is of two stories and painted white. A piazza on the east side 
runs the whole length of the building, supported by eight fine large columns. 
The Potomac is at the foot of the lawn, and is here about four miles wide. The 
view from the piazza is charming. The house is plainly furnished, but every- 
thing is in perfect order. A large hall through the centre is ornamented with 
pictures and busts. On one side of it is the President's library, the books re- 
maining much as he left them; but all the other furniture is changed. I re- 
gretted this; I think they should have left one room as it was when he died. A 
fire was burning on the hearth in the library; an easy-chair and a book seemed 
to have been very recently abandoned, probably by Mrs. Washington, who, if 
pictures are to be trusted, is a very handsome woman of fifty-five or perhaps 
younger. Wo walked to the summer-house, and to the vault which contains the 
remains of Washington, and went through the garden. Here was a beautiful 
collection of greenhouse plants, and a grove of oranges and lemons in large 
tubs. Saving satisfied the maid, the gardener, the old guide, and the porter, 
with a douceur, we left the premises amid their wishes for our pleasant journey. 
Altogether Mount Vernon is a beautiful place. The large ornamental trees, 
which were planted nearly a century ago, give it an air of antiquity and mag- 



1835.] PRESIDENT JACKSON. 277 

nificence which we do not find in our more newly-settled country. We drove 
seven miles to Alexandria, where we remained that night. 

The next day we drove on to "Washington hy the way of Georgetown, as tin- 
old bridge across the Potomac is impassable, and the new one unfinished. It is 
a distance of eight miles by a tedious, sandy road. We crossed the river at 
Georgetown in a horse-boat. Georgetown may be considered a part of Wash- 
ington, as they are only separated by a creek. 

Washington is one of the most splendid of cities in theory and plan ; but, 
unfortunately, the design has never been executed, and at present the houses 
are scattered over a wide extent of country, laid out in unfinished streets. There 
is a wide avenue for every State in the Union. But Pennsylvania Avenue is the 
onty one which can be said to be built up, and this not very compactly. The 
others have buildings sometimes on the corners where they are intersected by 
cross-streets; sometimes a block of considerable size, then a long, vacant space 
intervenes. You can imagine how a town thus scattered would appear; the 
prominent buildings are the Capitol and the President's house, or " White House," 
built in similar style, both of freestone whitened. The Capitol is on an emi- 
nence at the eastern extremity of the town. From a plan of the city, I see it 
was intended for the centre. The President's house is a mile northwest from 
the Capitol. From these two buildings 1fa avenues diverge in every direction. 

The Capitol is a magnificent building; I could point out many defects, but 
we will criticise when I can talk longer. It is in the Grecian style; large Corin- 
thian columns support pediments on each front. The capitals of these columns, 
as well as those of the interior, were carved in Italy. Passing through the 
porch you enter the Rotunda, of which every one has heard. It occupies the 
whole centre of the building ; its circular cornice is supported by pilasters with 
Corinthian capitals. Four large pictures by Trumbull, delineating scenes in the 
Revolution, occupy spaces on the wall ; and there are yet four spaces unfilled, 
because Congress cannot decide upon what artist to confer the honor. 

Here I am at the bottom of the page, and the third page too, and have but 
just entered the Rotunda, have not even looked up through the vaulted ceiling 
to the immense dome above, nor described the effect of the slightest noise, even 
a low whisper sounding like the murmuring of many waters. I must leave it 
all until I come home. The statuary, the library, the Senate and Representa- 
tive Chamber, the terraces, the lawns, the parks, the beautifully graveled walk-, 
and the profusion of shrubbery, and even your old friend McLean, of Seneca 
County, I must leave him too (he came in just as Ave were leaving the Capitol), 
or I shall never arrive at the "palace," the abiding-place of the "'greatest and 
best," as Jackson men say. 

Henry went to see Governor Dickerson, who, you know, is now Secretary 
of the Xavy. He received him very cordially, and said we must go and pay our 
respects to the President the next day. He called at eleven o'clock with his 
nephew, Mr. Augustus Canfield. We were soon whirled over the macadamized 
road to the place of destination. The Secretary gave me his arm, Henry led 
our little boy, and we proceeded, unannounced, '-tot!:.' presence." I thought 
this very unceremonious, at the time, but, when I expressed this opinion to that 
consummate politician McLean, he laughed at my simplicity, and said Dickerson 
had undoubtedly had a previous interview with '-his royal master." The Presi- 
dent sat writing at a table filled with blank commissions, to which he was affix- 



278 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

ing his signature. His audience-chamber was rather fantastically decorated 
with [here Mr. Seward takes up the pen and finishes the description] a multitude 
of portraits, paintings, busts, and statues, the tribute of the idolatry of his reign. 
The President was dressed in black, wearing a bead watch-chain of variegated 
colors, on which was probably recorded, by some enthusiastic admirer, his 
superiority to all men of every age and nation. He rose, and in the most 
obliging and courteous manner took us all by tbe hand, and requested us to sit. 
No gentleman could have exhibited more true politeness than this stormy veteran, 
who has so often and so truly been represented as acting like a raging lion. 
This politeness was peculiarly and happily exhibited in his introductory greet- 
ings, and inquiries concerning Frances's health, and his attentions to the little boy. 

The subject of our visit to Monticello was mentioned. You are to know, 
by- the- way, that Lieutenant Levy, the present proprietor of Monticello, has 
procured a bronze statue of Mr. Jefferson, to be made at Paris, and presented 
to Congress. The House of Representatives voted to accept it ; the Senate did 
not care to receive it, or, for some other reason, have not acted on the subject. 
The superintendent of the Capitol lias put it up in the Rotunda on a temporary 
pedestal. 

I observed that Monticello was greatly dilapidated. The President replied 
that, as he was informed, there was a sufficient cause for it in the fact that the 
present proprietor has not the means to repair the place. 

Forgetting that Lieutenant Levy was doubtless a Jackson man, and that our 
information concerning him was derived exclusively from his Whig neighbors 

in Virginia, F innocently said that he did not appear to be very kindly 

regarded by the people there. 

" Why," said the general, with much earnestness and decision, "he has done 
very well, though, in relation to Mr. Jefferson. That statue he has presented 
to Congress is a very handsome thing, and cost about fifteen hundred dollars." 

Mr. Secretary Dickerson said he thought it was not a very good likeness. 
This opinion of the minister was expressed with much hesitation of manner. 

"There, sir," said the general, with an air of conscious infallibility, " is where 
I think you are mistaken ; it is an excellent likeness, sir." 

Mr. Dickerson did not pursue the subject. 

"And I tell you," continued the general, "that I think, after the House of 
Representatives had voted to receive the statue, the conduct of the Senate in 
refusing to act upon the subject was very reprehensible ! " 

"Perhaps," said Mr. Dickerson— willing to permit the Senate to escape 
denunciation on this occasion—" perhaps the Senate did not think it proper 
that the statue of Mr. Jefferson should be obtained in that way." 

" Well, sir, then they might have bought it, or bought a better one. That 
is no argument." 

The conversation proceeded in this manner : he was earnest and dogmatical; 
Mr. Dickerson contented himself with mere hypothetical suggestions of his own 
opinions, but in no case insisted on them, and left " the greatest and best " to 
infer that he was convinced. 

I inquired (prefacing an apology if the inquiry were improper) what would 
probably be the result of the French question, and said I thought Mr. Living- 
ston's last letter was a very able and satisfactory one upon the point, now the 
only one in the matter. 



1835.] WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE. 279 

The President replied that Mr. Livingston's letter was conclusive, and ought 
to be satisfactory. 

I asked whether Mr. Livingston had any intimation, before leaving Pari-, on 
the point whether the French Government intended to be satisfied with the view- 
presented by him. 

The President answered: "We don't know anything about that, and don't 
want to know. We know we are satisfied; they must take their own course ; 
they'll get no explanation from us." 

lie continued, with warmth and energy: "There is no other way, sir, in 
private life, but to act justly — do right, let people be satisfied with it or not, as 
they please. If they are just to you, it is very well ; if not, you must resort to 
such means as you can to compel them to be so ; it is the same between nation-. 
No, no, sir, we can't have the French, or any other nation, interfering in our 
consultations ; that will never do." 

Thus, on every subject, of whatever magnitude, the President was peremp- 
tory; and it must be added that, as far as his opinions were expressed, they 
were intelligent and perspicuous. 

I have given you the above dialogue, not on account of the interest of the 
subject, but to convey to you an idea of the President's manner. We were 
surprised, after leaving the White House with the impression that war must 
follow, and that the cabinet at Washington would enter into no further discus- 
sion on the subject, to hear Mr. Dickerson say that " there would be no war. 
If the French Government should ask for an explanation, they would receive a 
temperate, conciliatory answer, which," as he added, after a pause, " would put 
the French Government altogether in the wrong." 

It requires very little astuteness to see the manner in which the President's 
cabinet act. They fall in with him, and seem to yield to his views; but often 
overreach and defeat them by the manner in which they affect to cai ry them 
into execution. When this cannot be done, they leave it to him to take his own 
course on his own responsibility. We have been convinced that we have been 
in no respect mistaken in our opinion of the President [here Mrs. Seward takes 
the pen and finishes the sentence and the letter] ; we found him polite, firm, 
chivalrous, passionate, and petulant. 

From the White House we went to the Patent-Office, and then again visited 
the Capitol. We spent an hour in the library, where were many curiosities, 
then returned to dine with Judge McLean, whom we had invited the day be 
This is Gadsby's, the house in Washington. All the people there seem impre 
with the idea that they have arrived at the summit of human glory in living in 
Washington, no matter what their occupation. Mr. Van Burcn is there at pri - 
ent. The President and suite go on Monday to Norfolk, " to escape for a while," 
as he said, " the cares and perplexities of office. " 

At Baltimore, Seward wrote : 

July ~>flt. 

We left Washington on the morning of the 4th. The road from there to 
Baltimore is as barren of interest as that between Albany and tady. 

We were surprised by the desolate aspect of Georgetown, which appear- to 
command enviable facilities for trade and manufactures. [ts safe and acces 
harbor, its canal along the Potomac, its mills and numerous warehouses, and its 
enterprising merchants, have been unable to prevent Baltimore from monopoliz- 



280 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

ing the commerce, a portion of which was once enjoyed hy Georgetown. Des- 
titute as Washington is of shipping, trade, manufactures, or other resource than 
the patronage of the General Government, and the profit of entertaining public 
officers, employes, and visitors there, it wears an air of prosperity contrasted 
with Georgetown. 

Arriving at Baltimore, after a hard drive of thirty-seven miles, at eight in 
the evening, the post-office was closed, and a grum voice growled at me as I 
politely tapped at the window, " We deliver no letters to-night." I persevered, 
and made my way into the den from which the salutation proceeded. I soft- 
ened the heart of the postmaster, and brought away ten letters and copious files 
of the Evening Journal. 

Mrs. Seward continued the narrative : 

Stopping at Barnum's Hotel, we spent two days and a half at Baltimore, 
went to church, visited the cathedral, and traversed the long, winding staircase 
to the top of the Washington Monument. In the cathedral, which is so much 
celebrated, I saw one fine picture. There were many others of inferior merit. 
This was presented by Louis XVIII. The subject is the "Descent from the 
Cross." The body of our Saviour is the principal figure. It quite realized my 
imaginings. The three Marys, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and the be- 
loved disciple, are the other persons represented. The monument is of white 
marble, one hundred and seventy feet high, surmounted by a colossal statue of 
Washington. We ascended on the inside by spiral steps ; it was perfectly dark, 
the only light we had proceeded from a lantern which Henry carried. The air 
was warm and close. From the top we had a fine view of the city, which is 
very substantially and compactly built, but by no means beautiful. A new 
hotel was altogether the finest building I saw. We attended the Episcopal 
Church on Sunday, and heard an excellent sermon from Mr. Wyatt. 

Monday afternoon we drove seventeen miles to a house in the country, 
where we fared tolerably. The next day, fourteen miles' ride brought us to 
Havre de Grace, where we crossed the Susquehanna at its mouth, a mile and a 
quarter wide. Here we had a view of Chesapeake Bay. I was a little afraid 
to go on the scow, and our horse " Lion " was still more so. It was with great 
difficulty that William Johnson could get him on the boat. However, we reached 
the opposite shore in safety. 

Mr. Seward added : 

Burning the town has not had the effect upon Havre de Grace which burn- 
ing the \MiU is said sometimes to have. It has not " risen like a phoenix" from 
the ashes to which Admiral Cochrane reduced it. The fact is, that the trade 
'•nee enjoyed by Havre de Grace has been usurped by a small village called 
Port Deposit, situate on the opposite side of the Susquehanna, four miles farther 
up. At this point, the lumber and produce brought down the river are landed, 
and thence carried to Baltimore and Philadelphia. 

Fifteen miles farther we were obliged to stop at a miserable little house, six 
miles from Elkton, the place we had designed to reach. After an uncomforta- 
ble night, a drive of eight or ten miles the next morning took us out of Mary- 
land and brought us to the State of Delaware, which at this point is fifteen miles 
across. We harried on for the purpose of taking the steamboat at Delaware 



1835.J DELAWARE AND NEW JERSEY. 2S1 

City, a high-sounding name bestowed on thirty or forty houses at the head of 
the bay. 

The boat was to pass there at twelve o'clock. The distance from our 
ing-place was twenty-one miles. We drove across the State, but our efforts 
were of no avail. We arrived at Delaware City, warm and weary, with jaded 
horses, just fifteen minutes after the boat had left the wharf. .So we must wait 
another whole day. We could get across the bay in no other way. Bui we 
found a comfortable resting-place, a cool, clean house, nice beds, and a charm- 
ing prospect from the windows, looking over Delaware Bay and River. 

So we are waiting till to-morrow for the same boat. The little State of 
Delaware, which people seem to us to treat without any respect, as a mere 
passage-way between other and greater States, is a beautiful and apparently 
rich and contented country. The scene around us here is delightful. While we 
have been lamenting our detention, a thunder-storm has come up and caused us 
to rejoice that we did not have to encounter its drenching torrents in the woods 
of New Jersey. The Delaware & Chesapeake Canal, connecting the two 
bays, seems to be burdened with sloops, bringing wood from Virginia, and 
taking Lehigh coal in exchange for it. We saw also large quantities of lumber 
there, in rafts, which, having been brought down the Susquehanna, were now 
being towed up the Delaware to Philadelphia. 

Mrs. Seward continued the story : 

The next day the boat came at noon, and, cheating us out of our dinner, 
carried us, wagon, horses, and all, to Salem, in New Jersey, ten miles down tin 
bay, on the opposite shore. We drove that night eighteen miles to Bridgeton, a 
pretty village, forty miles from Bargaintown. The next day our road was 
through a country somewhat resembling the Desert of Sahara, with the addition 
of some dwarf oaks and pines. The sand is so white that, in the evening, it 
has the appearance of snow. We passed but three or four bouses in traveling 
twenty miles. No place offered where there was any probability of procuring 
a tolerable dinner, so we paused in such shade as we could find, fed the horses, 
and dined on biscuit and cheese. We walked a little occasionally, to gather 
whortleberries, which abound here; but the day was exceedingly warm, and 
the sand rendered walking no slight exertion. It was six o'clock when we c 
to May's Landing, and we were still twelve miles from Bargaintown. We had 
come nearly thirty, over a very fatiguing, sandy road, and the horses were tired : 
but we were unwilling to remain with the prospect of rather a poor night's 
lodging; so we took a fresh pair of horses and a driver, leaving William John- 
son, "Lion," and "the Doctor," to come on the next morning. 

Bargaintown, Wednesday, July 
We have had a pleasant visit here. Yesterday we spenl in a verj fatiguing 
though delightful visit to the beach, where all went to bathe in the surf. To- 
morrow we leave for Philadelphia, where we shall be detained a week. 

The names of the villages and hamlets among- which they wer< 
now passing were a subject of some amusement and inquiry, as dou 
less they have been to other travelers ; for among them were Great 
Egg Harbor, Little Egg Harbor, Hospitality Branch, Innskeep, Seven- 



282 L1FE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

Cross-Ways, White Horse, Long-a-coming, Blount Ephraim, Neso- 
chaque, Stockingtown, Jericho, Green Tree, Raccoon Creek, Skull- 
town, Shiloah, Cohansey, Good Intent, and Jobsville. 
Seward, writing to Mr. Weed, said : 

Philadelphia, July 19, 1835. 

We came in yesterday in time to hear the note of preparation for the Living- 
ston dinner, and the sufficiency of clamor with which it passed off. [This was 
the dinner given to Mr. Livingston on his return from his mission to France.] 
What mockery of feeling is the action of masses of men or communities ! A 
week ago this city, if one might credit the newspapers, was overwhelmed with 
grief for the loss of Chief-Justice Marshall. Yesterday it resounded with ob- 
streperous feasting in honor of a diplomatist whose feet make haste to the same 
bourne where the object of the city's lamentation is lost. 

It provokes a smile to see our friends reckoning upon the probabilities of 
Southern votes. I repeat what I have before said, that the battle was fought 
last year. The " spoils " might be conceded without another impotent struggle. 
I marvel at the belief that Ritner's success will have a bearing in our favor on 
the presidential election. It will result in a compromise, giving a prodigious 
vote to Van Buren. To what good, you will ask, are these gloomy speculations? 
Only to show the folly of reckoning on any possible success at this juncture in 
our efforts against the immovable majority. You are altogether right about the 
alien question. I almost lose sympathy with our brethren, when I see them act 
so madly. But it was always so, New York City politicians act and reason as if 
the city was the entire country. 

The journal was continued by Mrs. Seward. 

Philadelphia, July V?Ui. 
We are comfortably lodged with Mrs. Lloyd, a Quakeress, on Third Street. 
The house is small, but neat, and quiet within-doors ; and the rattling of vehicles 
without is less than on the principal thoroughfares. 

Monday Afternoon. 

We have just returned from Fairmount Water-works, and a beautiful place it 
is with its fountains, statues, and other embellishments. After we had inspected 
the machinery which supplies the city with water from the Schuylkill, we visited 
the United States Bank, a handsome building of white marble, and then went to 
look in at Peale's Museum. It is raining fast; we cannot pursue sight-seeing 
further. You recollect Willis Gaylord Clark ? He is here ; is editor of a daily 
paper, besides being engaged upon the Knickerbocker, and several other periodi- 
cals. 

Philadelphia, July 24.(h. 

At nine this morning we went to Sully's to sit for the portraits; in the after- 
noon walked up Chestnut Street. In all the shops in Philadelphia, at least in all 
I have visited, the clerks are women, which is very agreeable, except when you 
find one who does not choose to please, and then I would rather deal with six 
men than with one of them. However, I have trenerally found them very ac- 
commodating. Chestnut Street is the Broadway of Philadelphia. The shops are 
not as fine as in New York, but the goods are not so high-priced. Philadelphia 



1835.] PHILADELPHIA. 283 

contains a large number of handsome public buildings, and many pretty public 
squares ornamented with trees. The dwelling-houses are built with greal uni- 
formity; the streets cross each other at right angles ; but most of them are too 
narrow to admit of tine effect from the shade-trees with which they are orna- 
mented. But the perfect cleanliness makes everything agreeable. The \- 
from the Schuylkill affords such facilities for cleansing that the city in that par- 
ticular has an advantage over all others in the Union. The ladies dress with 
more taste in general than those in New York. You see none of the e 
which is so much practised there. My pretty dressmaker (she is English, by-the- 
way) said she had never seen a lady well dressed in New York, though many 

overloaded with color and ornament. 

Sunday Afternoon. 

"We have been to church this morning, notwithstanding the excessive beat. 
We went to see Bishop White preach ; it is not easy to hear him. He is eighty- 
seven years of age, appears very infirm, and speaks so indistinctly that I hardly 
heard one sentence. He is a venerable-looking old man, with hair perfectly white. 
Henry was more fortunate (men not wearing cottage bonnets do not have their 
ears covered), and says he did not lose any part of the sermon, which was plain 
and sensible. 

Thursday, we went with Mr. James Biddle three miles out to his country-seat, 
where Mrs. Biddle is at present with her four children. The place is beautifully 
situated on the bank of the Schuylkill. Mrs. Biddlo was agreeable, the children 
pretty, Mr. Biddle always full of mirth, the most incessant of talkers and some- 
times very eloquent. 

Saturday, I went to the painter's at nine, afterward visited the Mint, and the 
Academy of Fine Arts. Dr. Physick has called several times. He approved of 
our design of sea-bathing, and advised a continuance of our travels, adding that 
it was impossible for him to advise further without detaining us here a long 
time ; advised us to get out of the city as soon as possible; to get lodgings at a 
private house at Long Branch if we could, and to avoid excitement and over- 
exertion. Dr. Physick is prepossessing in his appearance, and seems very con- 
scientious in his practice. He is between sixty and seventy years of age, and 
only acts now as consulting physician. Ho seemed hurried, and to have his 
time much occupied. 

With the other letters there was always one to the little boy who 
had been left at home. Writing to Augustus, his father related the 
incidents of their stay in Philadelphia, the sights seen at Fairmount 
and at Peale's Museum. One passage may be reproduced here, illus- 
trating- as it does his sedulous care to instill patriotic principles into 
the minds of his children : 

In the museum there is also preserved a sash of blue ribbon which General 
Washington wore when he was commander-in-chief of the American army, in 
the Revolutionary War. It was presented by him to the founder of the museum. 
There is also preserved a manuscript song, written by Major Andre, in deri- 
sion of the American soldiers, about two weeks before he v. as captured as a spy. 
You remember who Major Andre was, and how he was detected, tried, and 
hanged as a spy '. 



2S4 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1S35. 

We went also to visit Independence Hall, which is the same room in which 
the first Congress of the United States sat when they adopted the Declaration of 
Independence, on the fourth of July, 1776. You have read so much history as 
to know that the reason why people celebrate the fourth of July is, because on 
that day, 1776, the Congress of the United States separated this country from 
Great Britain, and pronounced the people to be no longer subjects of the King 
of Great Britain, but free and independent, having the right to govern them- 
selves. The British king and Parliament sent a great many armies here, and 
fought our forefathers seven years, to make them subjects again ; but the God 
of heaven gave the victory to the Americans, and we have ever since been free. 
It is the duty of every man to love his country, to do all in his power to pro- 
mote its prosperity and honor, and to lay down his life for it, in the fear of God, 
if necessary. I hope you will always remember this, and in order to do so you 
ought to read the history of the Revolutionary War, and the lives of General 
Washington, General Warren, Lafayette, and other great and good men, who 
fought so long, so bravely, and finally so victoriously, for the liberties of their 
country. 

The journal was continued by Mrs. Seward : 

Long Branch, August 2 J. 

We left Philadelphia on Monday morning, finding it so cold that I could 
hardly keep warm, though wrapped in shawl and cloak ; and this succeeded a 
day' which had been so warm that the thermometer rose to 94° in the 
shade. From Philadelphia to Bristol is sixteen miles. The road is very 
pleasant, the land all cultivated, and the country thickly settled. Bristol is on 
the Delaware, opposite Burlington. We crossed to the latter place in a very 
tiny steamboat. From Burlington to Bordentown is fourteen miles, and here 
we found the road much less agreeable. Deep sand, which renders the country 
barren and the traveling unpleasant, abounds in the southern part of New Jer- 
sey. It was six o'clock when we reached Bordentown. The evening being 
fine, we concluded to visit the Bonaparte place at once. So, after taking off the 
baggage, and making other arrangements for the night, we drove on. The 
house or " palace," as they call it here, of the ex-King of Spain is about half a 
mile from the village, and can be distinctly seen from the road. It is built of 
stone, covered with stucco of a lead-color, the style somewhat peculiar for 
America. The roof is low, surrounded with battlements. Bonaparte, you 
know, is in Europe, or was ; for he is expected home daily. His house is under- 
going repairs, so we did not enter. At each end are buildings of corresponding 
style, appropriated to domestic affairs. The servants all seemed to be enjoying 
a holiday during the absence of their master. The maids, dressed in their best 
apparel, were promenading the graveled walks in company with their visitors. 
The men-servants were amusing themselves with a game of billiards in a salon 
on the first floor. 

The house is approached by two broad graveled roads, ornamented at the 
side by choice plants in boxes. The house is about as far from the road as 
yours, so that but a partial idea of the beauties of the place is given to the 
passer-by. I cannot tell the extent of the grounds, as I was unable to walk half 
over them. We went as far as the observatory, which is perhaps a quarter of a 
mile from the house. 



1835.] JOSEPH BONAPARTE. 285 

There were fine roads and walks in every direction, embellished by ornament- 
al trees and shrubs. Tasteful little bridges and summer-houses meet till 
and give a picturesque effect to the scene. 

At the foot of the observatory is the fish-pond. But the shades of 
now gathering around us, and our own fatigue, admonished as of the necessity 
of returning. I left this charming place with much regret, and not without 
curiosity to know whether he whose wealth had created so much to admire had 
sufficient taste to appreciate or contentment of disposition to enjoy it. 

It is now about two years, if I recollect right, since he went upon some wild 
suggestion of a sick heart to London, and sent a petition to the court of " the 
citizen king" to be allowed to visit his country. During that time his beautiful 
villa has been in the keeping of servants, and shows dilapidation and waste every- 
where. It is, nevertheless, even in its present condition, a magnificent dwelling, 
and bears some comparison with the hereditary chateaux of European princ 

Wednesday morning we set out in a drizzling rain, which continued until 
noon, rather improving the sandy roads. We staid that night at Monmouth 
Court-IIouse, where court was sitting. Consequently all the houses were full 
of mud and lawyers. We selected the most quiet, which we left early Thursday 
morning, and arrived at this place (Eatontown), five miles from the beach, about 
eleven o'clock. We prefer lodgings here to the crowded and comfortless board- 
ing-houses immediately on the beach. 

Mr. Sawarcl added : 

Frances monopolizes the entire correspondence with you, so I have to tell 
my marvelous "traveler's tales " to less kind and credulous listeners. But, as I 
see she has left out a whole chapter, I will supply it. We stopped at Borden- 
town, at the fashionable house, set up for the accommodation of travelers be- 
tween Philadelphia and New York. We had a bedroom ten by twelve in the 
second story. In the morning she was too sick to travel, and it was cold and 
rainy. I proposed a fire, and asked the landlord, " Where ? " lie said. " In the 
parlor, up-stairs." There was none except that which was inscribed "family- 
room," which had a sofa and a snug little fireplace. The sofa and tables were 
strewed with dolls and other toys of little girls, and as I entered it I saw it 
evacuated by half a dozen, all of one size. I had a fine oak-lire made up. drew 
out the sofa, brought Frances, laid her on it, shut the windows to make her 
comfortable, sat down and began to write a letter, when in came a middle- 
aged lady, the mother of the hopes whose delights were scattered around me. 
She retired in so much haste as to indicate a raging passion, and in three 
minutes afterward by the Shrewsbury clock entered a venerable grand-dame. 
She advanced to the windows, threw up the sash, opened all the windows. 
''Have you a particular wish, madam," said I, "to have that window open . " 
as she came to the one over Frances's head. "I like to have light and air in 
the room, sir," said she. She seated herself with her knitting-work, and 
called the darlings— one, two, three, four, live, six — and romp, helter-ski 
went children and grandmother. I carried Frances and her our bed- 

room. There, after three hours, I succeeded in getting a lire, and there we 
staid during the rainy day in July. When we met the interesting family of the 
up-stairs parlor at dinner we discovered that the lady had "brought her own 
silver forks and spoons." 



286 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

Can you guess the moral of my chapter ? Frances says she cannot. It is, 
that none but refined and amiable people carry their silver forks and spoons 
when they travel ! 

Continuing the journal, Mrs. Seward wrote : 

Long Branch, August 9t7i. 

We have been to the beach each day. In the forenoon a drive of less than 
an hour takes us to the sea, where we bathe without the presence of " a cloud 
of witnesses." We return in time to drive, and in the afternoon ride or walk 
as we please in the woods, coming back to tea. Wednesday we drove out in the 
morning for the purpose of seeing some falls about two miles from here, where 
it seemed to be the fashion for all the people from the Branch to go, once at 
least. Our ride was pleasant ; as for the falls, after getting a man to show us 
where they were, we found one flat rock about twelve feet high, over which 
water might fall if there was any ; but, unfortunately, it is all used by a neigh- 
boring mill. The principal attraction for the multitude we had seen pass our 
door, instead of the falls, must have been " the cake and beer shop." The 
cake was very good, certainly ; and we came to the conclusion that they were 
not so very unwise after all. We then drove to Red Bank, where the steam- 
boats land from New York. It is on a small river called the Shrewsbury Inlet. 
The boat had gone, so we saw nothing but the red sand reflected in the bright 
smooth river, with a few houses and shops, most of them with vanes of some 
form, to ascertain the direction of the wind. This seems to be a prevailing cus- 
tom here near the ocean. 

Thursday it rained " from dawn of day to set of sun " without intermission. 
Of course, we were housed all day. I employed my time in pulling to pieces 
and improving a dress they had spoiled for me in Philadelphia. Henry em- 
ployed himself in reading " Don Quixote " and smoking poor cigars. I sat 
down and wrote a letter that I had promised, but had not before found a con- 
venient season. It is much harder to write some letters than others, if you have 
ever observed it. Well ! this long day actually came to a close, and, contrary 
to our expectations, the sun shone brightly next morning. At ten o'clock we 
proceeded to the beach. The sea was anything but a mirror that day. The 
waves came roaring and foaming against the shore with a degree of violence 
that was terrific. 

Saturday being another fine day we improved much in the same way, re- 
turned to dinner, and rode out two miles into the woods and among the huckle- 
berries. Saturday is a day when all the country-people go to the beach to 
bathe, and return to this place to eat, drink, and make merry. There were about 
thirty who dined here, and danced afterward. We lost all this sport by being 
absent. When we came home their wagons were all at the door, and the com- 
pany was about departing. Sunday we rode to Shrewsbury to church, about 
two miles. The country about here is very pleasant. The house we are at is 
kept by an old gentleman, with a bustling young wife. He has sons much older 
than she is. We have four or five rooms at our disposal ; there is very little 
company, and the good nature and obliging disposition make up for all deficien- 
cies. She seems to study nothing but our comfort ; and, if she does not kill 
us with kindness, I think our digestion may be considered wonderful. Car- 
riages are passing constantly to and from the beach. We are told that the 



1835.] LOXG BRANCH LIFE. 2S7 

people at the boarding-houses on the beach suffered very much with cold du 
those chilly, wet days. The houses are built expressly for summer visitants ; of 
course, no conveniences or comforts are provided for such seasons a- th< 
week. We congratulate ourselves more and more on having found such com- 
fortable quarters. We eat, drink, and sleep, when and how we please, have a 
fire in our room when the thermometer is at eighty, if we prefer ii. withoul 
being questioned. We shall probably remain here until Thursday. 

While at this hospitable house there occurred an incident that Sew- 
ard used to relate with humorous relish. One day, while sitting after 
dinner in the shade, a benevolent -looking old gentleman said : 

"Excuse me, sir, if I ask you an intrusive question ; but I sec by 
the papers that there was a candidate for Governor in your State last 
fall — the one who was defeated — whose name was the same as yours. 
Pray, was he any relative of your family ? " 

Mr. Seward had to admit that he was. 

" A near relative ? " 

" Yes." 

" Not your father was it, sir ? " 

" No, not my father." 

A pause ensued ; and then, overcome by curiosity, the old gentle- 
man returned to the attack. 

" Could it have been a brother of yours ? " 

" Well, Mr. T- ," said Seward, " I may as well confess to you 

that I am myself that unfortunate man ! " 

"Dear me," said the other with unaffected surprise and sympathy, 
" I should never have thought it. And so young, too ! I am y< ry 
sorry. How near did you come to being elected ? " 

"Not very near. I only got a hundred and sixty-nine thousand 
votes." 

" A hundred and sixty-nine thousand votes, and not elected ? " was 
the astonished reply. " Why, that is more than all the candidates to- 
gether ever get in New Jersey ! A hundred and — good Heavens, sir ! 
how many votes does it take to elect a man in New York ? " 

Florida, Orange County. I 

We left Long Branch last Thursday. We put our horses and waj 
board the steamboat in which we took passage, and came directly to New York. 
passing through the Shrewsbury Inlet into the ocean at Sandy Book, and thence 
through the Narrows and the hay. 

About half-way on the voyage a strong wind, with thunder and Lightning, 
came on. A sloop just before us was capsized, scattering her load of peai 
We went with the steamboat to the relief of the boatmen ; hut another boat 
from New York came up. at the signal of the telegraph, and tool; off two men 
and a boy. The third man on board the sloop was drowned. When w< 
her she lay on her side, with her mast and sail floating on the water. V. e did 
not stop in New York, but put our horses before the wagon and drove across 



288 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 



the city in the rain ; crossed the North River in a ferry-boat, and landed at 
Hoboken. There wo staid that night, and next day drove through Newark 
and Morristown to Mendham. We staid there on Sunday. 

His native county, the home of his youth, was always full of attrac- 
tions for him, and he loved to take his friends there to show them the 
picturesque scenery associated with so many recollections of his early 
days. On these occasions the older people whom he met always had 
hearty greeting for him as " Harry Seward," the name by which he 
was called in boyhood. At Auburn, Judge Miller still called him 
"Henry," the appellation which Mrs. Seward always used. He was no 
one's namesake, the name William Henry being his mother's choice. 

One of his boyish recollections was, that when a child he asked her 
who he was named after. She told him laughingly she did not know, 
unless it was Mr. William Henry, a respectable neighbor and farmer. 
And in reply to further inquiry as to what he was remarkable for, she 
said, "For his wisdom about fence-posts; " for on one occasion he gave 
his opinion that " cedar fence-posts, if well put down, will last a hun- 
dred year ; " and when asked how he knew the fact, he replied that 
"he had tried it many a time." 

There were still remaining some of those who knew John Seward, 
his paternal grandfather, who took part in the Revolutionary War. 
Many incidents were related by them, illustrative of his energetic 
character. A young man, residing in New Jersey, he was one of the 
earliest to raise a company to join in the struggle for independence. 
In command of this company he fought, under Washington, at the 
battle of Long Island, shared in the subsequent retreat, and in the 
battle at White Plains. He was again engaged in the battle of Prince- 
ton. Promoted to a militia colonelcy, he was in the battle of Mon- 
mouth ; and, in 1779, aided the expedition of " Mad Anthony Wayne " 
for the storming of Stony Point. With a part of his regiment he 
joined in the ineffectual pursuit of Brant, after the battle of Minisink. 
The Tories in his neighborhood heartily hated and feared him, and a 
reward of twenty pounds was offered for his head, " dead or alive." 
( )ne story Mas of an attempt to decoy him into an ambush. It was, 
that as Colonel Seward was sitting in the evening in his porch, an ill- 
looking fellow, mounted on a cadaverous steed, which he guided with 
a rope-halter, rode up and delivered to him what purported to be a 
message from General Washington. Colonel Seward, suspecting some 
treacherous design, after questioning him, said, sharply, "General 
Washington never sent you on such a horse as that, with such a mes- 

e as that to me ;" and, turning about, took down his rifle, which 
hung over the doorway. The spy, seeing himself discovered, hastily 
turned, and, whipping his horse, started to warn his confederates ; but 



1835.] FLORIDA.— THE MOON HOAX. 289 

before he could reach the gateway a bullet from the colonel's riBe 
brought him down. 

Some of the descendants are still living, in Orange County, of a 
Hessian soldier who, having been captured by Colonel Seward, pre- 
ferred to exchange the service of King George for the more profitable 
and peaceful avocation of a laborer on his farm. 

One of the old pieces of furniture in the house at Florida was a 
tall, old-fashioned clock, surmounted by brass ornaments. At one time 
when a new house was built, and the clock was moved there, it proved 
to be about a foot too high for the parlor ceiling, and, rather than give 
up the clock, the owner caused a hole to be made through the ceiling 
in one corner of the room. For many years it stood there, sonorously 
ticking away the hours, with the upper part of its head invisible. 

Chloe Coe, occasionally referred to in his letters from Florida, was 
born a slave to Judge Seward, and was one of those who subsequently 
became free under the State law of emancipation. A playmate with 
her master's children, she always had a special regard for " Master 
Harry." She is still living in the cottage which he provided for her. 

The concluding days of the journey homeward were related in a 
letter to Mr. Weed : 

Thursday morning we set out for home in a dense fog. We dragged a weari- 
some journey under a burning sun, through Bloomingburg to Monticello, 
twenty-eight miles. 

On Friday we passed through the residue of that part of our route which 
lay in this State,' bivouacked (though not literally) at Damascus, on the west 
side of the Delaware Eiver; having, with all diligence, accomplished no more 
than twenty-three miles over the " everlasting hills" of Sullivan County. 

On Saturday we descended into the valley of Tunkhannock and slept at a 
country inn. Our ride that day was thirty miles, over hills quite as difficult as 
those in Sullivan; we rested on Sunday. Our landlady was sister to Barnum, of 
the City Hotel in Baltimore, and we were most munificently provided for after 
she learned that we had the good taste to stay at her brother's great house. 

The next day brought us, through a comparatively level country, and through 
a cold northwest wind, to Binghamton. it was the first time 1 have met Collier 
since certain events. I thought at first that he liked me not much; hut my 
su>i>icions yielded to his earnest offers of kindness. 

We continued our ride through Broome County to Owego, making forty-two 
miles for that day. We left Owego next morning, just as the generous Whig 
citizens of the town had completed their preparations for exhibiting me as a 
lion. They were disappointed, and I was sorry for it. But a sick lady was not 
to be restored to health by such oppressive kindness. That evening we arrived 
early at Ithaca, where we found Richard Varick De Witt and his wife, as a 
able and interesting as when we saw her moving in fashionable life in Albany. 

And now, in the villages through which they passed, and taverns at 
which they stopped, people were talking about marvelous discoveries 
19 



290 LTFE AND LETTERS. [1835. 

in the moon — recently made by Sir John Herschel. The story ran that; 
while at the Cape of Good Hope, having erected a telescope of great 
magnifying power, he found that the moon had inhabitants ; and that 
he was able to discern and describe minutely their appearance and oc- 
cupations — nay, even to distinguish tailless beavers walking on two 
legs, amid beautiful vales and crystal lakes ; majestic temples, built by 
men with wings and angelic countenances, who spent their happy hours 
in collecting fruits, flying, bathing, and loitering on the summits of 
precipices of amethyst and mountains of sapphire ! 

This was the celebrated " Moon Hoax," written by Locke with so 
much plausibility and apparent scientific accuracy that it went the 
rounds of the press, and imposed upon the credulity of a large portion 
of the community, until finally denied and exposed by the great astron- 
omer himself. 

When approaching home on their return from this journey, intelli- 
gence reached them of the illness of Mrs. Paulina Miller, the grand- 
mother of Mrs. Seward. Eighty-three years old, she had still pre- 
served rare physical and intellectual vigor. She had led an eventful 
life. The early years after her marriage were spent at Bedford, West- 
chester County, in the "Neutral Ground," during the Revolutionary 
War. Her husband was a captain in the American army. Her mother 
was a loyalist. She used to recall a vivid picture of those " troublous 
times" by her tales of skirmishes between the "Regulars" and the 
Americans and between parties of the "Cow-Boys" and the "Skinners," 
of which she was an eye-witness. One morning a troop of British 
light-horse dashed into the little village, scattering its panic-stricken 
inhabitants, and in a few minutes she saw the houses of all her neigh- 
bors blazing, and finally burned to ashes. 

Early in the present century she had come to the West with her 
son, after the death of his wife, to take charge of his household, and 
of the care and education of his two little girls, who were almost too 
young to remember their own mother. 

Seward's letter to Weed said : 

On Tuesday night we arrived at Mrs. Worden's in Aurora. 

We came into Auburn the next day (yesterday). Here was a scene of afflic- 
tion, upon which I may not dwell. Mrs. Miller, who has been the only mother 
Frances lias ever known, is prostrated upon a sick and, as we fear, death bed. 
We are greatly alarmed ; and the physicians think her reepvery very doubtful. 
My poor wife is in the most anxious state; I fear her strength is insufficient for 
the duties and solicitude so unexpectedly cast upon her. But such a sufferer, 
under alarming illness, I have never seen as is the object of our concern. She 
i- free from pain and excitement, is tranquil, submissive, and confident, Her 
mind seemed never so strong, her earthly affections never so ardent, and her 
speech is eloquence itself. "Henry," said she to me this morning, "this sick- 
lias brought, in my view, the two worlds very near together. I feared yon 



1835-3G.] "INCENDIARY PUBLICATIONS" AND RIOTS. 291 

would not bring my daughter home to me before I died ; hut I fell assured that 
we should meet in a very short time, in a state where we could never be sepa- 
rated. Remember you have my treasure in your keeping. Take care of it while 
Providence leaves it in your charge." 

A i burn, October Uh. 
I have been three days confined to the house, in watching the dying bed of 
our deceased relative, in ministering to the comforts and wants of mourners, and 
attending the funeral. She was buried to-day in the Episcopal burying-ground 
by the side of the only one of her children who died before her. 

Mrs. Miller was a Baptist. Fond of religious thought and inquiry, 
she undoubtedly imparted to her children and grandchildren many of 
her own ideas on sacred subjects ; one of the most prominent of which 
was her dislike of sectarian disputes and prejudices. Seward, educated 
in like feelings at Union College, whose name implies its religious pur- 
pose, always found ready concurrence on the part of the household at 
Auburn, when he referred to the broad Christian teachings of Dr. Nott. 



CHAPTER XV. 

1835-1836. 



Abolitionists. — " Incendiary Publications " and Riots. — The Auburn & Owasco Canal 
Project. — Harrison and Granger. — The " Loco-focos." — Webster and Clay's With- 
drawal. — The Small-Bill Law. — Town and Country Life. 

The year 1835 was marked by an increase of popular discussion on 
the subject of slavery, leading to fresh organization of societies op- 
posed to that system, and these in turn leading to popular outbreaks, 
mobs, and riots, by those who desired to repress antislavery opinions. 
The Charleston (South Carolina) post-office was broken open, the mails 
rifled of antislavery publications, and meetings wore held approving of 
this lawless proceeding. Petitions were circulated throughout the 
North, to abolish slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Colum- 
bia, and those engaged in their circulation encountered a storm of re- 
proaches. In presenting these petitions to Congress, John Quincy 
Adams took a leading part. 

It was an illustration of the temper of the times, thai the grand- 
jury of the county of Oneida, apparently without exciting any popu- 
lar indignation, brought in a presentment of " ant islavery publications " 
as "incendiary," and called upon the people to "destroy all such pub- 
lications, where and whenever they can be found." 

Dr. Crandall, a brother of Prudence Crandall, of the Canterbury 
School, while visiting Washington to lecture on natural science, was 
arrested and thrown into jail, as "an antislavery agitator." A meet- 



292 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835-'36. 

ing of the Boston Female Antislavery Society was broken up by a 
mob ; Mr. Garrison was seized and dragged through the streets by the 
rioters, and was only saved from further violence by being put into 
jail. George Thompson, the English philanthropist, who had taken an 
active part in the West India emancipation, having come to this coun- 
try, as was presumed, to aid in similar movements here, was mobbed 
in Plymouth County, and threatened with violence if he should re- 
main in Boston. Another riot in Utica broke up the meeting of the 
New York Antislavery Society, and they were invited by Gerrit Smith 
to his home in the little town of Peterboro', as the only place where 
they could hold their discussion in safety and peace. Even in the 
capital of Vermont, antislavery meetings, held in the legislative halls, 
were assailed ; and in other portions of the State they were broken 
up. In Pennsylvania twenty-five out of thirty meetings were inter- 
rupted. 

Hitherto the antislavery movement had excited but little attention 
or interest on the part of the mass of the people ; its participators, 
having no connection with either of the great political parties, were 
regarded by some as Utopian philanthropists, by others as dangerous 
fanatics ; and even by those who sympathized in their purposes, as 
likely to accomplish little in the way of political action, however much 
they might achieve by works of private benevolence. 

But the occurrences of 1835 put a new phase upon the question, 
when the Government itself took ground against the right even to dis- 
cuss it. The Postmaster-General, in his instructions to postmasters, 
encouraged and approved the suppression of antislavery publications in 
the mails, although he admitted there was no law for such action. 
President Jackson, in his annual message to Congress, called attention 
" to the painful excitement in the South," and suggested " the propri- 
ety of passing such a law as would prohibit, under severe penalties, 
the circulation in the Southern States, through the mails, of incendiary 
publications, intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." So be- 
gan the epoch of popular and congressional debate, lasting in its vari- 
ous phases, and with alternations of various fortune, for thirty years. 

The Democratic party as a whole, whatever might be the individual 
opinions of its members, was committed to the side of the slaveholders, 
by the action of its leaders, and their continued desire to secure the 
support of the South. The Whigs, being also desirous of a Southern 
following, were chary of accepting the issue thus tendered them by 
their opponents, or of committing their party to any positive support 
of the antislavery movement. Nevertheless, they were charged by the 
other side with sympathy in it ; and the charge was measurably true, 
as they were engaged in an attempt to overthrow the Administra- 
tion ; and the drift of public events was compelling each party in that 



1835-'36.] AUBURN & OWASCO CANAL. 293 

contest to assume more advanced ground, for and against the mainte- 
nance and spread of slavery. 

Seward, in a letter to Mr. Weed, said : 

The clamor against abolitionists will (as such violent efforts always do) pro- 
duce reaction. It may probably be followed up by similar meetings, in the large 
towns and villages. The very fact that no honorable, or high-minded, or repu- 
table man, in the North, even in the very excitement of mass meetings, will lend 
his sanction to the monstrous claims of the South, for legislation against aboli- 
tionists, and the still more monstrous conduct of the Post-Oflice Department, 
prove that, if the South persist, the issue will be changed, fearfully changed for 
them. 

The abolition question can in no other way injure Van Buren, than in driv- 
ing the South to the support of an exclusively Southern candidate, who acknowl- 
edges the " divine right " to hold the negro race in slavery, and regards slavery 
as "a blessing." I think those err, who suppose that the efforts at the North 
to extirpate abolitionism will tranquilize the South. No such thing; they will 
only add fuel to the excitement at the South; and the period before the election 
is so short, that there will be no time for reaction. What is more probable is, 
that whatever is done in the North by abolition and antiabolition men, will be 
insufficient to break the spell of Jacksonism at the South. And, in sober hon- 
esty, I dare not, cannot wish that Jacksonism should be thus uprooted from its 
hold, because the result will be a permanent geographical line between the par- 
ties. I trust in God that the Van Buren men in the North will not attempt to 
enact " potent legal restraints " (against antislavery publications) ; but, if they 
do, their name will from that moment be " Ichabod." Those laws bring a ques- 
tion of awful import home to every man's understanding and heart, and no 
party in the North can sustain itself after enacting such measures. It is dan- 
gerous so far to encourage the abominable demands of the South. 

In this year an enterprise which had long been a subject of discus- 
sion, at Auburn, ripened into execution. This was a project for a canal. 
Many years before, while the work on the Erie Canal was in progress, 
the people of Auburn had made unavailing efforts to have that great 
channel of commerce pass through the village. But the engineers, 
doubtless wisely, decided it to be more feasible to carry the line across 
the easy level of the Montezuma marshes than to try to brine- it 
through Auburn, a town standing upon hills, and surrounded by them. 
When the Erie Canal was completed, and opened in 1825, Auburn par- 
ticipated in the celebration, and sent its delegation of citizens to greet 
Governor Clinton, with salutes, bonfires, and fireworks, as he pass< d 
through Weedsport with his suite, on board of the first packet-boat, 
the Seneca. After the Erie Canal had proved a success, and while 
railways were, as yet, an untried experiment, the people of Auburn had 
come to believe that a canal was essential to their commercial advance- 
ment and prosperity. Although debarred from the advantages of the 
mainline, it was still believed that Auburn could easily share in them 



294 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835-'36. 



by constructing a lateral canal, to connect with it. This project, during 
the succeeding years, took various forms ; and was the subject of va- 
rious meetings, surveys, and legislative applications, by the citizens 
of the village. In all these movements, Seward had taken the more 
or less prominent part assigned to him. 

Finally, in June, 1835, a company was organized and incorporated 
with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, and a board of directors 
chosen, comprising John M. Sherwood, Elijah Miller, Henry Polhemus, 
Amos Underwood, William H. Seward, George H. Wood, Nelson Beards- 
ley, N. B. Carhart, and Henry Yates. The plan now adopted was to 
erect a dam, thirty-eight feet high, which would raise the Owasco out- 
let to the level of the lake ; thus, in effect, extending the surface of the 
lake a distance of two and a half miles to the town, and securing a 
channel deep enough for steam navigation, throughout its entire length. 
Then the plan contemplated a navigable canal, from this dam to a basin 
and reservoir, some distance below, where the water would be dis- 
charged into the river, as required for hydraulic power, over wheels 
thirty feet in diameter, thus largely enhancing the manufacturing facil- 
ities of Auburn, while its commercial communication would be opened 
by building a railway from this basin to the Erie Canal. It was also 
deemed probable that the lake and canal navigation could be still 
further extended by connecting the inlet of the lake with the Susque- 
hanna River. It was believed that mills and manufactories would at 
once spring up in the town, and that vessels would bring lumber, grain, 
wool, etc., down the lake and canal, while, among the incidental advan- 
tages, would be an ample supply of water for household use and for the 
prevention of fires. 

On the 14th of October, the corner-stone of the " Auburn & 
Owasco Canal," or rather of the great dam which was to create it, was 
laid with imposing ceremony. The inhabitants of the adjoining towns 
came, in large numbers, to join in the celebration. There was a pro- 
cession of military and civic bodies, followed by cars on which the 
various mechanics and manufacturers were exercising their vocations ; 
the stone-cutters dressing the blocks of stone to be used in the dam, 
and the printers striking off and distributing among the crowd an ode 
celebrating the praises of the enterprise, and of " the fairest city of the 
West." There were prayers and benediction by the clergy, salutes by 
the artillery, an address by Seward, a dinner at the American Hotel, 
presided over by Elijah Miller, John Porter, U. F. Doubleday, and Colo- 
nel John Richardson. There were toasts and speeches, enthusiastic and 
patriotic, and there was a ball at the Western Exchange to close the 
day's festivities. 

Seward's address described the plan of the work, the growth and 
resources of Auburn, the commercial and agricultural condition, and 



18S5-'36.] RAILWAY TO SYRACUSE. 295 

probable future of trade, in the region of which it formed a part, it 
awarded due credit to the promoters of the enterprise, and shared in 
the anticipations of the benefits to result from it. It enunciated with 
boldness the views in regard to internal improvements which had gov- 
erned his legislative action, remarking : 

If all the internal improvements required to cross this State were to be 
made at once, the debt which would be created would not impair the public 
credit or retard the public prosperity a single year. The expenses of a single 
year of war would exceed the whole sum of such cost. 

These doctrines seemed at the time rather ultra, even to his own 
political friends. But the experience of the relative cost of improve- 
ments and of war, which the State had, during the next thirty years, 
proved his calculations not very far wrong.. 

According to his habit of looking forward toward the national fu- 
ture, he added : 

Wealth and prosperity have always served as the guides which introduced 
vice, luxury and corruption, into republics. And luxury, vice, and corruption, 
have subverted every republic which has preceded us, that had force enough, 
in its uncorrupted state, to resist foreign invasion. 

This was a warning against a danger which, to his rural audience, 
must have seemed by no means imminent. Events in subsequent his- 
tory, however, showed it to be a real one. 

Adverting to the principle already announced as a cardinal one in 
his political faith, he remarked : 

The perpetuity of this Union is, and ought to be, the object of the most 
persevering and watchful solicitude on the part of every American citizen. 

And when called upon for his toast at the dinner, he gave : "The 
Union of these States. It must be preserved. Our prosperity began, 
and will end with it." 

The work on the dam was commenced at once. It was raised to a 
height of twenty-five -feet, or twice the previous elevation. Here it 
paused. The further execution of the canal project was delayed until 
the public mind had come to learn the greater feasibility and cheapness 
of railways, and the canal was abandoned. Nevertheless, the benefits 
expected from the enterprise have nearly all been attained, although 
the enterprise itself failed. Since the construction of the dam, and the 
development of its manufactures, Auburn has gained the water-works, 
the railways, the trade, the population, and the channels of commerce, 
it then sought. 

Another projected improvement, though one regarded with much 
difference of opinion in the community, was a railroad to Syracuse. 



290 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1835-'36. 

One of the primary motives for its inception was to effect communica- 
tion between Auburn and the Erie Canal, then the great thoroughfare 
of trade and travel. That it would ultimately become a part of a long 
line of railway between the seaboard and the West was hardly yet- 
believed. It was the third link in that great chain ; the Mohawk & 
Hudson Railroad having been the first, and the Utica & Schenectady 
Railroad the next. The Auburn & Syracuse Railroad was incorporated 
in 1834, and subscription-books were opened for the stock. But the 
engineering difficulties on the route (confessedly great), and the doubt 
as to the possibility of its ever doing a paying business, occasioned the 
enterprise to drag. Work was begun on the line in the summer of 
1835. Projects for railroads from Auburn to Rochester, and from Au- 
burn to Ithaca, now began to be canvassed. All these efforts in the 
direction of internal improvement, of course, had Seward's earnest 
support. 

November found the political situation not materially changed, the 
Democratic party retaining its supremacy, and the Whigs in almost a 
hopeless minority. Mr. Van Buren was in the field as a candidate for 
the presidency at the election of the ensuing year, having received the 
unanimous nomination of the National Democratic Convention in May, 
with Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, for Vice-President. The prob- 
able success of that ticket was so generally acknowledged, that the 
fall election of 1835 aroused little contest, except in a few localities. 
The Democrats carried seven of the eight Senate districts in the State, 
and a large majority of the Assembly. 

In December the country was startled with the news of a great and 
destructive lire in New York, still memorable in its annals, which de- 
stroyed what was then the chief business portion of the city, com- 
prised between Wall and Broad Streets and the East River. Though 
less in actual extent than the conflagrations of later years in Chicago 
and Boston, yet its effect, both upon the city and upon the general 
business of the country, was relatively as disastrous and wide-spread. 

During the winter Seward continued steadily at work at profes- 
sional duties. He found time, however, to give his aid, when called 
upon, to movements for local or public benefit. The Auburn Journal 
and Advertiser chronicles his attendance and participation as secre- 
tary, chairman, committee-man, or commissioner, at the several meet- 
ings held to establish a college to be located at Auburn. The vener- 
able Bishop Hedding, and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Luckey, of Lima, were 
named among the trustees. The Methodist Episcopal Church took 
an especial interest in the enterprise, for, at that time, as they stated, 
they were not represented by a professor in any one of the colleges of 
the State. It was not to be a sectarian institution, however. The 
Rev. William Lucas, of the Episcopal Church, ex-Governor Throop, 



1835-'36.] HARRISON AND GRANGER. 207 

and leading members of other denominations, were also to be trus- 
tees. 

The citizens of the town opened subscriptions to its fund. The 
commercial revulsion, which came a year or two later, checked and 
finally defeated the enterprise. 

The same journal also records the proceedings of village meetings, 
to extend the boundaries and amend the charter of Auburn, in view of 
the increase of its population. From this record it appears " that 
General William H. Seward had drawn up a charter, at the request of 
the trustees, which was then read by him and unanimously adopted." 
A new act of incorporation, framed in accordance therewith, and passed 
by the Legislature, went into operation in the spring of 1836. 

Cases in the Supreme Court, which was then held at the capital, as 
well as duties in reference to the village improvements, now called 
Seward to Albany. He wrote from there in January, describing his 
meetings with old friends, and alluding to "the immense snow-banks 
which lie between Auburn and the capital." This snow-fall was one 
of those memorable ones which " the oldest inhabitant " likes to recall. 
A two days' storm of wet, heavy flakes covered the ground to the 
depth of four feet in the central part of the State. Roofs were 
crushed in, roads blockaded, stages ceased to run, farmers were snow- 
bound in their houses, cut off from their cattle, and even from fuel and 
provision. The village hay-scales at Auburn recorded the pressure of 
the superincumbent mass upon it to be eighteen hundred-weight. 
The milkman, after three days' suspension of business, at last made his 
round through the streets drawn by three yoke of oxen ; " as to other 
vehicles," remarked the Auburn Journal^ " they seem for the time being 
to be annihilated." 

One of the subjects of conference with political friends, during this 
visit to Albany, was the plan for the canvass of the approaching presi- 
dential election. There was little hope of obtaining a majority of the 
electoral votes ; but there was a possibility that the Whigs might carry 
States enough to throw the election into the House of Representatives. 
At all events, it was the part of wisdom to take such steps as would 
keep up the Whig organization, and would secure the largest number' 
of local triumphs. So, instead of uniting in a national convention, the 
Whigs of different States made such nominations as they deemed sf long- 
est. Daniel Webster had already been nominated in Massachusetts, 
Judge McLean in Ohio ; Hugh L. White was nominated as an inde- 
pendent candidate in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama ; and General 
Harrison was put in nomination by Whig Conventions in Indiana and 
Ohio. Born in Virginia, the birthplace of so many Presidents, the son 
of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a youthful aide-de- 
camp of Wayne, and holding his first commission from President Wash- 



29S LLFE AND LETTERS. [1835-'36. 

ington, Harrison was a soldier who, like Jackson, had achieved vic- 
tories in the War of 1812. He had served as Secretary of the North- 
west Territory, then as Governor, and afterward was elected to the 
House of Representatives from Cincinnati, then to the Senate, where 
he took General Jackson's place as chairman of the Military Commit- 
tee. He was a supporter of the Administration of John Quincy Adams, 
and was by him accredited as minister to Colombia, to enter upon diplo- 
matic relations with President Bolivar, the " Liberator of Spanish 
America." To add to this unimpeachable record, he had lived of late 
years in retirement, and so had escaped identification with any of the 
conflicting factions at Washington. 

In December he was nominated at Harrisburg, with Francis Gran- 
ger as candidate for Vice-President, by the Pennsylvania Whigs, and 
these nominations were unanimously indorsed by the Whig State Con- 
vention at Albany in February. 

The friends of Mr. Clay in these States did not hesitate to give 
Harrison their support, as their own favorite this year did not seek a 
nomination in a contest offering so little hope of success. 

Meanwhile, there came news each week from Washington of stormy 
discussions in Congress, which, though they showed the strength, hard- 
ly seemed auspicious for the continued harmony of the Administration 
party. Long and high debates ensued between Whigs and Demo- 
crats, and between Democrats themselves. There was a debate upon 
the President's recommendation of a law to prohibit the sending of 
" incendiary publications " by mail, and Calhoun's report of a bill to 
exclude everything from the mails which any Southern State might 
deem " incendiary." There was a debate over the Southern demand of 
" penal laws " in Northern States against " agitators," and over the 
natural hesitation of Northern States to enact such laws. 

There was a debate over the right of petition, and especially the 
right to petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; 
a debate over the admission of Michigan as a free State, balanced by 
Arkansas as a slaveholding one ; a debate over the extension of the 
Missouri boundary, giving up an Indian reservation to the slaveholders. 
•There was a debate over the hostilities now opened with the Seminoles 
in Florida, in regard to their lands, the fugitives whom they harbored, 
and the United States troops whom they massacred ; and a debate over 
recognizing the independence of Texas, now in successful revolt against 
Mexico. There were debates over questions of the distribution of 
surplus revenues, and the regulation of public deposits ; over the 
question of our claims against France for money, and the claim of 
France against us for an apology ; debates over the question of con- 
firming Taney's nomination for Chief -Just ice Marshall's place ; debates 
over the past issue of the National Bank, and the present one of Ben- 



1835-'36.] THE "SMALL-BILL LAW." 999 

ton's resolution to " expunge " from the record the censure of the 
President for his action in regard to it. 

Nor were the advices from Albany and New York without some 
interest. Governor Marcy had warned the Legislature in his messages 
against the increase of banks and banking capital as aiding an " un- 
regulated spirit of speculation." 

Yet banks and banking capital continued to increase under legis- 
lative sanction, until their expansion led to the formation of a new 
faction in the Democratic party, prepared to dispute its control, and 
avowedly opposed not only to all banks, but to all paper currency. 
This faction called themselves " Equal-Rights Men," but had gained the 
sobriquet of " Loco-focos," from a tumultuous meeting at Tammany 
Hall. On that occasion the regular Democrats finding themselves out- 
numbered, endeavored to break up the meeting by putting out the 
lights, but were defeated by the prudent forethought of the " Equal- 
Rights Men," who had provided themselves with "loco-foco" matches 
to light them again, and so continued the proceedings. The name of 
" Loco-foco " was, however, soon used indiscriminately by the Whigs, 
who applied it to all factions and all members of the Democratic party. 

Letters to Mr. Weed alluded to the political outlook : 

Auburn, February Vlth. 
I am daily told, but listen with incredulous ears, that the bank will save 
Pennsylvania. In truth, I think the hank will lose to us Pennsylvania. I do 
not believe that the bank has now such wonder-working charm as to convert its 
worst enemies. But there is no doubt in my mind that Pennsylvania would, in 
any event, " bank or no bank," go for Van Buren. 

Februanj 1*th. 

I am less sanguine than you of the result of "Webster's withdrawal in favor 
of Harrison. In short, I am altogether incredulous. The downward tendency 
of things has not, in my judgment, been arrested, nor will it he. But why dwell 
on the gloomy side? Heaven knows, not to induce a moment's relaxation of 
effort. 

Tell me about Granger; how he looked, what he said, and what he thought. 
I am curious to know whether he is shaken from his coolness by the animating 
reports which he, like all other candidates, is sure to hoar at Washington. I do, 
every day and every hour, see evidence that General Harrison is capable of be- 
ing made, under any other circumstances than the present, an invincible candi- 
date. But the time has not come ; the great issue is pressed upon us before 
men are ripe. 

One of the results of the " hard-money " theories now prevailing, 
was an act passed by the New York Legislature in 1835, called the 
" Small-bill Law." This prohibited the circulation of bank-notes 
under five dollars. It originated, possibly, in the desire to imitate the 
English practice of having bank-notes only for one pound sterling and 



300 LIF E AND LETTERS. [1835-'36. 

upward, and in the belief that such a restriction would lead to the 
employment of specie in the minor business transactions of every-day 
life. While it lasted it gave rise to numerous petty inconveniences, 
one of which is alluded to in a letter of May, 1836 : 

I thought traveling by boat from Utica would be more comfortable, and so 
went on board the packet at six. It was a beautiful day, and the valley of the 
Mobawk smiled beneath tbe bright sun. The passengers were all strangers to 
me, but of course all Whigs, and I was, unfortunately, there, as I yet am 
doomed a little longer to be, a hero, for the lack of another or better. There 
was but one trouble : seven passengers insisted upon paying their fare in Michi- 
gan three-dollar bills, the circulation of which is prohibited in this State ; they 
quarreled with the captain's agent, who suspected them of a design to pay him 
in depreciated paper. I finally quieted the excitement by taking their uncurrent 
money and giving them Auburn five-dollar bills in exchange, stipulating, how- 
ever, that there should be no more words on the subject. 

New Yoke, May 20, 1836. 
Here I am at the City Hotel, in No. 46, which is small enough, and dark 
enough,, and cold enough, to make me wish myself at home again. I fell into 
the city hurry as soon as I landed, and pressed forward to accomplish what I 
had to do in order to return last evening. There is, or ought to be, one man in 
the city whom I must see on a matter of business, and it seems to me I have 
seen everybody else. I met Auburn people, and people from everywhere. 
Some are talking of coming here to reside ; I marvel at such a desire. The 
population of so great a town is altogether too excitable ; the feelings and 
customs which prevail are too factitious for my taste. The great topic of the 
town yesterday was the riot of the preceding night at the theatre, got up to 
settle the dispute about the conduct of Mr. and Mrs. Wood. In the print-shops 
on Broadway there is exhibited at every corner an engraving of Ellen Jewett. 
Another caterer for the vitiated taste of the metropolis has a likeness of Frank 
Eivers, " the supposed murderer of Ellen Jewett ; " and a third, not to be out- 
done, has brought out a picture called " the real Ellen Jewett." It would be 
endless to detail all such incidents and observations. 

New York, Jane 1st. 
My law-business drags, and is protracted by circumstances and surroundings. 
I sit down and commence my labor by drawing up papers at nine every morn- 
ing. Calls, messages, errands, letters, interrupt me every hour; and, at last with 
little accomplished, the dinner-hour comes at half-past three. It is entirely the 
same, whether I dine out or dine at home. It is the business of the rest of the day. 
I must invite some to dine with me ; others invite themselves ; and the dinner 
and its engagements close at midnight, Everybody is here, and everybody is 
hospitable and kind; and everybody will not let me be a churl. 



1836.] GOING TO CHAUTAUQUA. g^l 

CHAPTER XVI. 

1836. 

The Holland Land Company. — Trouble with Settlers.— A Fortified Land-Office.— Seward 
as Pacificator. — Life at Westfield. — A Night Attack. — Geology and Science. — Exploring 
Chautauqua County. 

Cart, Lay, and Schermerhorn, were in trouble with the settlers on 
their huge purchase from the Holland Land Company, and needed 
some man who, with legal skill, should combine tact, address, resolu- 
tion, suavity, and courage, to go out among the settlers, and endeavor 
to allay the storm, which had already culminated in the destruction of 
the Chautauqua land-office, refusal to pay for lands, and open defi- 
ance of the new owners. "Weed was of opinion that Gary's senatorial 
colleague was the very man they wanted, who would save their prop- 
erty from destruction. Then turning to Seward himself, he urged him 
to accept the difficult and responsible post as one in which success 
would lead to competence, and perhaps even to wealth. 

Gary, Lay, and Schermerhorn, fell in with these views at once, in- 
vited Seward to go with them to their domain, and become their agent 
or partner. Before leaving New York he had nearly made up his 
mind to accept their offers. On his way home to Auburn he paused at 
Lltica, wdiere the Whig State Convention had just nominated a Har- 
rison electoral ticket, and made Judge Buel the Whig candidate for 

Governor. 

Auburn, June 14, 1836. 

Cary and I stopped at Utica overnight; and just in time, the convent inn 
having agreed informally upon our nominations. I saw more or less of the 
delegates, and satisfied some who thought that my feelings might have been 
wounded. Works, Rochester, and others, made a point of my remaining and 
taking a seat in the convention, on invitation and making a speech. I declined, 
for the true reason, that I did not want to appear disposed to trade upon my 
nomination beyond the period and purpose for which it was made ; but I author- 
ized all of them to say for me anything that they might think it important or 
desirable that I should say. 

I have, " for better for worse," declared to Eathbonc and the others thai I 
am ready to undertake the busini -. 

John Porter, of Auburn, now came into the partnership to take 
charge of the counsel business during Seward's absence in Chautauqua, 
and the sign of "Seward, Porter & Beardsley," remained on the door of 
No. 1, Exchange Block, for some years thereafter. 

On his way to meet the owners for consultation, he wrote 

Rocheoteb, June 

I had no conception of the wretched condition of the roads when I left home. 
TVe left the stage-office at half-past ten at night; traveled diligently all night, 



302 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

and reached Geneva at half -past five yesterday morning. We narrowly escaped 
upsetting several times. At Geneva we determined to leave the main road. "We 
took a stage from that place after breakfast, and came to Newark, where we 
took the canal, and arrived here at eleven o'clock last night, having spent twenty- 
four hours in traveling sixty miles. We found Schermerhorn and Whittlesey 
waiting for us, as well as John Birdsall, P. 0. Fuller, and Henry Webb, of Al- 
bany. Birdsall seems to be much gratified with the prospect of having me for 
a neighbor. He has given me an account, an intelligent and candid one, of 
course, of the condition of things in Chautauqua. 

He says that, if a liberal and just course is adopted toward the settlers, the 
difficulties can all be removed ; and he confirms my previous belief that the 
further continuance of the exactions hitherto attempted will defeat altogether 
the purposes of the proprietors. I am fully determined to have nothing to do 
in the matter, unless I have full authority and discretion, and am freed from all 
obligation to practise any extortion upon the settlers. 

Batavia, Tuesday Evening. 
I am arrived at last at this place, so distinguished in the records of the dis- 
orders and commotions of the country, and am under the hospitable roof of our 
old friends Mr. and Mrs. Oary. 

Wednesday, 2Uh. 

Mr. Cary, Mr. Schermerhorn, Mr. Rathbone, and myself, have spent an en- 
tire day in examining the concerns of the Chautauqua purchase. The result has 
been, as often happens when great expectations are indulged, that nothing 
definitive is concluded. The contracts prepared for us, and the abstracts of the 
books, were all made out wrong. There must be new contracts and new ab- 
stracts, and these are to be prepared by me, or under my direction. I proceed 
on the business immediately. 

Th v.rsday. 

When I saw the Telegraph stage-coach pass my chamber-window, at six 
this morning, and reflected that, if I were a passenger, I could be with you in 
our little retreat at five this evening, I could not but think I was not necessarily 
to be " a banished man " from the home of my affections. 

I have seen enough of the affairs which call me here to know that they are 
much more deranged than I supposed, or than is understood by my employers. 
The whole tract of the Holland Land Company's lands, comprising seven coun- 
ties, is in a state of great excitement. The disorganizing spirit is abroad, and 
men indulge fearful thoughts and dangerous purposes. 

There is a sub-land-office in each county, and the general land-office here. 
These offices contain the records and contracts. A desperate party have hereto- 
fore dared to seek the destruction of all the records and contracts, and, through 
that means, to relieve their lands from the debts which encumber them. The 
Chautauqua office has long since been burned, with all its valuable papers. The 
agent is here, driven from his post by terror. The land-office here has been 
fortified. It is full of arms, and armed men keep guard. A block-house is 
erected on each side of it. Conventions of the people are held, almost weekly, 
in the different counties, in opposition to the company. This, however, is the 
dark side. If I read aright the indications around me, the excitement is passing 
off, aud men will return to a more tranquil state. 



1836.] THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY. 3,13 

'relay, July 
This beautiful summer morning preludes another burning day. [ have as 
yet found no space to speak of Batavia or its inhabitants, although, as you 
well enough imagine, I could not live long in this hospitable family without 
becoming acquainted with both. The situation of the village is rather unpre- 
possessing. It is on a plain, and has no variety of hill or dale. It is, as you 
know, upon the bank of the Tonawanda Creek ; but the creek here lends lit lie 
beauty to the scenery. The village is small, although there an' some rich fami- 
lies and many others ambitious of display and elegance. Mr. Evans and his 
family have a fine house and extensive garden and grounds. They are, in virtue 
of Ids great wealth and his great office* " General Agent of the Eolland Land 
Company," at the head of the society. lie is an unassuming, intelligent, and 
worthy man. Both he and Mrs. Evans grace their position by native modesty 
and the absence of all affectation. 

The Holland Land Purchase, in the settlement of whose affairs 
Seward had now been called to take part, is almost coeval with Western 
New York. The title to the wild lands west of the Genesee River 
during- and just after the Revolution had been the subject, first of a 
controversy, and then of an amicable adjustment between the States of 
New York and Massachusetts. Robert Morris, the eminent financier 
of Philadelphia, then acquired from these States a tract containing 
four million acres, and after extinguishing the Indian title, in the year 
1792, sold the greater part of it to a company of gentlemen in Hol- 
land, since known as the Holland Land Company. Of course, the de- 
sign of this company was to open the land to actual settlers, parceling 
it out into farms, and disposing of it by contracts of sale, at reason- 
able terms, on long credit. As has not unfrequently happened, the 
execution of this design became attended, in the course of years, with 
disputes between proprietors and settlers, when the latter had become 
so numerous, and so long and firmly established, as to consider that 
their occupancy and improvements were what had given the land its 
actual value ; and that the claims of the original and distant proprie- 
tors for interest, arrearages, and forfeitures, were unreasonable and 
oppressive. Foreseeing or experiencing some of these difficulties, the 
Holland company Avas not unwilling to divide its now gigantic trust 
with new companies of purchasers. Each of these took a portioned' 
the tract, of course at an advance on the orisfinal cost, and continued 
the same system of selling it to actual settlers. 

Seward now wrote to Judge Miller, describing the present state of 
affairs : 

Batavia. J 
As 1 anticipated, I have found the condition of things in regard 10 my agency 
here quite confused. The true state of them is about as follows : I 'ary 

and Lay made a verbal agreement with Mr. Van der Kemp, at Philadelphia, the 
general agent of the Holland Land Company, for the purchase of all the ini 
and estate of the company in Chautauqua at about a million dollars. 



304 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

The purchase of the interest of the company in the other counties about 
the same time by other purchasers made a great excitement. All the other 
purchasers first, and Oary and Lay after them, undertook to raise the price by 
demanding a per acre advance upon forfeited contracts. This produoed that 
commotion which has pervaded the whole country, and the outbreakings of 
which were seen in the destruction of the land-office at Mayville, and the irrup- 
tion into this place for the purpose of destroying the land- office here. During 
the year 1835 the settlers paid largely and freely upon their lands. Almost a 
quarter of Cary's and Lay's debt was actually paid by the settlers. But the ex- 
citement put an end to these payments ; and a set of demagogues and agrarians, 
taking advantage of the excited state of the public mind, have endeavored to 
induce the settlers to go in for an acquisition of their lands without payment 
for them. This was to be accomplished on the ground that the Holland Land 
Company had no title, and the means to be used were to nullify the judgments 
of the courts and destroy the records of the conveyances and contracts. 

In the mean time, Cary and Lay had not executed their contract with the 
Holland Land Company, although they have paid fifty thousand dollars out of 
their private funds, which, together with the payments derived from the lands, 
exceeds the first payment on their agreement. 

The indications are believed to be that the excitement is subsiding. A 
county convention has been held in Chautauqua, and has resolved that the pro- 
prietors be requested to reestablish their office there. It was my intention to do 
so to-morrow, but I find it necessary now to have copies made of the books 
relating to the Chautauqua lands kept in this office, all the books having been 
destroyed with the office in Chautauqua. I have procured an extra force to be 
employed upon the books, and we hope to get them ready so that I can go next 
week to Mayville. 

To Mrs. Seward he wrote : 

July 3d. 

I am endeavoring to form habits from which I promise myself more health 
and comfort, and profitable study, than I have heretofore enjoyed. For instance, 
I rise at five. I could not, heretofore, have any regularity about this, because I 
had no right to expect to go seasonably to bed, or to sleep ; but I can here con- 
trol both in a good measure. This early rising gives me the opportunity to 
write all my letters before breakfast, not with dissipated thoughts and exhausted 
feelings, but with the renovated powers of the early morning. Then I bestow 
my care upon my business concerns from breakfast till five o'clock, allowing one 
hour for dinner. Then when the old symptoms of languor and stricture across 
the forehead come on, I throw by the accounts and other labor, and I find re- 
sources in Mr. Cary's excellent library for enjoyment for the residue of the 
day. I break in anywhere upon the order of things to ride or to walk with 
Mr. Cary, or talk with Mrs. Cary, or visit with them ; because in this way I 
make myself less troublesome to them, and obtain some of that exercise of 
which I have so much need. I suppose you and the little boys are yet sound 
asleep, but perhaps dreaming that somebody is talking unintelligibly about let- 
ters, habits, Chautauqua, and Batavia, etc., etc. 

On the morning of the 4th of July his letter began with this re- 
flection : 



1836.] CHILDREN AND "THE FOURTH." 305 

This petty cannonading by the boys, commencing a little in anticipation of 
the end of Sunday, and disturbing the watches of the jubilee day, is it thu out- 
breaking of the spirit of freedom and patriotism, which the young republicans 
and future sovereigns have imbibed from our instructions? Or is it the work- 
ing of their imitative faculty, by which they carry forward and perpetuate our 
practices and habits, be they good or bad? Or is it anything more than the 
spirit of childhood making demonstration of boisterous mirth on a privileged 
occasion, to compensate itself for the irksomeness of tasks and constraint ? 

To his own little boys he used to write frequent letters. One from 
here will show their character : 

My dear Boy : I have written a letter to Augustus, and I write one now to 
you. I write it with red ink so that you may know them apart. The people 
where I am staying are very nice people. But there is a boy here that does one 
very naughty thing. I saw yesterday on the mantel-piece a saucer filled with 
the shells of birds'-eggs. Now, it is wicked to take away their eggs from the 
pretty little birds. It is different altogether from taking the old hen's eggs 
away from her. Hens'-eggs are good to eat, and it is right to take them. The 
hen does not know how many eggs she has, and therefore does not feel sorry 
when you take them all away but one, and she is such an ignorant old creature 
that she would not know it if you should take away her last egg, and put a 
paper one in its place. But the little birds 1 eggs are not good to eat ; they know 
how many eggs they have, and they are very sorry, and mourn many days if you 
take them away. This same naughty boy got up yesterday morning, took his 
gun, and shot a very pretty little yellow-bird. He brought it into the house, 
laid it on the table, and it lay there all the morning. At noon, he threw it 
away. Now, do you think the little boy was any happier because he had killed 
that harmless little yellow-bird? Perhaps the bird has left little ones in her 
nest, and they must have died too before this time. 

Three weeks later he proceeded to Chautauqua County, to enter 
upon his new duties. He wrote : 

Westfield, July 24, 1336. 
We had a rainy morning to leave Buffalo on Thursday, great confusion on 
getting on board a steamboat, a crowded boat, vessels racing up the lake, and, 
with all else, the disgusting scene of sea-sickness all around us. But our brief 
voyage had its end ; as I hope did the sea-sickness of those we left on board. 

We landed in the rain at Dunkirk, at two o'clock on Thursday. Dunkirk 
"is to be " a place of great importance, but it is now a miserable one. A half- 
hour's ride brought us to Fredonia, a very pretty village, on the great mad E 
Detroit to Buffalo, and a little east of a line drawn midway through the count;-. 
•As soon as we arrived, we were visited by several citizens, who expressed a 
deep interest in our effort to tranquilize the county. They, like people every- 
where else, are engaged in building a great town, and were desirous to have 
advantage of the location of my office among them. We spent the afternoon 
and night there, took breakfast the next morning with our old friend tin- Rev. 
, Lucius Smith and his family, and left Fredonia with the most favorable impres- 
sion of the beauty of the village and the enterprise and hospitality of the people, 
20 



500 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1836. 



and with a strong bias toward locating our office there. From Batavia to Buffalo 
is forty miles; from Buffalo to Fredonia, forty-five miles; from Fredonia to 
Westfield, fourteen miles. We took an extra stage to this place, and passed 
over the great thoroughfare, within two to four miles of the lake-shore. Cer- 
tainly my eye never rested upon a finer country. It is not altogether new, nor 
yet so highly improved as the region in which we live. The ground is almost 
level, with a gentle slope toward the lake, which lay spread out before us, per- 
fectly calm, and lost in the horizon, as it receded to the north. "We found West- 
field still more beautiful than Fredonia. The place is distant a mile and a half 
from Portland Harbor, and the broad surface of the water is within our sight 
from any part of the village. Neither Westfield nor Fredonia is as large as 
Skaneateles, but both are improving and flourishing towns. We spent several 
hours here, and during that time drove down to the harbor, and heard all that 
was addressed to us in favor of locating the land-office here. Except that the 
location was more distant, I found it much preferable to Fredonia. 

At four o'clock on Friday we passed over to Mayville, the county town, and 
the locality of the old office. It lies at the head of Chautauqua Lake. That 
lake is seven hundred feet above the level of Lake Erie, and sends its waters 
into the Ohio through the Alleghany River. The road to Mavville crosses the 
ridge, which rises about four miles from the shore of Lake Erie, and stretches 
along the whole length of the southern shore. Nature has few more beautiful 
scenes than that which is displayed on this road. The lake is twenty miles long, 
and seems to rest in the bosom of a valley, formed by high hills, covered with 
forests on all sides. The village of Mayville contains scarcely more than fifty 
houses. We found a tavern and stores, a good court-house and clerk's office, and 
the ruins of the old land-office as they were left by the mob. Birdsall was very 
glad to see us, showed us the rooms in the court-house he had selected for my 
office, and the house in which I was to board. Neither he nor the other inhab- 
itants of Mayville seem to have suspected that the office could be established 
elsewhere. My observation of Mayville resulted in the conviction that it would 
be a most uncomfortable residence, that it was an unprofitable place for the sale 
of lands, that its secluded position subjected it to the control of turbulent spirits 
who lived in the hills around it, and that, if I meant to be independent of the 
dictation of those who assume to direct the land agency by popular votes, I 
must avoid placing myself within their power. 

After hearing all that could be urged against these views, I decided to return 
to Westfield. It was a sad blow to Mayville, for the land-office was the princi- 
pal source of its importance and business. Birdsall regarded it in a proper 
light, and behaved, as he always does, with magnanimity. Some of the other 
citizens were gloomy and excited. They warned me of consequences which 
they intended to produce. They assured me that I must be prepared for " agi- 
tation." They are to call conventions, and submit the question to the people, 
and procure resolutions to be passed that they will pay no money into the office 
until it is established at Mayville. Of course, these threats only confirm my 
conviction of the correctness of the determination I had made; nor did I find 
that conviction shaken by the menace that my office should not stand here two 
months. 

Westfield, July 2^)th. 
What with the solicitude I have felt from the indications around me for the 



1836.] PACIFYING THE SETTLERS. 307 

result of the bold undertaking to restore peace iu this excited country, and rny 
preparation for future duties, I have suffered delay in writing to you. 

I wrote you that I had located here. This greatly grieved the people of 
Mayville ; they became very much excited ; and, although they had sustained 
the laws and denounced the riots while the office was among them, they now 
appealed to the passions of the people, threatened every obstruction to our 
business, and courted disorder and outrage. Birdsall's excellent good sense and 
valuable influence have aided me much in allaying this storm. I went yesterday 
to Mayville, and thence by steamboat on Chautauqua Lake to Jamestown, and 
have seen most of the respectable and influential men in the county, besides 
many of the debtors, and I do not now apprehend difficulties. 

A brief period was now spent at Auburn in closing up his affairs 
preparatory to his protracted absence. The birth of a daughter, Cor- 
nelia, occurred in August of this year. 

A letter to Mr. Weed, in September, announced his return to his 
post : 

Westfield, September 8, 1830. 

I have an unoccupied hour on a rainy morning, before the time that the good 
people of Chautauqua are accustomed to reach the office. You see, by the date 
and the preface, that I am in the scene of my new vocation. 

I found matters tranquil and prosperous here. The abortive effort to agitate 
the county has had a favorable reaction ; and I have already had many evidences 
that my residence among the good people is regarded with kindness. 

The public feeling is scarcely enlisted yet in the support of our noble and 
just measure, of distributing the public revenue. People seem, so far as they 
fall within my observation, to be unconcerned, as if entirely ignorant on the 
subject. 

This question of distribution of the surplus revenue was destined 
to soon occupy public attention widely and long. The national Treas- 
ury was overflowing with the proceeds of the sales of public lands. 
The Whig leaders advocated the division of this surplus money among 
the several States, and its transfer to their coffers, to be used to pro- 
mote education and works of internal improvement. On the other 
side, it was claimed by " strict constructionists " that the Constitution 
gave no power to make such use of the public 'funds. 

Remaining now in Chautauqua County, except when called to Au- 
burn by business affairs, or by brief occasional visits to his family, he 
entered zealously upon the work of pacification of the settlers and the 
adjustment of their accounts. Just and fair dealing, tact and skill in 
business, courtesy of manner, and generosity of spirit, both in regard 
to public enterprises and individual cases, soon began to produce their 
proper effect. The people, at first hostile, became gradually mollified 
and quiet, and then by degrees appreciative and kind. Payments be- 
gan to be made, at first in cautious driblets, and afterward more large- 
ly and rapidly than the proprietors had ventured to anticipate. The 



308 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

land-office became as popular as it had before been unpopular ; and, in- 
stead of being menaced with destruction at night, was thronged with 
friendly visitors by day. 

His letters to Mrs. Seward described some of the incidents of his 
new life : 

Westfield, Saturday Sight, September lOthi. 

At the close of a very laborious week I am still surrounded by garrulous 
people, who distract rue while I try to write. I have had experience enough 
this week in my new calling to learn that, while it lasts, I am to enjoy little of 
that rest that I might have anticipated. From seven, and often from six, in the 
morning, until eight, or nine, or ten o'clock in the evening, we are constantly 
transacting business in a crowd ; and my own cares of superintendence of our 
financial concerns, with other labors, engross all my hours except the few de- 
voted to sleep. Nevertheless, I like it thus far better than the perplexed life I 
led at home. Our business is simple ; it involves no intricate study, and is at- 
tended with none of that consuming solicitude that has rendered my profession 
a constant slavery. 

My health continues good ; and I feel that, if I derive no other advantage 
from the change, I am abundantly repaid. The excitement is fast subsiding 
around me ; and, if you could see me among the people here, you would almost 
suppose I had always lived happily among them. 

Among my visitors to-day was one poor fellow, who spent an hour in de- 
ploring (to the infinite edification of a promiscuous audience) the error of mar- 
rying a widow, two children, and one hundred and ninety-five acres of land ; 
the wife caring, as he says, all for the children and none for him, and the chil- 
dren claiming and taking all the land. 

Westfield, September Wth. 

That was a good old custom of mine to write you a page every day. This 
land-office business must be made more accommodating, and not be allowed to 
break it up. I wrote you last night, weary with business and visitors. This 
morning I took one of the clerks, and drove the nice little grays to Mayviile. 
It has been a glorious day, and the atmosphere of the summit, Avith the delight- 
ful prospects enjoyed during the ride, was inspiriting. I dined with Mr. and 
Mrs. Birdsall, and made a call at Judge Peacock's. 

Monday Right. 

I mean to-morrow to take possession of my bachelor's hall, and I am very 
anxious that Nicholas and IJarriet shall arrive before the equinoctial storm sets 
in. I believe I will sleep where I am until they move into the house, and then 
will go to Buffalo, to procure the necessary comforts for my new lodgings. 

Nicholas and Harriet Bogart, here alluded to, were two young col- 
ored persons, then newly married, who were coming to Westfield, the 
one in the capacity of coachman, the other as housekeeper. Their long 
and faithful service which then commenced, lasted, with occasional 
intervals, throughout Seward's life. 

Who should drop in upon me, to-day, but old Mr. Sherwood, of Auburn, and 
his exceedingly round son? He was sociable and friendly, and was glad, it 



1836.] CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DUTY. 309 

seemed, to find a neighbor. During his visit I was annoyed by a squatter, who 
had applied to me to purchase the iand he was upon. I had offered it to him for 
nine dollars an acre, and he insisted upon having it at three dollars, no trifling 
difference. He was drunk, and, after abusing me roundly in the office, he went 
into the street, and made a boisterous harangue to the multitude gathered round 
him, calling me all manner of names. Mr. Sherwood took up the argument in 
my behalf, and the " squatter," to the infinite mirth of the by-standers, took it 
into his head, from Sherwood's corpulence, that he was Wilhem Willink, or 
Gerrit Van Beeftingh, one of the mammoth proprietors from Amsterdam. 
Sherwood (who weighs about three hundred) humored the mistake, and so 
turned the scene into one of discomfiture for the " squatter " and great amuse- 
ment to the spectators. 

Wednesday, September 14, 183(3. 

Our business here is assuming every day a more regular and more propitious 
shape, but it exacts unremitting attention and consuming labor. From morn till 
night I scarcely step upon the sidewalk. I glean the newspapers, and, after 
writing to you, read myself to sleep over a poor novel. My life is without an 
incident of the dignity even of an appearance in a justice's court, and as desti- 
tute of romance as a merchant's inventory. But, then (the Holland Land Com- 
pany be praised), there is no perplexing study protracted at night, through trou- 
bled dreams till morning, no harrowing fear of catastrophes, involving clients 
and friends in bankruptcy, and no pitiable stating of accounts by a fee bill. 

I said I was without incident, but I erred ; I am to have one. Parson Smith 
has by letter, graceful and full of fancy, invited me to attend the consecration of 
his church at Fredonia, on Saturday next, and dine at his house with the bishop, 
and, despite all the claims of the land-office upon my time, I have accepted the 
invitation. 

Besides, I have been favored with visitors. Asher Tyler, who holds a place 
in Cattaraugus somewhat corresponding to my own, dropped in upon me yester- 
day afternoon. Mr. Patchin, of Jamestown, with his sister, came soon after, 
and I have devoted to them my stolen leisure. 

A letter written one Sunday morning, in September of this year, 
contained reflections on the subject of Christian life and duties : 

I read with particular attention your remark that you did not mean to say 
that your conduct or feelings were always influenced by religion or reason ; but 
that both are more frequently so than heretofore. I apprehend that this is the 
experience of every Christian ; and, indeed, it must be so, unless the doctrine of 
"perfection" is true. How much more frequently that influence is felt, and 
how much more powerful it is, are, after all, the questions upon which depend 
all our hopes of the blessings of religious life. 

I feel now, not perhaps as fully as I ought to feel, but nevertheless earnestly, 
that religious thoughts, discussions, and studies, are grateful to me, and that a 
gracious parental Providence has called me into existence, and keeps me here 
for the fulfillment of his own purposes indeed, but, with these purposes, is in 
perfect harmony my own happiness, now and hereafter, as well as that of those 
whose welfare is connected with or derived from me. 

I am not without the hope, as well as the purpose, that the greater leisure I 



310 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

enjoy in this new occupation will enable me to cherish, still more, this growing 
interest in these important matters, and, most assuredly, it is a strong motive 
with me that I may enjoy with you that communion of sympathy in matters of 
religion that I do in every other way. 

Toward the close of this month came the crowd and confusion inci- 
dent to the annual militia parade, called the "general training." 

Westfield, September 2§th. 
I am to amuse you now with the adventures of an eventful season. You 
know I went on last Saturday to Fredonia, and on Sunday to Mayville. These 
excursions left the young men two days to themselves. On Sunday night, Brad- 
ley, being alone with me, told me of terrific intimations and menaces uttered in 
the office on Saturday ; and, among other things, that a person came from Ripley 
expressly to warn me that to-night or to-day a mob was to come to destroy the 
office. I discovered that they were both alarmed, but soothed their fears, and 
passed on. Yesterday morning, James Jackson, a merchant of great respecta- 
bility in Ripley, called me out of bed at six o'clock, to warn me that a mob was 
to come to-night from Gerry, to destroy my office and shoot me. lie recom- 
mended the suspension of all business to-day, and that I should take shelter in his 
house five miles distant. I grieved him by resolving to stay and be killed, which 
he said, truly, would be a dreadful thing. Having learned from him that the 
storm which he feared was to come from Gerry, I procured yesterday a confi- 
dential person to reconnoitre there last night. I secured the attendance of the 
sheriff through the day, and at an early hour this morning caused all the most 
valuable papers and books to be transferred from the office to my private room. 
On opening the office this morning, two men came, fraught with the news of 
the intended assault. The militia assembled, and not less than a thousand peo- 
ple, apparently to witness the parade. Business pressed us all day, for the peo- 
ple availed themselves of the occasion to transact it. My messenger returned 
from Gerry, and reported that all was rpiiet and the people all satisfied. The 
crowd have dispersed, and Haight and Bradley have forgotten their fears in 
a sound sleep, as I shall do after having told you the perils of the day. 

Two days later he took possession of his new home, a pleasant 
house formerly known as the " McClurg Mansion," and surrounded by 
spacious grounds : 

Thursday Morning, September 22c?. 

It would do your heart good to see me seated at my own table, in " my own 
hired house," with my own books and papers, and my own hired family, around 
me. In truth, I became very lonely and uncomfortable at the tavern. I yester- 
day morning notified Sarah Scott that I could wait no longer, and forthwith I 
began to move. My wardrobe was soon removed from the trunks; my papers 
were deposited in the hall. Just at this time John Birdsall called on me. I 
begged of Mr. Gale a loaf of bread and a bottle of Santa Cruz rum. Sarah 
found the pork-barrel, and pulled some green corn in the garden, and in an 
hour Birdsall and I sat down to a good dinner, with none to molest us or make 
us afraid. 

I know you will be delighted with the house when you come to see it in the 



1830.] A THEORY OF MATTER. 3H 

summer. It stands in the centre of groifhds of several acres, ornamented with 
trees and shrubbery. It has a double piazza in front of the centre or main 
building, and is two stories high. The arrangement of the rooms is this: In 
the centre, a hall about twenty feet wide; off this, in the rear, an octagon par- 
lor, which opens into the shrubbery of the garden. There are live spacious 
bedrooms above. There are cellars, out-houses, smoke-house, garden, orchard, 
etc.; everything well contrived. The flowers and the fruit hang around me in 
profusion, and the retirement of my dwelling invites me to it every hour thai I 
have freedom. 

One of the episodes in the Chautauqua life was a meeting with 
some scientific gentlemen, with whom he was afterward to be brought 
into official relations: 

October 3d. 

Yesterday afternoon Dr. Eights, whom I knew at Albany, called upon me, 
with Prof. Vanuxem, of Philadelphia. They are two of a board of geologists 
whom the Governor has appointed under the law directing a geological survey 
of the State. They are exploring the territory hereabout on foot. I took them 
in my wagon to the lake-shore. The wind had been blowing a gale many days, 
and the majesty of the sea was armed with terrors. The waves dashed over the 
pier and rocks with great fury. Not a sail or a boat was to be seen on the broad 
expanse. I have never seen the lake at any other time without a number of 
vessels in the prospect. We rode along the shore to a gas-spring, which is very 
curious. We found that it has been dammed up so as to retain the gas and con- 
duct it to the lighthouse at the harbor. The gas rises in bubbles from the 
water, and by the application of a torch these bubbles inflame. On taking the 
cork from the pipe a gas of offensive odor escaped. We applied our torch, and 
we had instantly a blaze, which would have continued till this time but for our 
again confining the gas. 

The two savants spent the evening with me, and we discoursed of philosophy 
and science over our fruit and champagne. Prof. Vanuxem has a curious 
theory. Philosophers, you are partially apprised, have discovered that certain 
substances or kinds of matter have the power of repulsion, while all other 
kinds have only the quality of attraction. The substances possessing the power 
of repulsion are light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and galvanism. These sub- 
stances, or forms of matter, having no attraction, have none of the qualities by 
which we describe matter. They can neither be seen, felt, tasted, nor touched ; 
while all other matter has extension and gravitation. From this difference tic 
doctor calls them "ethereal" or celestial matter or substances. He suppi 
them to be the substance of the soul, of the Deity, and of all that we call 
spiritual beings. The discovery with reference to the analogy between heat, 
the electric, and other "fluids," as they are commonly called, is recent, and, I 
believe, is established as a truth. The professor's theory is a new and bold one, 
and has no other evidence than mere hypothesis, which can never be demon- 
strated to be true or false. It is marvelous to see how deeply he is imbued 
with this, and it is most curious to observe how dreamy his elucidations are. 
Men, he says, are good or bad according as the different matters, the ethereal and 
terrestrial, or gross, prevail in their constitutions. The ethereal matter is eter- 
nal, the gross matter is liable to change and decay. The soul separating from 



312 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

the body means no more than that the ethereal matter separates from the terres- 
trial. Good is ethereal, evil is terrestrial. 

I suppose I must not suffer this idle page to go to you without a protest that, 
however his theological notions may be affected, there is nothing in his 
ingenious dreams which abates a jot from my religious convictions. 

October 4, 1836. 

Patience, that prodigal of time, is like to have enough of it to accomplish 
her perfect work during the present equinoctial, if she has any hard "chores" 
on hand. For my part, I am about used up. During the fine weather in Sep- 
tember I was cheerful, for I had abundance of occupation. Money and bonds 
and mortgages crowded in upon me faster than I could dispose of them. The 
southwest wind blew my receipts down, and then all day long I waited upon 
people who brought no money at all. 

There appears to be a marked difference between debtors who come in fair 

weather and those who come in the mud. The former bring cash, pay it promptly, 

and go away satisfied. The latter come without money, to make discontented 

and querulous inquiries about how I would do, supposing they were to bring 

money. I don't know but my office will be pulled down over my head, if the 

storm lasts a week longer. 

Wednesday Night. 

I am in better humor with the weather to-night. There have been a few 
hours of sunshine and drying winds, and my business has revived. 

Friday, October h t th. 

Order begins to come out of the confusion into which the land-office has been 
plunged. The murmurs of discontent are dying away, and I think another month 
or two wiU bring the whole estate into a manageable condition. After that 
there will be no great cause of solicitude, and I shall be able to be more at 
home with you. Even now I am able commonly to leave the office at dark, and 
spend the evening here. I am reading the last volume of Brown's " Philosophy." 
I know not what I am to read after that ; and yet I cannot exist without books. 

The protracted storm has left a sea of mud around me here ; for cross and 
side walks are luxuries unknown in Westfield. 

There is nothing of interest here except that one of our citizens, whose name 
I do not know, is in a very unhappy state of mind. The cause is, that he has 
discovered a perpetual motion. Strange that despair should follow such a dis- 
covery ! But the truth is, that he thinks the power is so great that he dare not 
set it in motion, because he will not be able with all the power he can get to 
arrest it ! 

Saturday Horning, October 8th. 

The sun has burst forth from his thraldom, and brought us a bright and genial 
morning. This change of weather and prospect calls up recollections of our 
shady home, and of the cheerful smile of all its inmates— of the grape-vines 
and the jasmines, and the altheas, and the tasteful work I had designed to 
make our home more worthy of you, and more suitable to the study devoted to 
retirement, for which I labor by day, and of which I dream nights and Sundays. 

Saturday NigM. 
My glowing recollections of home, which I was indulging this morning, were 
banished by the incursion of some half a dozen of the " settlers," wanting the 



1336.] RURAL CHURCH EXPERIENCES. 313 

terms of the redemption of their lands. A busy day followed, but it is over 
now; the settlers have all gone home. I have had a pleasant excursion with 
the ponies, and I have received your long letter of last Saturday. I felt a new- 
pleasure in reading that part of your letter which speaks of our little girl. When 
I left home she was only a week old, and had exhibited no one faculty of attract- 
ing love or repaying care. It gratifies me much to hear that she has learned to 
smile. For, after all, the emotions we have generally concern things that do 
not inspire laughter; and I think the earlier one's commencement at laughing 
is made, the longer is the period of childhood happiness to be enjoyed. I sup- 
pose that the young lady, in obtaining the new accomplishment of laughing, has 
not forgot that one, with which all our race are born, of crying. 

But I must abide my time for enjoying my home. A thousand blessings on 
you both and all ! 

Monday, October 10th. 
A weary day I've had. It was as I expected. The people who were kept 
back by the long storm have thronged the office, and we have four days' business 
crowded into one. There is now about one-third of the purchase-money paid. 
The excitement has subsided, and there is really nobody to make mischief. 
Some few ignorant persons, prejudiced against me for political reasons, would 
like to have disorder ; but the intelligent men of the Jackson party, as well as 
of my own, are determined that there shall be peace. I am living quietly and 
pleasantly here. There is at present a continual immigration to this region from 
the east, and property is already rising in value. 

Wednesday Morning, 12th. 
This morning is bright and sunny. The ponies are stamping the ground im- 
patient to take me on a journey to explore Chautauqua County. I go to James- 
town to-day, on the west side of the lake, and return to-morrow on the east. 

The excursion here alluded to was a trip through the principal 
townships of Chautauqua, for the purpose of looking at the lands of 
the Holland purchase and their surroundings, as well as of meeting, 
forming the acquaintance, and studying the character of their inhabit- 
ants, learning their grievances, if any, and obtaining correct opinions on 
questions upon which he would probably have to pass. 

The early settlers of Chautauqua comprised many of New England 
origin. Among the good habits that they brought with them was that 
of building and attending churches. A little hamlet in a remote ami 
sparsely -populated region would frequently have two or three houses of 
worship of different denominations. There was much earnestness of 
religious thought and discussion. Occasionally a grotesque incident 
would mar its solemnity. 

One Sunday while he was attending service at one of these churches, 
the clergyman gave out a hymn commencing with "Abraham, when 
the Lord did call." The choir rose to sing, and the leader began in a 
loud voice, " ^.Ibraham J" and then suddenly stopped. Essaying a sec- 
ond time, he enunciated, " Abraham /" and stopped as before. The 



314 L^E AND LETTERS. [1836. 

wondering congregation smiled, and, looking up, saw the choir-leader 
red in the face, evidently nonplussed by a word which would not fit 
the measure. A singer, on the other side, with a woman's quick in- 
tuition, saw it was a case where pronunciation must yield to melody ; 
and in a treble voiced piped : 

" A-Jra-ham, when the Lord did call," and then the tide of song 
rolled along smoothly to the end. 

On one occasion, an itinerant lecturer on " Poetry and the Fine 
Arts " came to Westfield, and obtained the use of the Methodist 
Church for his first lecture, to be given without charge as a specimen 
of the course. It was an event in a quiet country village, and the lect- 
urer, as he entered, was gratified to see that it had attracted an au- 
dience filling nearly every seat. He was rather surprised to find, how- 
ever, a venerable-looking man in black composedly sitting by the desk, 
as if to divide its honors with him. He proceeded with his lecture, 
which was liberally interspersed with quotations from the poets. The 
audience received these with satisfaction. Not so the old gentleman 
in the pulpit, who testified his disapprobation by loud coughs, sniffs, 
indignant looks, and even an occasional groan, all of which were incom- 
prehensible to the poor lecturer, who thought he had made his selec- 
tions with taste. When, in further illustration of his theme, he quoted 
the "witches' scene" from " Macbeth," the curse of "King Lear," and 
a stanza from " Don Juan," the old man could stand it no longer. 

Rising with an air that riveted the attention of the audience, he 
advanced to the desk, and said in tones of outraged feeling : " Forty 
long years have I been a preacher of the gospel of Christ ! And what 
I have to say is, that if this that we have heerd here to-night is that 
gospel, it is not the gospel of our Lord and Saviour which I was edu- 
cated to believe in and to preach." Here the audience began to titter, 
and finally broke up in confusion. Then came the explanation. The 
old clergyman, residing in a distant town, and happening to be in 
Westfield that evening, had been told by some mischievous practical 
joker that there was to be preaching at the Methodist Church, and 
that he was expected to be present and take part. He had been 
grieved to find that the other clergyman (as he supposed him) had neg- 
lected to begin with either hymn or prayer ; but he was shocked and 
astounded at the recital of language which seemed immoral, blasphe- 
mous, and profane. Whether he ever learned his mistake was not 
known, as ' he precipitately left town in one direction, while the dis- 
comfited lecturer was leaving in the other. 

The new agent had now happily pacified the settlers, adjusted all 
complaints and quarrels, and there was no longer any hesitation on 
the part of the purchasers to complete their bargain with the Holland 
Company. Seward went to New York to close the contracts, and to 



1836.] THE YEAR OF SPECULATION. 3^5 

negotiate loans of the funds necessary to carry on so large an under- 
taking. He was now to be admitted to share as a partner in the own- 
ership of the lands, and in the risks and profits of the enterprise. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
1836. 



The Year of Speculation. — New York Schemes. — Auburn Projects. — A Complex Trust. — 
Van Buren elected President. — Thanksgiving-Day. — A Christmas Sermon. 

The year 1836 was one of great prosperity and commercial activity. 
It was an era of expansion and rapid development of speculative enter- 
prises. The undue depression which followed the attacks on the Bank 
of the United States a year before, and its curtailment of discounts, 
was now succeeded by as unreasonable an inflation ; and this reaction 
was largely promoted by the rapid increase of banks in the State, 
under favoring legislation at Albany, and consequent rapid increase of 
banking facilities. A new impulse was given not only to all sound 
and legitimate enterprises, but to all manner of visionary schemes. 
Stocks rose to high prices ; real estate, in towns and in their vicinity, 
doubled and quadrupled ; farms were mapped out into imaginary city 
lots, and sold, at handsome prices, to purchasers who, a month later, 
sold them at an additional advance ; wild lands in distant regions were 
in like manner parceled out, on paper, into farms for prospective set- 
tlers ; the city of New York not only displayed unwonted activity of 
trade in all its channels, and a great increase of public and private 
buildings, but also furnished capital for like enterprises elsewhere, even 
to the laying out of streets and avenues in imaginary cities expected 
to spring up in remote districts, to thrive by trade and manufactures 
not yet created, and to be occupied by inhabitants not yet born. 

Increase of business caused increase of travel. Stages and boats 
rejoiced in crowds of passengers; new hotels were opened for their 
accommodation, and old ones put up prices. Railways and canals were 
prosecuted with vigor and sanguine hope of immediate profit. Nor 
were the advantages of the money plethora confined to capitalists. 
The farmer readily sold all his produce in the market at enhanced 
rates ; the mechanic found plenty of work at high wages ; and even 
the poorest laborer found himself growing relatively rich, with the 
apparent prospect of continuing to grow richer. 

Auburn, secluded inland town as it was, did not fail to share in the 
general spirit. Its merchants, mechanics, capitalists, and speculators, 
were active and prosperous. Houses and village-lots advantageously 



31G LIFE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

located rose suddenly to seven times their former value. Long avenues 
were projected, running out into the neighboring farms, and expected 
soon to be lined with rows of dwellings. Land companies were formed 
to sell off these lots, and manufacturing companies were organized who 
deemed the auspicious moment had now come to utilize the abundant 
w r ater-power. There is still extant a copy of an illustrated map of 
Auburn as it was to be, spreading over four times its previous space, 
with its broad Atlantic and Pacific Avenues, its spacious blocks of 
stores and dwellings, its Eagle Park, to be laid out on Fort Hill, its 
majestic college, to crown another eminence, its improved and enlarged 
prison, seminary, and hotels, and its Owasco Canal, in full operation, 
with canal-boats passing through locks, and steamboats coming down 
the lake to the city wharves. 

As the year went on, speculation grew wilder, and hardly any 
scheme was too visionary to enlist adherents willing to embark their 
fortunes in it. A natural consequence of the demand for money and 
credit was a steady increase in the rate of interest ; but even the usu- 
rious price of two per cent, a month failed to deter borrowers, who 
expected to make a hundred per cent, before the year was out. 

The Chautauqua land purchase having been initiated in the previous 
" dull times," was now deemed infinitely more valuable and successful. 
Alluding to the pervading anxiety to enter into speculations, Seward 
described his meeting a friend when starting for a drive one day : 

T detained me while he told me that he lived several miles out of town, 

and had hurried in to claim a share of the " spoils " in the distribution of the 
stock of a new bank. He mourned over his error in having sold his canal 
shares ; sighed still more profoundly as he spoke of Dr. B 's golden specu- 
lations in selling lots, which he said might have been his (if he had only bought 
them a year ago) ; and then, imagining from the aspect of our party that we 
were bent upon some new speculation, he wound up by modestly asking, as we 
entered the carriage, the favor of being admitted to a share of its profits, al- 
though he had not the remotest idea what its character or risk might be. 

It was an additional disappointment to him to learn that we were contem- 
plating nothing more serious than a drive to see the falls and enjoy the fresh air. 

In the fall Seward visited New York to close the contracts for the 
Chautauqua purchase. The journey had now been shortened by the 
opening of the Utica & Schenectady Railroad. Writing after his arri- 
val, he said : 

New York, Sunday, October ZQth. 

We were so fortunate as to find a canal-boat at Syracuse, and arrived at 
Utica early enough on Friday for the morning car. It was certainly like a 
dream to pass through the valley of the Mohawk, the entire length of that beau- 
tiful river in five hours, passing the towns and villages like milestones on our 
journey. 

In these times I defy anybody to live in New York, and keep cool and tran- 



1836.] VAN BUREN AND HARRISON. 317 

quil. Excitement seizes upon the nerves and stimulates the blood the moment 
one sets foot on the pavement. However, I found that, after all, there Mas no 
hurry or pressure about our affairs. Two or three days will be all I shall need 
at Philadelphia, and I expect to have nothing to detain mo here on my return. 



His arrangements were successfully accomplished, and, though elab- 
orate and somewhat intricate, may be briefly summed up. The pur- 
chasers of the Chautauqua lands took them as tenants in common, in 
nine equal undivided shares, and executed written contracts therefor 
to "Wilhem Willink, Walrave Van Heukelom, Jan Van Eeghen, Wil- 
hem Willink the younger, Nicholas Van Beeftingh, and Gerrit Schim- 
melpfenninck Rutger Jan's son," who constituted the Holland Com- 
pany. These contracts were made with and through their agent and 
attorney, John J. Van Der Kemp, of Philadelphia. By them, the Hol- 
land Company agreed to convey the lands, on being paid the purchase- 
money in certain described installments. The moneys realized by sales 
and collections, before the expiration of the contracts, were to be applied 
to the credit of the purchasers ; and Seward, as agent or attorney for 
the vendors, as well as the vendees, was to take charge and conduct 
the estate. But to make the payments, which would fall due faster 
than it could reasonably be hoped to sell the lands, it was necessary 
to negotiate a loan, which was accordingly done with the American 
Life Insurance and Trust Company. The Trust Company agreed to 
take the Chautauqua estate " on deposit " as security, and make the 
necessary advances. Three trustees, John Duer, Morris Robinson, and 
William H. Seward, were to hold the estate in trust for that company. 
They were to repay the company the amount it had advanced, and 
then, having done so, to convey the land back to its owners. So that 
Seward was to hold the diverse though not incompatible relations of 
partner in the purchase, agent and attorney, both of the purchasers 
and of the Holland Land Company, and also trustee of the American 
Life Insurance and Trust Company. Naturally enough, therefore, the 
chief care and responsibility of the business devolved on him. 

The presidential election was now at hand. The long session of 
Congress had terminated on the 4th of July. The opposition in the 
two Houses, though it had given well-founded warnings of the financial 
and political dangers toward which the country Avas drifting, and though 
it numbered, among its leaders, such men as Adams, Webster, and Clay, 
and had at different times, on different questions, the cooperation of 
portions of the Democratic members, was nevertheless unable either 
to defeat the measures or destroy the prestige of the dominant party 
and Administration. Mr. Van Buren, as Vice-President, and presiding 
officer of the Senate, exhibited the same tact and skill which had else- 
where marked his course ; and, when forced issues were made in the 



313 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

Senate, with a view to compel him to commit himself by his casting 
vote, to some measure that would be unpopular, either in one section 
or the other, not only demonstrated his party fidelity, but maintained 
his conceded strength as the Administration candidate for " the succes- 
sion." 

As the most prominent and successful manager of the Democratic 
party, to whom its success, both at elections and in administration, was 
largely due, he had been popularly assigned that position, even before 
General Jackson entered upon his second term. Except that the ex- 
ample set by Washington rendered it impossible for any President to 
be a candidate for a third term, there was no reason to doubt that 
General Jackson was as strong now as he had been twice before ; and, 
since he could not himself be reelected, the next strongest candidate 
was the statesman of his own choice, his chief friend and adviser. The 
part}'' had generally acquiesced in the selection, and had sanctioned it 
in national and State conventions. 

The Whigs had a hope rather than an expectation of success in 
the general result, while they were confident of ability to retain control 
of a few of the States, and perhaps to increase their number. In the 
State of New York they had nominated a Harrison electoral ticket in 
June, and at the same time put in nomination Jesse Buel, of Albany, 
for Governor, with Gamaliel H. Barstow, of Ithaca, for Lieutenant- 
Governor. To emphasize the selection of Judge Buel, as the "farmers' 
candidate," the Evening Journal carried, at the head of its columns, a 
picture of a farmer " speeding the plough." The Democrats renomi- 
nated for these offices their incumbents, Governor Marcy and Lieutenant- 
Governor Tracy, with a Van Buren electoral ticket. 

The election came and passed off quietly. Returns came in slowly. 
Full returns, however, soon showed all Whig hopes to be illusory. 
The Democrats carried the State by nearly thirty thousand majority. 
Mr. Van Buren was elected President, receiving one hundred and 
seventy of the electoral votes, and carrying, at the election, all the 
States except Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, 
Ohio, and Indiana, which voted for Harrison ; Massachusetts, which 
voted for Daniel Webster ; and Tennessee and Georgia, which voted 
for Hugh L. White. The vice-presidency, as there was no choice by 
the people, was thrown into the Senate, and that body elected the 
regular Democratic candidate, Richard M. Johnson. 

South Carolina, which had already begun to manifest indications of 
restiveness as a member of the Union, threw away her eleven votes on 
Willie P. Mangum, who was not a candidate, and, in the choice of 
Vice-President by the Senate, her Senators declined to vote at all. 

The question of slavery, although it had now become a subject of 
congressional debate, occupied no prominence in the canvass. Efforts 



1836.J THE POLITICAL FUTURE. 3JQ 

to introduce it there were made chiefly for the sake of gaining South- 
ern favor. Adverting to and disapproving one such effort (the intro- 
duction of a resolution denouncing the " abolitionists," at a Harrison 
meeting in Albany), Mr. Weed remarked in his Journal: 

This question of slavery, when it "becomes a matter of political controversy, 
will shake, if not unsettle, the foundations of our Government. It is too fearful, 
and too mighty, in all its bearings and consequences, to be recklessly mixed up 
in our partisan conflicts. 

It was with a like feeling of dread of the introduction of so disor- 
ganizing an element that the prudent and thoughtful throughout the 
North, however, warmly they disliked " the institution," yet refused to 
take part against it politically, until forced to do so by its own political 
action. 

Two items of commercial intelligence, of that day, may be worth 
recalling here, as illustrating the changes that come with time. One 
was the declai'ation of a dividend of seven hundred per cent, on the 
stock of the packet-boat line on the Erie Canal ; and the other the an- 
nouncement that forty thousand slaves were sold South from Virginia 
during the preceding year, yielding that State a profit of twenty-four 
million dollars ! 

Returning to Auburn, Seward wrote to Mr. Weed : 

Auburn, November 11th. 

I found here your letter, which crossed my path when I was on my way to 
Albany. It is full of forebodings of defeat in the presidential election, and of 
despair for the republic. Brighter prospects are now before us, and we are 
able to see that Van Buren's success takes place under such auspices as to afford 
encouragement to rally, once more, under a standard dear to us all, and so nearly 
victorious as to save not our honor only, but our strength. I, for one, am ready 
and willing to renew the contest, and I will never yield an inch of ground. I 
had an interview with Granger, whose equanimity I had great cause to admire. 
He wflll have possessed you of his views, and I think, rightly, will inspire you 
with new zeal for the " hero of Tippecanoe," as a candidate by continuation. 

But I am not willing to take counsel of either hopes or fears. I am sure 
that the duty of educated, honest, men is to espouse and adhere to the cause of 
the Constitution and public morals. I believe it is destined to infrequent, par- 
tial, and short-lived success for many years to come. But it is, nevertheless, a 
matter of duty to maintain it, and the self-approbation of maintaining it honor- 
ably I count of more worth than all the spoils of inglorious partisan warfare. 

After a few days spent at home, he returned to his " winter quar- 
ters." 

Westfield, December 4fli. 

From Monday morning till Saturday night I have been continually employed 
in transacting " land-office business." From eight in the morning till eight or 



320 LI FE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

nine in the evening, with hardly half an hour even for meals, I have talked of 
nothing but contracts, expired and unexpired. 

The day assigned as the last day of grace to the settlers, you know, is the 
1st of January. As that day "nears," the settlers rush in in crowds, and I have 
been nearly crushed with the welcome effort to pay and close contracts. 

Enough of u land-office business" for this day. 

Of domestic incidents I have nothing. At eight or nine o'clock I have calls 
from some of the neighbors. We discourse upon politics, money-market, rail- 
roads, and sometimes play a rubber of whist. 

I have unanswered letters from Weed, Granger, Rathbone, Willis Gaylord 
Clark, Silliman, and others. I shall endeavor to save some hours for them. 
Granger writes in real or affected good spirits, acknowledging our defeat. 
Weed writes as if his "heart was in the grave with Cassar," and he would ask 
me to "pause till it came back to him." Clark commends himself to your re- 
membrance, as do all my correspondents. 

I have snatched time since I came here, at intervals, to read "Rob Roy; " 
and how much I have regretted that you were not here, that I might conduct 
you with me, describing the localities as we pass, and accompanying Frank 
Osbaldistone on his lonely ride to the Sunday sojourn with Campbell, at the 
well-recollected inn in North Allerton ; and taking into our escort that hopeful 
waiting-man, Andrew Fairservice, make our visit to the pavement of tombs 
around the High Kirk, and penetrate the gloomy shades which indistinctly rise 
around me of the Laigh Kirk, where we would have our mysterious warning 
from the unseen Rob Roy. The Tolbooth where poor Owen lay in despair until 
relieved by the vain but benevolent, the whimsical but philanthropic Baillie 
Nicol Jarvie. I could not describe, of course, half so well as Scott does ; but it 
would be a pleasure to tell you how just the description is. And then the 
shores of Loch Lomond and the rock, and the dilapidated house, the scenes of 
the Amazonian Helen MacGregor, and the Fort Inversnaid. How the recollec- 
tions of these scenes are brought out fresh before me by the perusal of this 
work ! 

TYestfield, December llth. 

Not Robinson Crusoe in his solitary island, or any prisoner in his cell, ever 
counted the slow progress of time more faithfully than I do the weeks of my 
absence from Auburn. 

I have a dilemma on hand which will excite your mirth — T, that forswore 
my profession in the very moment of opening, or rather, ripening fame : Night 
before last two gentlemen from Fredonia came to ask me to undertake, as solici- 
tor and counsel, a chancery suit of great importance to them. Would you be- 
lieve it, I agreed to do so ? They went away with my promise to draw and send 
them a bill on Monday. What motive induced me to do so you can scarcely 
imagine, nor can I remember. I believe it was that, after so long relaxation, 
the labor which once disgusted me seemed light and pleasant. 

December lfflt. 

All this morning has been spent in counting over and over again the parcels 

of money which, for want of an opportunity to deposit, have accumulated until 

I iieir proper sum total is a point which my cashier is as unable to determine as 

I am myself. I have, however, abjured, for the residue of the day, the world, 

flesh, and the devil, so that I will not follow nor be led by them. 



1836.J CHRISTMAS EVE. 321 

Thursday I was prevented by the weather from going to Jamestown, but we 
managed, neverthless, to celebrate Thanksgiving-day. 

The Episcopal clergyman preached in the Presbyterian church, to the grati- 
fication of both congregations ; but neither the solemnity of the occasion, nor 
the eloquence of the preacher, was sufficient to hold the audience in check, 
when in the midst of his most sublime flight, as he was saying, " Our name is 
honored in every clime, and our eagle is soaring amid his native stars" (here 
down went Bible, cushions, and manuscript sermon, to the floor ; a bustle ensued, 
the orator waiting till they were gathered up and readjusted, when he completed 
the sentence), " unchecked in his flight and undaunted in his glory ! " 

At four o'clock, which, you must know, is my regular dinner-hour, Harriet 
served us a fine roasted turkey and a venison-steak. My party consisted of all 
the clerks in the office, together with the wife of one of them. 

Adverting to a mother's apprehensions in regard to her children, he 
remarked : 

When the mysterious ways of Providence are considered, it seems almost 
presumptuous to hope that all will be spared to us and we to them, during the 
period of their childhood and youth. But this reflection, while it ought, in the 
most effective manner, to excite our sense of responsibility, ought never to be 
indulged to such an extent as to produce morbid apprehension of undefinable 
evil. It is difficult, when we consider our own free agency, of which we are 
conscious, to understand how, out of all our action, results that greatest good 
which the Divine Wisdom purposed and approved ; but it is far easier to con- 
ceive and confide in the belief that, whatsoever happens to our children or our- 
selves, their happiness will be secure. 

December 21s£. ■ 
You might, with perfect safety, have expressed your wish that I would post- 
pone" reading the Waverley novels until you should come out. I have read 
"Anne of Geierstcin," " Kob Roy," and "The Pirate," and I assure you that 
all have interested me far less than they would if I could have enjoyed their 
perusal with you. There are a thousand things in them, as in Shakespeare, that 
one may enjoy more and much longer if one has somebody to converse with 
while dwelling upon them. Most of such beauties pass unnoticed in the hur- 
ried perusal which one gives when, from beginning to end, not a word is articu- 
lated. 

You would be interested to see what a busy manufacturing establishment T 
have made out of this humdrum, old-fashioned land-office. First, f myself am 
engaged in negotiating contracts with the settlers all day long. Then, two 
clerks are constantly occupied in casting up accounts; two in balancing and 
posting books; two in making diagrams and descriptions of laud t<> be inserted 
in deeds, bonds, and mortgages; and three are engaged in filling up the blank 
papers for signatures. One is on a furlough because of ill health. 

Saturday Night, December 24, 1 
Well, Saturday night — Christmas-eve — has come at last, and never did any 
one need an hour of recreation more than I. You can hare no conception of 
the throng of people I have had upon my hands all the week, and the pressure 
21 



322 LITE AND LETTERS. [1836. 

of business in the midst of it. My cashier, Mr. Bradley, has broken down, and 
George Humphreys will have to go away for his health. 

At five o'clock this afternoon I closed the office, and gathered myself into my 
own house. My guests were the Misses Grosvenor, Woolsey Hopkins, and George 
Humphreys, Mr. Plumb, my excellent friend, by whom I may send this letter, Mr. 
Huse, the Episcopal, and Mr. Gregory, the Presbyterian, clergymen. Our dinner 
went off well and pleasantly, and we adjourned from the table to the church, 
which had been decorated and illuminated with the ambitious display of rural 
congregations. The Presbyterian clergyman lent the sanction of his presence. 
The sermon seemed to please the throng that crowded in every aisle and nook. 
I was glad enough to find that, with festivity at home, and services at church, I 
could forget that I have a land-office to keep. I must not forget one beautiful 
idea in the sermon to-night: "If we justly celebrate the achievements of con- 
querors, and crown with wreaths the brows of those who have triumphed over 
our enemies, what honor is due to Him who conquered that enemy to whom Al- 
exander, Caisar, and Napoleon, submitted ! " 

Returning home, reflecting on the recurrence of the great Christian festival, 
my thoughts took the turn that I deemed a truly philosophical Christian might 
advantageously give his argument on such an occasion. 

Eighteen hundred years ago in a remote and obscure province, and among a 
despised people, a child was born in a stable, and cradled in a manger, who was 
the offspring of parents the meanest even of their despised race. That child 
, lived only to the middle age of men. He coveted no political power. He sought 
no alliance with the rich or the great. He avoided the only avenues ever suc- 
cessfully pursued by aspirants to fame. He was denied even the advantages of 
education enjoyed by the more favored of his countrymen. He was proscribed 
through life, and died the death of a convicted disturber of the social institutions 
of his native land. He neither fought, nor wrote, nor in any way distinguished 
himself except by preaching extemporary lessons of import so humbling to the 
pride of men, that he was set at naught by the people ; and by doing offices of 
humanity and kindness to those who were beneath the sympathy of that age, 
and whose memory is below the dignity of notice in the history of their country. 

Yet this individual, who died disgraced and forsaken by his countrymen, be- 
trayed by one of his twelve disciples, denied by the boldest, and forsaken by all 
others, left behind him, in the memory of a few obscure peasants, a code of 
morals and a system of religion so pure, so perfect, so original, that they have 
become the government of all that portion of the human race whose intelligence 
and cultivation combine all the moral and social improvement of the world. 

Out of the scattered truths which he left, and the truths, still less authentic, 
which those who communed with him professed to have derived from his im- 
mediate instruction, has been prepared a system of human society which has 
triumphed over all the arts and arms of all nations, and constitutes the only bond 
of society and standard of moral action and religious duty. "Was that individual 
of man or of God? Who can hesitate, that compares the overwhelming result 
of his simple teaching with all that has been accomplished for the human race 
by any one or all of the warriors, the statesmen, the philosophers of any nation, 
or nf all the nations of the whole earth? Who has ever explained this phenom- 
enon upon any other satisfactory ground than that he was sent of God? 



1837.] A YEAR OF MISFORTUNE. 323 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
1837. 

The Year of Financial Collapse. — Busy Times at the Land-Office. — Death of his Daughter. 
— A Conflagration. — The Ides of March. — Van Buren. — A Member of the Episcopal 
Church. — General Banking Law. — The Crash. — " Shhrplasters." — Louis Napoleon. 

The year 1837 opened with a busy scene at the land-office. Writ- 
ing to Mr. Weed, he said : 

Westfield, January 3, 1837. 

The 1st of January, which I had fixed as the last day of grace for the set- 
tlers, has passed. They came singly and in pairs, by twenties, fifties, and hun- 
dreds, on foot and on horseback, multitudes with money, and many without. 
Abating the few who mistook my good-nature for imbecility, and found their 
mistake before they left me, they came with fear, and went away with confi- 
dence and satisfaction. They left me prostrated by absolute physical exhaustion. 
But you would like to know the result. Know, then, that one-half of the Hol- 
land Company's estate is settled and arranged ; more than eighty thousand acres 
of land conveyed ; almost one-half the entire debt paid; and that tho 1st of 
January, 1838, if no calamity occurs, releases me from service ! 

I am heartily glad you went witli Granger to Philadelphia. It would have 
delighted me to be of the party. It is a lovely city, and one where life is not 
hurried on at the railroad velocity which you suffer in New York. New York 
is a good imitation of London in that particular. Philadelphia has all the free- 
dom from annoyance that constitutes half the pleasure of sojourning at Paris. 
I rejoice that Frank comes out of this, as he always has done out of ;ill 
unfortunate political elections, with increased reputation and honor. I would 
rather enjoy his place than that of the Magician. 

Can you send me the "Pickwick Club" and Davis's book? Make extracts 
from the former. It is rich. 

But in the midst of these active labors and bright anticipations came 
a sad summons. The infant daughter referred to in the preceding letters 
had been stricken with alarming disease, which the physicians pro- 
nounced to be the small-pox. Traveling at once night and day, ho 
reached Auburn only in time to see her expire. 

She died on the 14th of Januarj 7 . Poignancy was added to the 
grief by the subsequent discovery that the exposure to the fatal in- 
fection had been not only unnecessary, but the result of carelessness on 
the part of a physician. 

A letter to Mr. Weed ran as follows : 

Auburn, January 16, 1S37. 
What a day was that which we spent in vain endeavors to support, by stimu- 
lating food and medicine, the child, whose eyes had been four days sealed with 
blindness, that would probably have continued through the longest life we 
wished her to enjoy ! Marred, stained, and spoiled of every vestige of that 



324 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

beauty that graces infancy, I resigned her to the grave, with only the consolation 
that her spirit is fairer and purer now than ever saint or prophet presented at 
the judgment of God. 

We have not yet awakened to a consciousness of the danger that hangs over 
our whole house. "When I look upon the sorrowing mother, and the precious 
faces of my surviving children, our relatives and every servant of the family, 
and remember that my lost child was nursed and caressed with all the assiduity 
and constancy her sufferings required, while the very breath that proceeded 
from her was loaded with infection, I feel as if we are all encompassed with the 
shades of the valley of death. 

Shortly after the burial, Seward, feeling ill, had retired at night to 
his room, when suddenly the church-bells rang an alarm of fire. The 
ruddy light, streaming into the windows, gave warning, confirmed a 
few minutes later, that the fire was on Genesee Street, directly oppo- 
site his own buildings, the " Exchange Block." It was a bitter cold 
night ; a northeast storm was raging, and the flames spread rapidly. 
The imperfect fire apparatus of the village proved, inadequate to check 
the flames ; the water froze in the buckets and the hose before it could 
reach the conflagration. Building after building went down. In spite 
of all attempts to dissuade him, he started up and proceeded to the 
fire, and spent hours on the roof of the Exchange Block, directing the 
efforts of a hastily-gathered squad of assistants, with buckets of water 
and wet blankets, to extinguish the sparks as they fell. Though set on 
fire in a dozen different places, the block was saved, and the fire 
burned itself out, after destroying fourteen buildings. He came home 
with his clothes frozen stiff, and so exhausted as to be unable to take 
them off. A day later he was prostrated by the varioloid; and the son, 
who had accompanied him from Westfield, was soon after attacked with 
the same disease. 

A week afterward he wrote : 

Attbuen, January 29, 1837. 

I avail myself of the earliest recovered strength to say to you that Augustus 
and myself are both convalescent. 

When the alarm of fire called me up, for the first time in my life, when I 
was where my aid might be useful, I shrank from going to a fire ; but I feared 
that, if I had any form of that horrible disease upon me, my death would cer- 
tainly be the consequence of such exposure as the occasion called for on such a 
fearful night. The broad glare of flame that blazed almost in my face left me no 
hope that my property would be safe, and I rushed to the scene ; and such a 
scene to look upon, when it threatened to consume not merely my property, but 
my home ! I was imperfectly prepared for the exposure. From half -past eleven 
until three I worked in the thickest of the heat and melting snow, and sat down 
at last wearied and exhausted, but with the satisfactory reflection that, by my 
own exertion, the destruction of the Exchange Buildings and the further prog- 
ress of the conflagration were prevented. 



1837.] HIS DAUGHTER'S DEATH. 325 

Recovering after a lajDse of three weeks, he returned to his duties 
in Westfield. He wrote from there : 

Sunday, February \1th. 

We are again separated, my dear Frances ; I have returned to you the boy 
you lent me ; you now have both, all, in your keeping ; you have our living and 
our dead with you, and the home with which they are associated, and I am far 
away and all alone ; and yet you will be the mourner, for you are the stricken 
one, you are the woman, the mother. My feelings on leaving home are known 
to you ; I never was so reluctant to leave you ; I yet regret very much that I 
had not insisted on your coming with me, for I am afraid to leave you to mourn 
alone ; and yet I am without the means to console you. Indeed, I feel great 
need of consolation myself. The lightness that was in all my heart when I 
thought of you and your sanctuary, and those who surrounded you there, was 
the main constituent of my cheerfulness, for I was always thinking of you ; I am 
now always thinking of you, but I imagine you sitting alone, drooping, de- 
sponding, and unhappy ; and, when I think of you in this condition, I cannot 
resist the sorrow that swells within me. If I could be with you, to lure you 
away to more active pursuits, to varied study, or more cheerful thoughts, I 
might save you for yourself, for your children, for myself. I must commend 
you, as all must do who would console you, to the offices and to the consolations 
of that religion you so highly appreciate ; and it will be in my power to meet 
you, night and morn, before the Creator, in asking him to make us both sen- 
sible of the purpose of the affliction we have suffered. Let this, then, be under- 
stood between us ; and it will perhaps enable us to bear with a more fitting sub- 
mission the calamity which has befallen us. 

Westfield, Thursday. 

I found my clerks alarmed by rumors of threatened conspiracies ; and I 
verily believe, but for my return, their indiscretion, combined with the advan- 
tage my absence afforded to malcontents, would have brought about sonic effort 
at disorder. The pretext for the disturbance was, that the deeds which had 
been promised had not been procured. I had the people's money ; I was ab- 
sent, and of course I had absconded ! Think of such charity ! and this in a 
community among which were five newspapers, each of which, with the friends 
I have, and all my clerks, published the fact that the visitation of death in my 
family was the cause of my absence. Fortunately, I brought with me from Bata- 
via, not only my bodily presence, but eight hundred deeds, and the clamor 
ceased. But I lose no time in saying that there is not and cannot be any cause 
of apprehension of evil. All former disturbances arose from the unsettled 
condition of the business of the office. Three-fourths of the people have re- 
newed their contracts, the mass of the community are satisfied, and these little 
ebullitions of ill-will proceed from a very ignorant few, who have found all 
their own importance sink as good order and harmony are restored. 

Resuming his correspondence with Mr. Weed, he wrote : 

Westfield, February V2th. 
If there was a time when I more than at other times needed the sympathy 
and communion of your friendship, it was during my late season of alarm and 
affliction at Auburn. You have no idea how the wound I have suffered in my 



326 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

family has made me impatient to abridge this life of estrangement from them. 
How strange it is that I should be writing such thoughts, such feelings to you— 
you, immersed in cares, and agitated and excited continually by the rough con- 
tact with excited and ambitious men ! But I must talk about somebody and 
something else than myself. 

I hope you did not send Matt Davis's book (the " Life of Aaron Burr "), as 
I have, in that event, missed it altogether. I found one in the book-store at 
Auburn, and read it with all the interest I expected, when we conversed about 
it before it was published, and more than I expected after reading the reviews 
of the book in newspapers. Tell me, honestly, were the beautiful letters of his 
wife, as well as his own, the studied epistles of persons of high talents and 
education, each practising on the other ? or were they the ebullitions of a genu- 
ine, and devoted, and exclusive passion ? If the latter, how could such deprav- 
ity as his be associated with such a refined love '. 

I am anxious for the next volume. I think, by-the-way, that Davis has ex- 
hibited great tact in arresting his pen at the eve of the election in 1801. I must 
remark, passim, that there is an obscurity resting on the political career of Burr, 
as it is described in the book. It proceeds, doubtless, from the difficulty of fill- 
ing up, with dignity and action, the details. 

Westfield, February %2>d. 

I find the good people of Mayville quiet as usual. The citizens of James- 
town, not satisfied with their agitation concerning the banks, have been having 
some mob-scenes, growing out of the abolition question. Though the commu- 
nity, as a whole, is not rude, ignorant, and excitable, yet it contains very many 
of that class ; past success in demonstrations of that kind has emboldened 
them, and hence the spirit of insubordination appears to gain strength. I have, 
fortunately, so far settled affairs here as to have greatly diminished the danger 
from these mischief-loving individuals. 

February 27th. 

I have laid aside my volume of Tacitus, which is my sole companion these 
long winter evenings, and am ready to converse an hour with you. 

Application has been made to me, on behalf of the Eochester & Batavia 
Railroad Company, to go to Holland for them this spring. The continued press- 
ure for money in this country renders it probable that some one must go thither 
also to get our credit extended by the Holland Company on our Chautauqua 
purchase. 

The banks are already verging to a state of fearful danger, and I perceive 
not how they can escape the storm that threatens them. You are, at head- 
quarters, as well skilled in the science of political economy as any of us, and 
better acquainted with the signs of the times. 

There were many signs this winter of approach of financial distress. 
In February occurred a demonstration, evidently based on ideas im- 
ported from Europe, for there was nothing in the condition of either 
rich or poor in the United States that could be deemed an adequate 
cause for it ; this was a " flour-mob " in the city of New York. A 
meeting was held in the park, at which inflammatory appeals were ad- 
dressed to a gathering of five or six thousand men, the enhanced price 



1837.] GENERAL JACKSON'S RETIREMENT. 327 

of flour being chosen, probably because it was the best ad captandum 
argument, and not because flour was more exaggerated in price than 
other commodities, nor because there was any real scarcity of bread. 
Fired to fanatic enthusiasm, the crowd rushed down to Washington 
Street, broke into and pillaged the store of a dealer in flour and grain, 
breaking open barrels and throwing their contents out of the windows, 
until the street in front was covered a foot deep with flour. The mob 
then proceeded to a store on the east side of the city, to begin a simi- 
lar outrage, but by this time the police had mustered in sufficient force 
to arrest the ringleaders and disperse the others. 

The season of high prosperity and speculation prevailing in 1836 
had now culminated, and a reaction was setting in. The closing year 
of General Jackson's Administration had been signalized by his " Specie 
Circular," requiring payments for public lands to be made in specie 
instead of bank-notes ; and the banks, finding themselves called upon 
to meet a Western demand for specie, in consequence, were beginning 
to contract their loans and discounts. Still, no one as yet expected 
anything worse than a temporary stringency, and neither the outgoing 
Administration of General Jackson, nor the incoming one of Mr. Van 
Buren, nor their supporters in Congress, seemed inclined to deviate 
from the policy upon which they had entered, of discouraging and 
discrediting bank issues of " paper-money." The storm was gather- 
ing, but had not yet burst. General Jackson, in his last message, de- 
fended the " Specie Circular," and spoke of the " happy consequences" 
that were to ensue from it ; and, on the last day of the session, refused 
to sign a bill, passed by both Houses, allowing notes of specie-paying 
banks to be received. 

Colonel Benton achieved at last the success of his resolution for 
" expunging " from the Senate Journal its censure of General Jack- 
son, in 1834, for the removal of the deposits. Mr. Van Buren was in- 
augurated President on the 4th of March, and, as Chief-Justice Tane} 
administered the oath to him on the eastern portico of the Capitol, 
General Jackson was said to have exultingly exclaimed, " There is my 
rejected minister to England, sworn as President by my rejected Judge 
of the Supreme Court ! " 

The triumph was undeniably complete ; the Democratic party had 
control of all the branches of the Government, the executive, the 
legislative, and the judicial. General Jackson's policy had been ap- 
proved and his measures adopted throughout. He had overthrown the 
national bank; he had established the "hard-money" doctrine; he 
had suppressed the discussion of slavery ; and he had named his suc- 
cessor in the chair. He was now to have the glory, and his successor 
to reap the bitter fruits. 



328 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

Westfield, March 7, 1837. 

The long-dreaded Ides of March are here. The celebration of the triumph 
has passed by, and the victors are flushed with the anticipated division of tho 
spoils. Yet the surface of things is unchanged, and all looks as fair for the per- 
petuity of our free institutions as ever. Did it ever occur to you that there is 
the same error in our notions of national dissolution and decay that there is in 
our ideas of the working of death in tho physical frame ? "We know that the 
system is infected with a mortal disease; we anticipate a violent and sudden 
dissolution by convulsions ; and yet, the sufferer lingers and stays so long, the 
progress of decay is so often checked by the remaining energies of life, that we 
come at last to believe our former apprehensions groundless. And, when we 
have thus come at last to believe that all is well, suddenly and mysteriously the 
progress of the destroyer is fearfully accelerated, and death closes the scene. 
Such a consumptive death may be the fate of Liberty in this land, and not that 
violent end that more ardent patriots imagine. 

My brother Jennings came here on Thursday last, and made me a very grati- 
fying visit. I had been anticipating his arrival, for I had matured a plan equally 
advantageous, I think, for us both, which would release me from my present 
pursuit and restore his powers to their proper direction. I tendered him an 
equal participation in my advantages here if he would come on with his family 
and grow up in the business, so as not to produce alarm by any sudden change 
of administration. You know his superior capability. It has been a severe 
struggle with the enthusiasm of his nature; but he has assented at last, and will 
come in as mj chief assistant on the first of April. The estate is already sub- 
stantially settled. His great mercantile skill and industrious habits will enable 
him to carry it forward to its most profitable close. 

Westfifld, March 12, 1837. 

So General Jackson has left his specie order in force, and by retaining the 
bill passed by Congress has perpetuated the evils under which we have suffered. 
I predict that " the Magician " will speedily suspend the order. 

I have just read Van Buren's inaugural. I confess that it seems refreshing 
to find the documents proceeding from the Executive imbued once more with 
the sense of responsibility, and distinguished by something of the dignity that 
pertained to similar papers previous to the accession of the late incumbent. 
Van Buren has certainly a very happy talent in such papers, but I think this 
superior to all his manifestoes during the canvass. I see that he appreciates the 
danger to which his Administration is exposed. 

March 15th. 
The young men in the office begin to look with alarm at the prospect of a 
disbanding, which will become necessary in a few months. After a hard win- 
ter's work they see the business so nearly done that there must be a great dimi- 
nution of their number. One is very busily engaged in that chief of all pleas- 
ures — courtship. It must be an unusual case if it can last much longer without 
resolving itself into coffee and toast for two. 

Of a clergyman in one of the towns of Chautauqua County, whose 
accpuaintance he had made, he said : 



1837.1 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 329 

" He is a fast admirer of General Jackson, and, when we met at dinner about 
the 4th of March, I said, by way of closing a rather warm discussion on politics, 
" Well, you have put up your last public prayer for the old hero ! " 

"Yes," said he, "and I sincerely regret that I shall not hereafter be able to 
continue that duty." 

" Well, well," said I, " you will doubtless, like all other Jackson men, wor- 
ship the rising sun." 

" ISTo," said he, seriously ; " I have been thinking on that subject, and I have 
come to the conclusion that I shall henceforth omit the prayer for the President of 
the United States, for I don't like Mr. Van Buren. I do not wish him prosper- 
ity, and cannot pray for it." 

I remonstrated with him, setting forth all the arguments which naturally 
present themselves, but without success. He did omit the prayer, and his is 
probably the only Episcopal church in the country which does not every Sunday 
pray for a blessing upon " the President of the United States and all others 
in authority." 

Adverting to a lecturer who was expounding some extreme theories 
of abstinence and vegetarianism, in Auburn, Seward remarked : 

I hope he will leave common-sense enough among the people there to qualify 
them for getting the small portion of daily bread and water they will need, even 
upon his plan. What strange ideas people must have of the character of God ! 
Some of them see, in the faculties with which he has endowed us, but the senti- 
nels of alarm and terror. Others see, in our tastes and appetites, only the 
traitors of our souls and bodies ! 

Toward the close of March he wrote to Mrs. Seward : 

Sunday, March 26th. 
The beautiful little poem of which you speak strikingly illustrates the benefi- 
cence of the Creator. I have somewhere read that he who contributes to extend 
among our race the knowledge of the attributes of God accomplishes greater good 
than he who achieves the most perilous enterprise. To diffuse a knowledge of 
the works of God is the task of philosophy ; to learn from the knowledge thus 
diffused the true character of the Deity, is its chief value. 

It was during this month that he united with the Episcopal Church 
at Westfield as one of its members. He said : 

I received this morning, not without fear, but I trust in sincerity of heart, 
the sacraments of baptism and the communion. I was alone at the font. Yet 
I felt that it was a duty that my conscience enjoined, my judgment and my heart 
approved, and it had been too long postponed. I thought continually of you 
and my boys, and our child-angel " that left her errand with my heart and straight 
returned to heaven." 

The news from Albany that a proposed general banking law was in 
danger of defeat aroused much popular feeling. Public meetings urged 
its passage. One was held in Chautauqua County, and Seward, as 



330 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

chairman of the committee, drew up the memorial to be presented to 
the Legislature. It recited the financial and commercial condition of 
the country as viewed from the popular standpoint, closing thus : 

Your petitioners have deemed it their right as citizens, and their duty as a 
portion of your constituency, to present to you the true condition of the coun- 
try, and the existing state of public opinion. They abstain from all discussion 
of the details of the several bills under consideration in the Legislature. It is 
not in the primary assemblies of the people that such details ought to be matured. 
They will only say that the passage of even the most imperfect of those bills 
would be better than the denial of all relief. 

The proposed general banking law was referred to the Attorney- 
General, Samuel Beardsley, who declared it to be unconstitutional, and 
that, if passed, such a statute would be absolutely null and void. His 
party sustained this view. A second bill, framed to meet his objec- 
tions, was defeated in the Senate. So the projected measure of relief 
failed, and the financial crisis hastened to its culmination. 

Westfield, April 3, 1837. 
On the other page is the memorial I drew for our meeting here. I deem 
myself fortunate in being out of the contagious atmosphere of Albany when the 
dark scene, I in other times foresaw, is drawing over the land. Even here, 
among business-men, there is evidently a growing alarm. We are doubtless to 
suffer now the consequences of blindly following blind leaders. My heart fails 
me not, but I mourn that the good and the wise are involved in the punishment. 

April lOth. 

You are a sad fellow, Uncle "Weed. It is doubtful whether I have rendered 
you any kindness in recommending the history of the Pickwickians to your 
perusal. The lives of those illustrious personages are to be improved to our 
advantage by reading them, not imitating them. I should delight to know, 
however, how you have cast the dramatis pcrsonw in your club. I suppose that 
Livingston, in virtue of his accomplishments as a presiding officer in by-gone 
days, is P. P. P. W. C. Cutting, if not more guarded in debate in the club than 
the House, must frequently be compelled to apologize for violation of Pick- 
wickian etiquette. 

The tide of popular opinion is growing fearfully stormy, and it finds no 
longer the popularity of " the revered chief" to resist its force. 

The country is yet to feel the pressure that seems to be passing over New 
York. The first payments for farms in this universal barter are generally in 
arrear : then comes the pinch. 

Meanwhile, the commercial panic had begun. It is never easy to 
trace all the causes of a period of financial disorder, since each of its 
effects becomes in turn a cause of fresh disasters. And so the finan- 
cial storm which swept over the country in 1837, bringing in its train 
ruin, bankruptcy, and beggary, has been ascribed, by its historians, to 



1837.] THE CRASH. 33| 

as many and various causes as there were shades of political opinion 
or mercantile experience. Now that it is all so long past that the 
observer can look back upon it with impartiality, it seems to have been 
not only a natural but an inevitable consequence of the wild period 
of speculative expansion which preceded it. Both the one period and 
the other owed their existence, in a large degree, to governmental 
action, State and national, undertaken from patriotic motives, but with 
blindness to future results. The national and State governments had 
determined that there should be no United States Bank, with vaults 
containing the national treasure, but that there should be a multitude 
of local banks, among whom that treasure would be distributed. Of 
course, it was made by them the basis of vastly-expanded issues and 
credits. Then, having thus built up these banks in the commercial 
centres, the Government proceeded to undermine them by proclaiming 
doubts of their solvency, throwing discredit on their "paper-money," 
and requiring specie to be withdrawn from them to be used on the 
Western frontier. Financial credit is so frail and sensitive a structure 
that it trembles at the Avhispers of unfounded rumor. How could it 
fail to come down with a crash at the blast of official trumpets ? 

Money, during the winter, had commanded exorbitant and increas- 
ing rates of interest, amounting to three and four per cent, a month. 
Early in the spring, firms in the cotton and sugar line in New Orleans 
suspended. Immediately similar failures occurred in New York. In 
April two hundred and fifty of the leading houses had stopped pay- 
ment. By the close of that month there was a run upon the banks. 
On the 3d of May a New York meeting implored the President to 
rescind the " Specie Circular," and to call an extra session of Congress, 
giving as reasons that real estate in the city, within the past six 
months, had depreciated more than forty million dollars; that stocks 
had depreciated as much more; that twenty thousand men, depending 
upon daily labor, had been turned out of employment; "and that a 
complete blight has fallen upon the communhvv, heretofore so active, 
enterprising, and prosperous." 

A week later all the banks in the city suspended specie paymenl 
by common consent, and those in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. 
as well as those of all inland towns, as fast as news reached them, fol- 
lowed the example. 

The Federal Government itself was unable to pay a dollar, for 
during the past two years it had been proclaiming and enacting laws 
that it would receive and pay only in specie, and its specie, like that 
of individual depositors, was in the vaults of the suspended banks. 

Writing from Philadelphia, Seward said : 

No adequate conception can be formed of the pressure in New York, ft is 
sweeping like a pestilence, and poverty and suffering 1 follow in its train. It i-^ 



332 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

a season of perfect prostration of confidence, and everybody is oppressed 
with care. One after another all my " rich " associates fall into despondency, 
and some of them, I fear, into real trouble. 

I arrived in New York on Monday morning, spent a melancboly day amid 
the gloomy scenes of tbat ill-fated city, and tben came here. My friends in the 
Chautauqua purchase are now all here. Sad as the times are, our business will 
be carried through the pressure without shipwreck, and I feel cheerful in this 
result. 

I have fallen in with Governor Morehead, of Kentucky. I met him first in 
New York. He is a manly, generous young fellow, about seven feet high. It 
is probable he will accompany me to Auburn on my return, if I do return this 
summer. 

Among the newspaper announcements of the spring was this : 

The French frigate Andromede, with Louis N. Bonaparte, has arrived at 
Norfolk. The prince is banished to America for an attempt to excite a revolu- 
tion in France. 

An exiled prince, however, was not so uncommon an affair as to 
excite great public attention, especially in a time of public calamity. 
Visiting one day at Chancellor Kent's, Seward met there " Mr. Bona- 
parte," as he was called in New York. Probably it would have sur- 
prised both the young men had they been told that they were des- 
tined in future, not only to direct the international relations of their 
respective countries, but to come into collision in so doing, and to 
have the joint responsibility, more than once, of casting the die of 
peace or war in the Old World and the New. 

On reaching home after this expedition Seward found Auburn suffer- 
ing, as all the larger communities were, under the effects of the commer- 
cial panic — merchants and manufacturers embarrassed, workmen thrown 
out of emplpyment, business stopped, and all the attractive projects 
of the past year — railroads, canals, factories, avenues, and parks — 
brought to a dead stand. Real estate, when it now changed hands, 
was sacrificed at one-sixth its former value to satisfy creditors. 

The Legislature, just at the close of its session, had sanctioned the 
suspension of specie payments by the banks for one year, thus enabling 
them to avoid going into liquidation ; but it had failed to repeal the 
law prohibiting the circulation of bank-bills under five dollars. Unable 
to get specie, and denied the use of paper-money, the people of the 
State found themselves unable to buy or sell even their daily food, to 
pay wages, or to carry on the most common transactions of civilized 
iife. There was no help to be hoped for from government, State or 
national, for the Legislature had refused it, and adjourned ; the Presi- 
dent had called an extra session of Congress, but it was not to meet until 
September. In self-defense, individuals and corporations betook them- 



1837.] " SHINPLASTERS." 333 

selves to currency of their own making. It was an era of " shinplas- 
ters." Village trustees, merchants, manufacturers, hotel-keepers, and 
indeed any one whose name and credit would enable him to put them 
in circulation, issued printed promises to pay, which passed from hand to 
hand as money in the localities where the names they bore were known. 
They were of varied form and size. But the two or three subjoined 
will illustrate their character : 



TONTINE 


COFFEE- 


HOUSE. 






good FOR 






25 CENTS 




In 


Refreshments. 


. 






Caldwell & Kenyon. 



ASTOR HOUSE. 
Twenty-five Cents. 



/ promise on demand to pay the hearer 

FOUR SHILLINGS. 

Alex. Welsh. 



Good for One Dollar. 

F. Blanchaed. 



Writing the next week to Mr. Weed, he said : 

Aubuen, June 20, 1837. 

This month of June 13 so delightful ; our trees, our vines, and our shrubs, are 
all so green and grateful to the eye ; the locust-flowers produce almost a satiety 
of fragrance, and the mellowed light that makes its way through the foliage 
seems to hallow the dwelling for repose. All this is perhaps much misplaced 
composure when the community suffers around us, but I hope you will find, in 
my long and vexed absence from home, some kind of excuse for an To pcean on 
my return to my plain and unpretending domicile. 

Auburn, sooth to say, is beautiful; now, in this hour of her trial, mere rich 
and more beautiful than ever. As yet there have been no failures, but I hear 
of troubles and embarrassments around us that, if not relieved, must produce all 
that wretchedness which in other times we predicted. And how can there be 
relief, and when ? The gloom still hangs over the country, heavier and blacker 
than ever ! 

And what, you would ask, do I think of political feeling as it develops itself 



334 LIFE AND LETTERS. . [1837. 

in the country. I see now nothing but a subdued and dejected people. Every 
day brings home to these the bitter instructions of a necessity before unknown 
and unlooked for. However partisan newspapers may deceive their readers, it 
is certain that the mass of the people do most justly feel that the calamities 
which have fallen upon the country have resulted from the erroneous policy 
of the Government. The mass of the Jackson party feel that their own willful 
action has accomplished our ruin, and, instead of holding "the hero" to the 
responsibility he assumed, they mourn their own infatuation. I believe, not- 
withstanding, that an election taken now would reverse all the majorities ob- 
tained over us last year. 

An unfortunate expression in the columns of the Administration 
organ at Washington, the Globe, was, " There is no pressure which 
any honest man should regret." This declaration added bitterness to 
the popular feeling, and was promptly caught up and used in political 
arguments. 

The financial policy of the Administration had been cautiously de- 
scribed as an " experimental " one, to imply that it would be changed 
in case it should be found to work injuriously to public interests ; 
but unfortunately the projects seemed to fail one after another, until 
the public clamored for a cessation of experiments. In fact, confi- 
dence in the wisdom and financial skill of the Jackson party had now 
received a rude shock. The supporters of that policy found themselves 
put upon their defense at public meetings and in the press. Less 
from any new-born faith in the doctrines of the Whig party than from 
daily-growing distrust of those of the Administration, voters fell away 
and transferred their allegiance. At the charter elections in Albany 
and New York the Whigs had achieved successes unexpected even by 
themselves. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

1837. 



Chautauqua in Summer.— Discourse on Education.— "Washington in the Extra Session.— 
First Meeting with Clay and Webster.— Calhoun's Speech.— New York & Erie Kail- 
road Convention.— Samuel B. Euggles.— A Political Revolution.— Whig Exultations.— 
Weed and the Clerkship.— The Canadian " Patriot War."— The Jeffersonian.— Letters 
to Children. 

In all enterprises of amusement or travel Seward liked to be 
accompanied by those who could share his pleasure. He not only 
enjoyed his family circle, but liked to have it a large one. Fond of 
traveling, his chief regret in making his journeys was, that he so often 
made them alone ; and whenever it was practicable he loved to trans- 
port with him the surroundings of home. When, therefore, this sum- 



1837.] A FAMILY JOURNEY. 335 

mer it had become necessary to return to Westfield, he proposed and 
organized a family excursion thither. Starting from Auburn on a 
bright June morning, in a stage-coach of Sherwood's well-known line. 
designated, according to the usage of the time, as an " exclusive 
extra," they followed the western turnpike across the Cayuga Bridge. 
His letters to Mr. Weed described the trip : 

Westfield, July 3, 1837. 

It has heen a chasm in time since I parted with you at Utica. Your perverse 
nature has led you to take shelter behind a supposed uncertainty as to my 
whereabouts, and so deprive me of a single line under your hand. But the 
plea shall avail you no longer. Know, therefore, thou offender, that I have 
safely escaped the perils by flood and field, and am once more in my proper baili- 
wick of Chautauqua, where I shall stay at least long enough to need the support 
of jour letters, and yet so short a period that I shall speedily call you to account 
in person if you neglect my reasonable requirements. Monday morning, just 
one week ago, we set out in an extra exclusive, and arrived the same day at 
Canandaigua. There we found Mrs. Worden, brought her and her daughter 
with us through Avon, Batavia, and Lockport, to Buffalo, and then through the 
" Cattaraugus Woods," where the roads are noted as being the worst in the 
country, and are rendered almost impassable by mud even in midsummer. 

At Fredonia we went to look at Mr. Hart's garden, situate in a narrow street. 
My father and mother remained in the coach, while all the others went into the 
garden. The driver, in attempting to turn, overturned the stage. My mother's 
arm was dislocated at the wrist. My father was considerably bruised, but he 
has altogether recovered. My mother's wound has been attended to with all 
care and skill, and seems to be doing well. We are all here, housed in my domi- 
cile, or rather that which late was mine, but now is my brother's. A delightful 
place it is too, as we all hope to have an opportunity, before the resumption 
of specie payments, or the winter's solstice, to satisfy you. 

Our parents, notwithstanding my mother's misfortune, enjoy greatly the 
society of so many of their children and their own increasing health. Mrs. 
Worden finds comfort and convalescence in the Chautauqua air. The children 
are right glad to have green plots and groves for their intervals of school-hours, 
and I am once more altogether free from care. How long we all stay here 
we cannot tell, for I bar the question among ourselves until I get amends for 
my long pilgrimage at the East. 

John C. Spencer and Mark Sibley called upon us at Canandaigua, and my 
entire evening was spent with them. 

I had but a hurried interview with Fillmore. Mr. and Mrs. Cary went with 
us to Buffalo, and our party was so large and unwieldy that I could not retard 
or direct its movements, except straightforward. 

Everything here looks well and improved, as I knew it would be under my 
brother's administration. The pressure seems scarcely to have reached this sec- 
tion of the country. There is great relief in getting away from the associations 
that so utterly break up all cheerfulness at the East. 

Some weeks were passed in the "Mansion House" at Westfield. 
Labors at the land-office continued, but did not prevent him from 



336 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

taking the whole party to see the various points of interest. Visits 
were made to the lake-shore, to Fredonia, and the wonderful gas- 
spring (an avant coureur of the yet undiscovered petroleum-wells), to 
Dunkirk, whose capacious harbor was fondly deemed a destined entre- 
pot of great future commerce, to Mayville, with its county magnates 
and buildings, then down the beautiful Chautauqua Lake in a little 
steamboat just large enough to wind through the thicket and forest 
lined outlet to Jamestown, whose commercial relations were with the 
valley of the Ohio. 

Westfield, July 10, 1837. 
Well, I am here for once, enjoying the reality of dreams. " Othello's occu- 
pation," although not absolutely "gone," is still so relieved that I find time 
abundant for all things. I assiduously perform such labor as I have before me. 
I read much, I ride some, and stroll more along the lake-shore. My wife and 
children are enjoying a measure of health which enables them to participate in 
these pleasures, and, despite the thought of returning notes of hand, protests, 
and panics, I am at ease. Now, then, if you were here, and brought no "re- 
ports of outrage and oppression with which earth is filled," we would enjoy 
pleasures that would have seduced Cicero and his philosophic friends from Tus- 
culum. 

July 12th. 

I am glad you had a patriotic Fourth of July. I love that kind of celebra- 
tions. I spent mine, however, quite pleasantly here, in the large family circle 
that are "round about me." I went to church to hear the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence read by a Presbyterian clergyman, and an intemperate temperance 
address by a reclaimed drunkard. My brother, " Mr. Seward of Westfield," went 
to Fredonia, and delivered a Sunday-school address to the Sunday-school, where- 
by I see he stirred up the old leaders of Tom Paineism. 

I have read with much delight Stephens's " Incidents of Travel." 
Dudley Marvin, Fillmore, and others, are at Mayville, attending the Circuit 
Court. I had a good long talk with Fillmore, and have had some opportunity 
with Gardiner. I spent an hour or two at court. By-the-way, James Mullet, 
here, is a noble fellow, both in the qualities of head and heart. 

"Westfield, July 17, 1837. 

It seems that the speed of our mails is in the inverse ratio of the improve- 
ment of our roads. Yours of the 8th has just come, and meets me on my return 
from Jamestown and Warren, in Pennsylvania. I have been agreeably disap- 
pointed in the condition and aspect of that part of this county, which I have 
now traversed for the first time. 

You have had a succession of enjoyments — Granger, Kent, and Marryat. I 
think Granger can afford one year of absence from public life, and doubt not 
that it will be fortunate if his friends excuse him. I envy you so much of Kent's 
society as you seem to enjoy, and I am glad that you had an opportunity to make 
Captam Marryat's acquaintance. I always covet the opportunity to compare 
the real man with my estimate or standard derived from his writings. 

Fillmore was here the day after he had met Webster at Buffalo. He says 
that Webster was very much dejected on arriving at Buffalo. He began to feel 



1837.] DISCOURSE ON "EDUCATION." 33/J 

the coldness with which the premature demonstration made in New York had 
heen received in all the West. The committee expressly avoided the subject in 
their address to him. Nevertheless, the magnificent and imposing ceremonies 
of his reception at Buffalo inspired him with higher hopes and better feelings. 

I shall certainly go this fall to Washington. Are you going to be ready to 
bear me company ? 

"Westfield, July 27, 1837. 

Last Tuesday the principal of our academy, being about to have an examina- 
tion and exhibition of his school, called with the trustees and requested me to 
address the people. I undertook to deliver a discourse last evening on educa- 
tion. I set myself busily about my preparations, and had got into my second 
copy on Friday, when Messrs. Rathbone and Patchin arrived. On Monday I 
set out with Rathbone to traverse the county, and returned yesterday morning. 
I made out to get a tolerably readable manuscript, and read it last night to the 
whole people of Westfield, very much, if I may rely upon their expressions of 
that sort, to their satisfaction, and much more to their satisfaction than my own. 
This long story about a village-school exhibition will explain why you have not 
been visited with the infliction of a letter earlier this week. To finish that mat- 
ter, I have two applications for a copy to print, both, of course, made by per- 
sons who, as usual, do not know that such an affair appears better when deliv- 
ered than when it comes addressed (by the devil's art which you practise) to 
the eye. I have the matter under consideration. 

This occasion drew to the academy not only parents and relatives, 
but many distant inhabitants of that sequestered region, to whom pub- 
lic gatherings were pleasures highly valued, because of their rarity. 
The throng on that clay gave unwonted life and activity to the little 
village. 

The notable characteristic of his discourse was that, in dealing with 
the subject of education, he stepped out of the beaten track of de- 
scribing its individual advantages, social benefits, or scientific progress; 
and perhaps instinctively or unconsciously treated it from the stand- 
point of the statesman, studying its influence upon the welfare of the 
State and the perpetuity of the Government. 

Taking his theme from the volume he had lately been reading, he 
quoted the remark of Tacitus in regard to his own countrymen. " The 
people," says that historian, " always politicians, and fond of settling 
state affairs, gave a loose rein to their usual freedom of speech. Few 
were able to think with judgment, and few had the virtue to feel for 
the public good." Proceeding then to inquire how far the same 
remark would be true in the United States, Seward described the 
effects of our too hasty and careless training of the citizens called to 
deal with public affairs : 

Our children and youth are generally dismissed from the schools, after some 
years of misimproved time, at the very period when their education has only 
been fairly commenced. Popular works upon morals and government, adapted 



338 LIFE M(D LETTERS. [1837. 

to the use of schools, have scarcely a circulation in the country. If there he any 
truth in the language of all parties, or that of all calm observers, falsehood and 
error often pass current for truth and wisdom; passion, prejudice, and local 
interests are often appealed to — and not always without success — instead of 
generous and enlightened motives. And our elections are too often rather 
embittered personal conflicts for place and rewards than the deliberate discus- 
sion of great measures, or the discerning choice of honest, enlightened, and com- 
petent men. 

Then, turning to the subject (which at that time had hardly begun 
to receive the popular attention since bestowed upon it) of female edu- 
cation, he said : 

There remains to be noticed an error, scarcely less extensive or less per- 
nicious than any I have mentioned. It is that which limits to a comparatively 
lower standard the education of the female six. . . . He is a dull observer who is 
not convinced that they are equally qualified with the other sex for the study of 
the magnificent creation around us, and equally entitled to the happiness to be de- 
rived from its pursuit; and still more blind is he who has not learned that it was 
the intention of the Creator to commit to them a higher and greater portion of 
responsibility in the education of the youth of both sexes. They are the natural 
guardians of the young. . . . 

It is not, as is generally supposed, the female sex alone who suffer by this 
exclusion from their proper sphere. Whatever is lost to the other sex, of the 
advantages of their nurture and cultivation, is an additional loss to our common 
race. 

Called in September to Philadelphia and Baltimore, by some busi- 
ness affairs, he availed himself of the opportunity to spend a few days 
at the Federal Capital. Congress was now holding the extra session, 
convened by President Van Buren, to take measures with reference to 
the financial crisis. 

"Washington, September 11th. 
I lodge at Gadsby's. Sibley and Ogden Hoffman [both M. O.'s from New 
York] live here, and I take my meals in their parlor. I have made some inter- 
esting acquaintances, especially that of Mr. Clay, Mr. Calhoun, and Mr. Preston. ' 
The House has not been in session since my arrival. A discussion of some in- 
terest, however, is expected to-morrow in the Senate, in which Mr. Calhoun will 
take the lead. I am pleased with the appearance and manners of Mr. Clay more 
than I had anticipated, although I was prepared for most favorable impressions. 

September \§th. 
Congress seems one wide scene of hurry, confusion, and uselessness. I heard 
Mr. Calhoun on Monday make his long- threatened speech, and was grieved to 
see one more of the great names I have venerated as superior in worth and mag- 
nanimity destroy all those hopes that years had gathered around him. When 
shall I close the long experience of disappointed expectations concerning the 
great men of my time ? Perhaps, only, when I fall into the common error of 
old age, the suspicion of my race. 




/?£ / ? // 7 f'</ S^ c 



1837.] CLAY, WEBSTER,' AND CALHOUN. 339 

Philadelphia, September 20, 1 

I am once more returned to the city of right-angled streets, coats, and jack- 
ets. I had a delightful visit at Washington. It was dashed only hy the sorry 
spectacle of a great man sacrificing to a restless ambition the accumulated hon- 
ors of years of patriotic and lofty action in his country's service. But who 
could expect well-regulated and consistent action in the apostle of Nullification? 
His speech, all of which I heard, served to let him down at once from the proud 
and enviable distinction of the compatriot of Clay and Webster. 

After this experience, I scarcely dare to say that both those great men won 
upon my esteem and admiration, more than I had supposed was possible, after 
so much disappointment in men to whom I have yielded the enthusiastic devo- 
tion of younger days. But I will confess that I was impressed with the plain, 
direct, and confiding manner of Mr. Webster, not less than the dignified yet 
ardent and fascinating discourse of Henry Clay. My whole heart was open to 
both of them, as men with whom I delight to labor for the good of my country. 
I forgot that they were rivals, and, when the recollection occurred to me, it did 
not abate my veneration for them, because I remembered that their ambition 
was generous. 

It is impossible to ascertain just now what will be the extent of evil result- 
ing from Calhoun's defection. I saw many gentlemen from the South, all of 
whom said he would carry only two members of Congress with him, Mr. Pickens 
and another from South Carolina. Mr. Preston is open and decided against 
him. But you have seen the Richmond Whig? How strange that, when the 
Enquirer pauses in support of Van Buren, the Whig should go to Ids rescue ! 

The Conservatives at Washington, from New York, have lost the power to 
organize by waiting for an increase of their number. I told them I thought 
their case like that of the poor woman in the story. At a landing on the Missis- 
sippi, a steamboat was just pushing off, when a little old Frenchwoman with a 
basket ran down to the wharf and hailed the captain, " Monsieur lo capitaine, 
arretez-vous one petite minute." "What do you want, good woman? " said the 
captain, as he backed the wheel and neared the quay. " I have got 'leven egg," 
said she, " and ma poulette is making another ; if you will wait a minute or two, 
I will have une douzaine pour le market ! " 

I saw Fillmore, and had good reason to believe he will come out the leading 
member of our delegation. Mark Sibley is preparing to make a demonstration. 
He will succeed, if he do not fall into the error that has been unfortunate for 
Wise. Hoffman is a noble, generous fellow. I just saw Childs, and that was 
all. I dined with Clay on Monday, and received an invitation for the same 
day from Mr. Webster. I left Washington at five o'clock on Monday, under the 
excellent management of our old friend, " the Spy in Washington," whom I 
came to like.more than ever. 

I took the railroad-car from, Washington to Baltimore, and arrived at that 
place at eight o'clock. A hackney-coach carried me to my friend Dr. McCaulay'a 
country-seat the same evening. It is a delightful spot, two miles and a half out 
of the city, on an eminence attained by a winding road, and embowered with 
shade-trees and shrubbery. Mrs. McCaulay had, waiting for me, a bro 
pheasant and hot coffee. We passed the hours, unconscious of the night, until 
one. At five in the morning I rose, and after a nice breakfast rode to Baltimore, 
where I took the railroad, and as you see by my date I am here once more. 



340 LIFE AN " D LETTERS. [1837. 

You recollect how long and full of various incidents was our ride from Bal- 
timore to Philadelphia two years ago ? Think now of accomplishing the same 
journey in seven hours ! This morning I resumed my negotiation with the much- 
abused monstrum horrendum of the Jackson party, Mr. Nicholas Biddle. It 
seems to be going on to a successful arrangement. I presume it will be brought 
tb a close to-morrow. 

And now came on the election. Congress, when convened in extra 
session by Mr. Van Buren, had been urged by him in his message to 
adopt some measure to render the operations of the Treasury indepen- 
dent of banks, either State or national ; each having, as he said, been 
tried, and each having proved a failure. But the members of Congress, 
like the constituencies they represented, had begun to distrust finan- 
cial advice which counseled such frequent and radical changes, attended 
with such violent fluctuations. The more they debated, the more they 
became divided in opinion, and the Administration was no longer able 
to command the support of a majority in both Houses. 

The Whigs denounced the message as a fresh attack upon the 
banks and the credit system. The session closed on the 16th of Octo- 
ber without agreement upon any financial measure, except the issue of 
ten million dollars of Treasury notes. Inspired by these signs of the 
waning strength of the Jackson party, the Whigs in the various States 
made their nominations, and entered upon the campaign with fresh 
hopes. 

The Cayuga County Whig Convention was in session at Auburn. 
Learning that Seward was again at home, Colonel E. B. Morgan moved 
a committee to wait upon him and invite him to take a seat in the 
convention. Accepting the invitation, he was warmly received and 
solicited to address them. His speech summed up the issues of the 
canvass, and contained a description of the condition of the country : 

The change has come. We no longer warn the people against impending 
evils and apprehended danger. The evils are here. . . . Our agriculture, rich 
in its productions beyond all preceding experience, languishes and is crippled. 
The commerce of our great cities has been struck down. Our manufactories 
are paralyzed. Our works of internal improvement, of paramount importance, 
are suspended. Our gold and silver, no longer performing their function as the 
support of our currency, are drained from us ; and the enterprising business-men 
of the country are falling under the exactions of the broker and the usurer. The 
Government, but recently disposing of untold revenue, is pledging its credit by 
issues of "continental money " to pay the salaries of its officers, and carry on a 
war, alike inglorious in success or defeat, against a miserable handful of Indians 
in the swamps of Florida. . . . 

The remedy must be effected by representatives to be elected by the people. 
On one side, we will offer to the people men who have had no participation in 
the causes of these evils — men always careful to preserve rather than to destroy. 
On the other side, we see presented a divided party — divided between leaders of 



1837.] A RAILROAD CONVENTION. 34] 

two classes — one class of whom allege that the cure of these evils is to be found 
in renewed " experiments," and another class who falter and shrink from further 
prosecution of such rash and dangerous measures. 

He wrote to Weed : 

Auburn, October 9, 1837. 

The county convention assembled on Saturday, and the delegates were all 
willing, most of them pressed, that I should take a nomination for the Assem- 
bly. I firmly declined, for reasons which I think you will understand and ap- 
prove. The convention invited me to a seat, with which courtesy I complied, 
and at their instance T addressed them. In my remarks \ spoke of myself as 1 
thought was expected. Its local effect will he good ; but I have had to reduce 
it to get within the compass of the Auburn Journal. So it will not be worth 
copying. 

I believe I shall go next week to the New York & Erie Railroad Convention. 

Auburn, October 13, 1837. 

Reasons "thick as blackberries" remain for postponing my going to Chau- 
tauqua. I hope Ruggles will come this way. Although I have been three days 
engaged in preparing an address for the New York & Erie Railroad Conven- 
tion, I feel that I need the stimulus his arrival would give, to carry me there. 
He must not decline the nomination for the Assembly. 

I have been again sorely tempted. Our friends here are awake to the im- 
portance of carrying the Senate district and the county. They have required 
me to consent that Maynard shall resign, and the convention be reassembled 
and nominate me. They have good reason to believe Maynard will gladly re- 
sign, as the nomination was forced upon him. But I have resisted the devil 
and driven him from me. I fear always such changing of front. I have good 
hope for our ticket. It is not quite so weak as the other. 

I shall be at Elmira on Tuesday and Wednesday, and return here. Judge 
Miller goes with me. I repeat my aspiration that Ruggles will come. 

This letter refers to an effort to revive a great enterprise which had 
been temporarily abandoned. The New York & Erie Railroad Com- 
pany, which was incorporated in 1832, had its route surveyed, under 
direction of the Legislature, in 1834, with satisfactory results. Its 
stock was then largely subscribed for, and the Legislature in 1836 au- 
thorized a State loan of three million dollars in aid of it. The work 
had been commenced, near the eastern end of the line. But the great 
fire in New York, and the commercial revulsion which followed so soon 
after, had embarrassed and ruined many of those who had subscribed 
to it. Corporate and individual credit were alike prostrated ; and a 
failure of its resources compelled the railroad company to desist i 10111 
its operation. But now, in the fall of 1837, as there began to be signs 
of gradual revival of confidence, it was deemed a favorable moment to 
renew labors in behalf of the enterprise. A convention was called to 
meet at Elmira on the 17th of October for that purpose, and Seward 
was solicited to take part in it, and prepare its address to the public. 



342 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1887. 

Among those interested in the project, none had such undoubting 
faith in its success, or such ability to demonstrate it by facts and figures, 
as Samuel B. Ruggles, of New York. The kindred views entertained by 
him and by Seward laid the foundation of an intimacy for many succeed- 
ing years, closing only with Seward's life. Whenever questions of in- 
ternal improvement, commerce, and finance, were under discussion, 
Seward felt that he had one supporter upon whose statistical skill and 
careful judgment he could rely ; and his " lieutenant," as he styled him- 
self in that cause, was as ready and eager to plunge into the requisite 
mathematical studies as most other men are to keep out of them. 

Auburn, October 20, 1837. 

I left home in a blaze for Tioga. Kuggles and his wife reached here 
Saturday night. They met here Cary, Lay, and Schermerhorn. I went to bed 
after talking with them until two o'clock. Sunday morning my chimney took 
fire, while I was shaving. I had this affair, and Erie, and Chautauqua, all on my 
hands at once. 

But for my going, the convention would have been a sad failure. I stirred 
out Charles Humphreys as I went through Ithaca. He served as president. It 
was three-fourths "Regency," and John Mumford espied some Federalism in 
my address ; we had much amusement out of him. All, however, went off well. 

Mr. Humphreys, here referred to, was the Speaker of the Assembly. 
Delegates were in attendance from Tioga, Livingston, Chemung, Broome, 
Tompkins, Cattaraugus, Steuben, and Chautauqua. A committee was 
appointed to report an address and resolutions. Upon Seward, as its 
chairman, fell the duty of drafting them. After a recess, the con- 
vention having reassembled in the court-room, the secretary of the rail- 
road company made a statement of its condition, and Seward read the 
address, detailing the history of the corporation, the aid it had re- 
ceived, the embarrassments and difficulties it had encountered, the 
reasons for prosecuting the work and for believing that such a railroad 
would be not merely of local but of general benefit. He pointed out 
that it had two objects: first, "to open a convenient and speedy com- 
munication between the commercial centre and an extensive and fer- 
tile agricultural region of the State, destitute of such facilities ; sec- 
ond, that of creating a thoroughfare for the trade and commerce be- 
tween New York and the Western States." 

That opposition to such improvements arose " from an honest but 
often unwise application of republican economy" he conceded, and 
added : ' 

It is well to remember that the experience of human government affords not 
a solitary instance in which a state or nation became impoverished or subjected 
to an irredeemable debt by works of internal improvement. Ambition, revenge, 
and lust for extended territory, have been the only causes, and war almost the 
sole agent, in entailing those calamities upon nations. Palaces and pyramids, the 



1837.] A WHIG TRIUMPH. 343 

luxurious dwellings of living tyrants, and the receptacles of their wortl 
ashes when dead, have in every country but our own cost more than all its 
canals and roads. . . . Egypt, Rome, Netherlands, England, and France, and 
even our own peace-loving country, have severally disbursed more in a single 
war than was required to complete a system of improvements sufficient to per- 
fect their union, wealth, and power. 

And in conclusion he remarked : 

The work will proceed, but it ought not and must not proceed alone. The 
occasion is auspicious to the revival of the whole system, and to its prosecu- 
tion, not with partial support and convulsive effort, but with the combined 

wealth and united energies of the whole people. 

Resolutions of similar purport were adopted, and county commit- 
tees appointed to promote, explain, and defend the work. Among the 
members of these were Charles Cook, of Chemung ; Daniel S. Dickin- 
son, of Broome ; Erastus Root and A. J. Parker, of Delaware ; Edward 
Suffern, of Rockland; S. S. Seward, of Orange; John Van Buren, of 
Ulster ; Herman M. Romeyn, of Ulster ; and C. D. Chamberlain, of 
Alleghany. 

These well-known residents of the southern counties, though not 
all present at the convention, were all understood to be favorable to 
the railroad. The convention and its results gave a newimpulse to the 
work. 

In regard to the election Seward now wrote: 

Anu-RN, Orfoba- 21tk. 

I begin to take courage, and believe there is a day of retribution at hand for 
the long proscription we have suffered. 

If Ruggles should be elected, as there seems no doubt he will be, I believe 
we can make a good, I will not say successful, demonstration this winter in 
favor of internal improvement. 

Mrs. Seward is busy with the trees and shrubs. We are garnishing our 
grounds, preparatory to a long repose of otiam cum dignitate. I pray your 
pardon for the Latin. Freely translated, it means oceans of leisure in the midst 
of shrubs and flowers. 

I am preparing for a long withdrawal to Chautauqua. 1 leave as soon as I 
shall have deposited my vote, there to remain until after the holidays. 

I go to-morrow to a Whig meeting in Springport, and next week to two in 
Sempronius, and one in Geneva. 

In the State of New York the election this year was for members 
of the Legislature and local officers. As soon as the polls closed it 
was evident that there had been a great change in popular sentiment, 
and as returns day after day kept coming in, it began to take on the 
character of a revolution. In six of the eight. Senate districts the 
Whiffs elected their candidates ; and out of the one hundred and 



344 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

twenty-eight members of Assembly they elected one hundred and one. 
They carried a similar proportion of the sheriffs and county officers. 
Writing from Buffalo, on his way to Chautauqua, whither he was pro- 
ceeding immediately after the election, Seward said : 

There is such a buzz of "glorious Whig victories " ringing in my ears, and I 
am surrounded by so many Whig brethren, that I have hardly time to think. 
The overthrow of the Administration is complete, and I am grateful for it, for 
the country's sake. God grant that it be not equally destructive of the victors 
as of the vanquished! We are yet short of news of New York, and have 
heard too much. I left Auburn on Tuesday morning, and my progress has been 
through crowds of happy men. Excitement here is ecstasy. Was ever such 
a result so quietly wrought ? What will be the course of the Administration ? 
Will it persevere or will it recede, and which is wiser for them and better for us? 

Writing again, he misdated his letter "Auburn," but added : 

Westfield, November 17, 1837. 

Where the heart lingers, there the thought will be. I have had to strike out 
the lovely village and insert the name of my place of exile. 

I knew well enough that you were thronged with happy friends, and I won- 
dered that you could do anything with the paper. I found my own time as 
completely absorbed while I was at Buffalo, and the excitement was unendura- 
ble. God knows that they who delight in such ecstasy of popular feeling are 
welcome to monopolize it, for all envy of mine. 

I am not fearful of the result for one year. And, if the Administration is 
not more wise than it ever was or will be permitted to be, I have little appre- 
hension for the next presidency. I deem it now certain that Mr. Van Buren 
can never again be elected by the colleges. I believe the time has never been 
when he could have been elected by Congress. 

I go somewhat reluctantly to Fredonia, to join in the celebration of the 
Whigs at that place. It is unpleasant to me to go into partisan feasts after a 
victory in which the country rejoices as it ought. My stomach for war ends 
with the capitulation of the enemy. 

Shall I confess to you that I am troubled about another matter, one alluded 
to in your letter? You, I trust, know me well enough to know that I borrow 
no unhappiness from any solicitude about the nomination for next year, so far 
as it is an object of ambition or desire. I cannot affect to be ignorant of the 
demonstrations made to that effect by many of my friends, or those who, believ- 
ing that such will be the result, desire to be so. As impossible would it be for 
me to forget Granger's position, or to know the speculations concerning him. 
Now, here is the trouble : You know the respect and friendship I entertain for 
Frank. Both, I believe, exceed those generally expressed for him by most of 
our friends. I admire him, because he has always been honorable, manly, and 
virtuous, in his political associations and actions as well as principles. He has 
been just, liberal, and true, toward me ; I will not consent to be otherwise tow- 
ard him. I would find delight enough in the exercise of magnanimity toward 
him to compensate me for any sacrifice. As things are now tending, they look 
like arraying us against each other. This ought not to be, and must not be. 



183*7.] GRANGER AND BRADISH. 345 

There is a right between him and me — I ought to defer for him, or he for me; 
not publicly or formally, but frankly with our friends. I am ready to do bo for 
him if that is right; and whether it is right I am willing to submit to you, or 
any others of our friends conversant with the ground and enjoying, as you do, 
equally the confidence of both. At all events, I must not be kept in position a 
day, if it is due either to him or the party that he should be preferred. M; 
friends ought so to tell me, and I solicit the communication. On the other hand, 
if the right is the other way, then he ought to be so advised, and ought to act 
as I am prepared to do. 

It would be a miserable and disgraceful business to leave this bone of conten- 
tion for "Loco-focos" to gnaw upon, aiding those who hate us both, and seek 
the ruin of both. I will stand or fall with Frank, not divide with him. 

I can get no time to finish this — so, with earnest prayers for your having 
strength to carry you through the new responsibilities before you. 1 remain, etc. 

Referring to a movement of the " Conservative " allies of the "Whigs 
in New York, in relation to the presidential election, he said : 

Hovi mber 2Zd. 

I have your letter from New York, and am rejoiced that you were there to 
save the "Conservatives" from so fatal an error as that they were prepared to 
commit. 

Strange, is it not, how few minds are formed with sufficient stays and braces 
for times of success? If croaking ever availed anything, or if it were nol decid- 
edly unamiable, I would say that I expect you will be continually busy in avert- 
ing just such madness. How strong a propensity men have to dictate public 
opinion! When I was, on Tuesday, at Fredonia, there was a man from Hanover 
who fastened himself upon me for the whole day, and the burden of his dis- 
course was the presidential nomination. I thought he ought to be satisfied when 
I referred the whole matter to his better judgment. But ho insisted upon my 
agreeing with him, so that all possible disturbance in the party might be avoided. 
Having at last, satisfactorily to all parties — that is, to him and myself — settled 
the presidential nomination, he proceeded to the State ticket for next year, and 
he inflicted upon me for hours his views, hopes, and fears, in relation to that 
subject. The passion shows itself in the same way among the " Conservatives," 
and their nomination just now in New York would have just as much weight in 
determining our nomination two years hence as the caucus held at Fredonia by 
myself and my friend from Hanover. 

Your " small bill" article was right, and the law ought to be introduced the 
first day. We have Bradish for Speaker, I suppose, and hope. 

Your letter admonishes me to a habit of caution that I cannot conveniently 
adopt. I love to write what I think and feel as it comes up. You will do well 
to destroy my letters. 

Westfibld, November 26, 1S37. 

I sympathize with you in the increasing burden of your responsibi 
The little patronage our friends will have to bestow has already excited much 
anxiety. You will have the responsibility heaped upon you, I am sure, since I 
do not escape from it in this very secluded nook. 

Take note that I commend to you, and through you to the kind consideration 



346 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1831. 

of the Whig members of the Assembly, Mortimer M. Jackson, Esq., of New 
York, for the office of Clerk of the House, and Jonas M. Wheeler, Esq., of Can- 
andaigua, for that of Sergeant-at-Arms. 

His letters home also alluded to the results of the unexpected Whig 
triumph : 

Westfield, November l%th. 

I was greatly amused by your account of the incidents of the evening of the 
Whig celebration at Auburn. 

The good people of Chautauqua are much excited and are preparing for a 
general celebration at Fredonia on Tuesday. I have a most urgent letter to be 
present, to which I have given an affirmative answer. What is expected of me I do 
not know ; but, doubtless, more than I shall have the ability to perform. This 
invitation was followed by billets printed on all manner of gay-colored paper, 
inviting us all to a ball at the Johnson House at five o'clock p. m. If they 
expect any of us to discharge any active duty in that way, I think they will find 
themselves mistaken. 

Everywhere I find overtures and demonstrations indicative of an expectation 
that I will be the favored (and of course it is now supposed the successful) candi- 
date for a very high office next year. It is by no means an indication to be 
relied upon, and in itself by no means affects me. But I have discovered that 
there will be an embarrassment from which I anticipate no pleasant consequences. 
Granger's candidacy for the vice-presidency is understood to have resulted un- 
fortunately for him — unfortunately not merely in the failure of success, but 
because the circumstances seem to forbid his being a candidate again. Of 
course, not only his friends, but those, whoever they are, that are opposed to 
me personally, would delight to bring him forward for the nomination in this 
State. For all this, as far as it concerns the result, I care nothing ; for I am 
disciplined, and will quit even with politics as a candidate, now and forever, when 
I can with the fair consent of the majority of my party; but it does grieve me 
because it threatens to bring about a collision between Granger and myself. I 
want neither to enjoy a triumph over, nor suffer a defeat by, him. 

Westfield, November 23c?. 
The Whigs at Fredonia last week assembled " to celebrate the deliverance of 
the Empire State.*' I went over on Monday evening, and met there a large 
gathering of the Whigs of the county, graced by the presence of the newly-elected 
Whig Senator, Mr. Mosely. The day dawned (as all such days must) upon a 
salute of I don't know how many guns. At two o'clock we sat down to dinner. 
Then followed wine and sentiments. I was drawn out for a speech. I of course 
made it. I was conscious that I labored and drawled, for my spirit flagged with 
the close of the contest at Auburn. But the people all said, and I doubt not 
believed, that it was a good speech and great, and nothing will satisfy them but 
that I write it out. That is worse than all the rest. In the evening they sent 
up a beautifully illuminated balloon, which ascended in fine style. Then there 
was a ball, and a splendid one it was too, although it was given in Chautauqua. 
There were some seventy or eighty ladies, and of course a greater number of 
gentlemen. I made my bow to them all, and at eleven o'clock went to bed, 
wearied so much that the noise and bustle of the ball scarcely disturbed me. 



1837.] CELEBRATIONS. 34.7 

Yesterday I left Fredonia and its Whigs with their reminiscences of thi 
of the celebration. 

Of course, there are divers opinions on t lie subject. One ladj told Parson 
Smith's daughter tbat she approved of the dinner and the balloon, bul 
astonished that the people should dance, and thought that, if they would 1! 
the ball ought to be opened with prayer; it being, as she said, a settled thii 
her own mind that people ought never to do anything that they could not pray 
for a blessing upon. 

Thus much for the Fredonia celebration. Last night was ours. We illumi- 
nated our village, and it was a beautiful scene. You can have no idea how 
pretty the cottages appeared, lighted up among the trees. It was a great occa- 
sion, and our citizens felt that they had a responsibility of sustaining the hi 
of the westernmost town of the State. I threw open the land-office, ami it 
was filled with a large and happy party, who spoke and sang until eleven 
o'clock. 

There is now, I hope, an end of celebrations. I have heard nothing else 
since I left home. In one respect the demonstrations of that kind here bav< 
been exceedingly gratifying: they have shown that in the course I have pur- 
sued, in my very delicate and difficult duties in this county, 1 ha ] the 
approbation of the people, and have not embarrassed our political friends. 

Next week, if there come no more Whig jubilees, I mean to commence, in 
sober earnest, doing what I have to do. 

There was no immediate cessation of them, however, for in a letter 
of the next week he remarked : 

Well! I am here, where, if there were a corner of the world inaccessible to 
the thunder of the Whig victories, I should be allowed some repose, hut in 
truth I am wasted and worn with celebration, exultation, and congratulation. 
Now, as I believe, my philosophy, both in success and defeat, exceeds thai of 
most of the Whigs in the world, I take it for granted that those who are in the 
very focus of the blaze of Whig victories are pretty much exhausted. 

Westfield, \ 2Uh. 

A violent gale occurred on Tuesday, which has been productive of extensive 
damage at all the harbors on the lake, and of wide-spread destruction at Buffalo. 
The number of bodies found thrown up on the shore b} 
already fourteen or fifteen. The storm closed with a cold northeast wind, which 
has given us six inches of snow. 

The occasions of excitement in this quiet little place ari know, few 

and far between. Our whole society was agitated yesterday and the day previ- 
ous by the escape and recapture of the prisoners of the Mayville jail, who ; 
their escape with chains on their legs. There was much to excite sympathy in 
the case of one, whose family live at Portland. He was traced to his house by 
his footprints in the fresh snow, and was followed by the same clew from his 
house to a neighboring barn, where he was found asleep. 

Referring to the estimable clergyman of the Episcopal church at 
Auburn, he said : 



34-8 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1891. 

I regret to learn that Mr. Lucas's salary is raised with difficulty. Had I 
known it, I would have engaged in the duty while at Auburn. I added some- 
thing to my own subscription, and, hard as it is, would do more if needful. I 
have never met a clergyman whom I more highly respected or esteemed. The 
catastrophe of the country has, however, been severely felt at Auburn. Few 
towns in the State have suffered more ; and I know many who are disabled 
from doing what they may desire. I will write to him. I find myself embar- 
rassed with a new trouble. The business of the office is so nearly closed that it 
requires a much smaller force than heretofore ; and I am grieved at being com- 
pelled to throw out of employment so many young men, who have made no 
calculation for the future. 

I have letters from Weed, who is involved in the responsibilities growing 
out of the success of the Whig party. Our friends in New York would overdo 
the matter of rejoicing, although the celebration was shorn of some of its 
pomp and ceremonial. Then a heady, thoughtless portion of the party, or rather 
portion of the other party cooperating with us, would per fas aut nefas nomi- 
nate Mr. Clay, and thereby divide and distract our organization. One abuses 
too much, and others court too freely, the "Conservatives." Then a dozen 
want to be Clerk of the Assembly, and expect Weed to make them so, while 
more than that number insist that he shall be Clerk himself, to whom he says, 
" Get thee behind me, Satan." As many more expect him to make them Ser- 
geants-at-Arms, while the law allows but one officer of that distinguished rank. 
When I remember his trouble, I am very content to be as I am here, so far 
removed from the entire field. 

I have at last recovered something of regularity of habit. Marcia's " black 
dwarf " wakes me at six, and leaves me a candle and a cup of hot water. I 
arrive at the breakfast-table promptly at the appointed hour. My daytime is 
spent in the office. I return to the house at seven or eight o'clock in the even- 
ing. There I pursue some grave reading, such as Bacon's works, until nine 
or ten, and, if weary, wind off with lighter matter. I am delighted with the 
works of Bacon, so profound, yet so brilliant, so universal in their learning, yet 
so accurate. But what do you think is my light reading? I stumbled the 
other night upon Dr. Spring's treatise on " Native Depravity," and read it all, 
every word. I have been, moreover, greatly amused and somewhat edified by a 
most able and satirical Presbyterian review of " Colton's Reasons for preferring 
Episcopacy." To-morrow is Thanksgiving-Day. I shall dine without guests. 
I have had so much of celebration and excitement that I am desirous of solitude. 

Referring to the unsuitable marriage of a friend, he incidentally 
observed : 

It may be a selfish and pharisaical remark I am going to make, but I will 
say, notwithstanding, that, after the deep commiseration which I felt, the reflec- 
tion which next occurred and dwells with me is our happiness that our union 
is not cursed by the dissimilarity of taste, temper, and principles, which, when 
it does occur, destroys all connubial happiness. 

Westfield, December 2d. 

Saturday night is a tedious season in my solitude. No wife, no boys to en- 
joy the relaxation I always seek after the labors and cares of the week. Sunday 



1837.] WEED AND THE CLERKSHIP. 

is not altogether so pleasant here as it would be with yon, whether I shared 
your more serious studies on that day, or attended you to church. 

Your letter of the 29th has heen two days with me. If it would affoi 
pleasure, I am sorry you do not see the Whig newspapers. The proceedin - 
Auburn and at Aurora contain compliments tome similar to those received al 
Batavia, Buffalo, Dunkirk, and some other places. These are varied, of course, 
in manner, but the purpose seems to be the same — that of expressing a partiality 
for my renomination next summer. I regard this as a matter alto-ether so un- 
certain, and of so little consequence to my happiness, that I do not dwell upon 
it myself enough even to recollect to send you the newspaper. It involves, as I 
have before hinted, a possibility of collision with Granger, which 1 would will- 
ingly avoid. It is in keeping with this that my correspondence swells, and the 
writers, of course, are seasonable, and not over-modest in their overtures. You 
would suppose, to look at my bundle of letters, that I have the entire patrol 
of the Assembly. 

Your letter implies a query why Granger should not have that higher nomi- 
nation, which would be but a renewed expression of the confidence of the party. 
And yet I do not know that you take interest enough in politics to care for an 
answer. It may be stated, however, in few words. It is important, as the can- 
didate for the presidency must probably be a Northern man, to have for the 
second place one whom the South will approve. And, of course, it i- supposed 
a Southern man would be preferred. 

Many of our friends maintain that Weed should have the office of Clerk of 
the Assembly. He thinks he ought not to take it. I have written to him 
ly, but he is so singularly disinterested that I fear T can scarcely gel from him 
an answer in which he will do himself justice. He is worn down with the 
felicitations and exultations of his friends. 

You will excuse me for giving you the caution that this and similar letters 
should be destroyed or carefully secured. Although I write nothing thai 1 
would blush to see, or dying recall, yet such free explanations of political and 
personal relations are sufficiently exposed in "Mr. Kendall's post-office. 

I have been reading Burr's life, the second volume. It is a crude and ill- 
concocted mass, yet full of interest. And now the candle sinks, and it is time 
for me to retire. 

To Weed himself he wrote on the same subject : 

I confess, most candidly, I would not have you Clerk unless it was needful. 
Then I would be for it. I want something better and higher for you. Candid- 
ly, I think it could not add to your stature to he Clerk, and it might detract 
from that of the House, for the cry would be universal that you direct the n 
ments of the House. 

Hitherto the obligation of the party is /"you; let us I 
comes roversed. Now, my dear Weed, nobody can understand all this ' 
than you; and, fortunately, you are so constituted that your judgment will 
be b'msod in favor of your interest. 

If you can only muster self-interest enough to tal ■>. f ' :< -' 

whole difficulty is out of the way. You know my feelings about it. So. now. 
think wisely, and reckon upon me at an hour's notice, and give the grand bail- 
ing-sign accordingly. 



350 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

Let me know when Granger returns home. I want to write to him. Your 
article ahout the National Convention is right. Stick to that. 

Westfield, December 6, 1837. 

It would be ungenerous in me to leave the matter of the clerkship where I 
thought it safe in my last letter to put it. I have been pondering the subject 
since that was dispatched, and really I begin to doubt the justice of the dubita- 
tion then expressed. Why should you not be Clerk ? No one deserves that or 
any other office a tithe so much. No other appointment would be half so pop- 
ular with the Whigs, and, for that matter, with the Van Buren men. What 
harm would it do ? For the life of me I can believe none, except to contract 
for a season the space of the broad area you hold of public opinion. 

And, besides all this, a bird in the hand is worth two flying, unless you can 
shoot more steadily than most political marksmen. Let us think of this matter 
once more, therefore, and I pray you think of it, and, if you can make up your 
mind not to have it made up until I can reach you, write me, and I will take 
up my march to Albany, so as to be there seasonably to consult and prepare 
all necessary action. And you may as well be assured of what, I doubt not, 
you understand, that the appointment would be made at once, and with unani- 
mous consent by the members, and the unanimous approbation of our friends 
in the State. 

Well, I am heartily glad that Congress has convened. For it is time that the 
junketing should cease. I would have preferred there should be no feast, not 
because I am unwilling to eat or allow others the luxury, but there are so many 
silly and juvenile conceits, published by our brethren in some places, I would 
avoid the occasion for them. 

You will have the President's message before this time. Have you rightly 
conjectured Marcy's? Will it offend Flagg and Wright? I trow not. 

So the New York banks are to be left to work out their own salvation. I 
regret this. I had hoped the time for resumption would be fixed. 

A summary stop, however, was put to the projects of Mr. Weed's 
political friends for his advancement, by his positive refusal to be a 
candidate. His letter was a characteristic one : 

Albany, December 4, 1837. 
My deae Seward : I am equally vexed and mortified to think I have written 
so loosely as to leave the impression on your mind that I did not promptly and 
peremptorily reject the clerkship. I certainly only intended to let you know 
what had been proposed, and declined; and yet this was so poorly done as to 
leave an apprehension on your mind that I only half put the thing away. It is 
not so, my good friend. There are a dozen different reasons for the course which 
I adopted. I would not touch it if it were worth twice three thousand a year. 
But T beg that you, who are always more careful of my interests than I ever 
hope to be, -will not again afflict me by an intimation that you have been regard- 
less of what, since I had the happiness to secure your good opinions, has been 
uppermost in your mind. But enough of this, which has occupied too much 
paper already. I neither want nor think of the clerkship, or the State printing, 
until objects of far greater importance are accomplished. 



1837.] FUTURE LIFE. 35-j^ 

After Tea. — I have concluded to only half forgive you, for thinking me 
enough to grasp for a paltry office, the moment that one came within the juris- 
diction of our party. I have seen enough of that infirmity in others (about 
whom we have so often talked) never to become the victim of it myself. Why, 
Seward! I would not be the means of darkening the hopes of the dozen 
fellows who want it, for the emolument of five such offices. But uol another 
word on this subject. 

Seward, in reply, said : 

Westfield, December 11th. 

So I am left without excuse for attendance at Albany. I want you to take 
notice, Mr. Weed, that I do not go into the lobby upon any less occasion than 
to secure you the post of State Printer, or that of Clerk of the Assembly. It is 
by no means certain that your determination is wise in a pecuniary view, but for 
your permanent fame and self-respect it is altogether right. . . . 

I have no right to harass you, but I will say in self-defense that I don't think 
the way in which the matter, about which I wrote some time ago, is left, is the 
most comfortable or expedient. " Leave it " (say you) " to our party and friends." 
They must be a wiser party and less censorious friends than ever I saw, if they 
do not make a pretty quarrel about it, between our friend Granger and myself. 

Be firm on the subject of the resumption of specie payments. 

A friendship had now grown up between him and the Morgans, of 
Aurora. One of his early letters to Christopher Morgan ran thus : 

Westfield, December 8, 1837. 
I have not failed to remark the kind recollection of myself, at the Ledyard 
and Genoa celebration. I pray you make my grateful acknowledgments to your 
brother for the manly and generous support he has given me, in the recent politi- 
cal events in Cayuga. I shall have somewhat to say to you and him when I 
meet, which may not properly be written. 

The return of Sunday naturally enough inspires this vein of reflec- 
tion, in one of his letters home : 

Westfield, December 10th. 

Another week has passed. The lapse of time, always to be regretted if time 
possess value, is generally a subject of rejoicing. It is so because we " never 
are, but always to be, blest." My little boys rejoice because we have approached 
a week nearer to Christmas and the largess of St. Nicholas — wo, or 1 at least, 
because our reunion is a week nearer. Can it bo that this succession of cherished 
and various hopes, continued through a period of four thousand weeks, more or 
less, is to be the whole of human life? If we regard the de-ire of happiness and 
the constant pursuit of it, by all mankind, as indicative of a destiny of happii 
(and not to regard it so is to suppose Providence made us for his own mock 
we must believe that there is a state of happiness beyond the grave; for certain 
it is, this desire is never fully gratified here. There is another reflection of some 
weight on the question. The human mind, in all its anticipations or hopes of 
good, always imagines a good that is possible, that has existed, thai would fall to 
our lot, if it were not for some unlucky obstacle or disappointment. In other 



352 LIFE AND LETTERS. [183V. 

words, we imagine nothing but what is possible. But we can imagine, we can 
and do hope, and anticipate, a world hereafter. By analogy, then, that state is 
possible; and, with God, nothing is possible but what is. He has made every- 
thing that is necessary to the perfection of his works. Imperfect, indeed, must 
be his creation, if frail men can conceive an improvement, as that would be, 
which, being possible, yet is not, in fact or in future. 

But you will say that you are content to take the revelation of life and im- 
mortality, without exploring the way to that awful truth through the dark path 
of human reason. Happy is the mind that is so constituted — happy, doubtless, in 
its security against the fatal error of unbelief ; for experience shows that the 
torch of human philosophy often leads us into skepticism. Yet I delight in 
these reflections, which commend revelation to my credence. 

I have, however, built a discourse upon a mere truism, which happened to 
be my text, because it was the first thought while I was reducing this wretched 
quill to a practicable habit of recording my ideas ; so adieu to the grave ques- 
tion of the soul's immortality. 

The population around me is waiting the arrival of the mail with impatient 
expectation of the President's message, or further events of the revolution in 
Canada. 

The message here alluded to was President Van Buren's annual 
communication to Congress. He devoted it largely, of course, to the 
financial situation, and the measures for its relief. Referring to the 
issue of Treasury notes as judicious and necessary, he stated with 
clearness and force the arguments in favor of the sub-Treasury system 
previously recommended. Not unmindful of the accusation that he 
was waging war on the State banks and on the credit system, nor of 
the manifestations of popular discontent in the recent elections, the 
President took occasion to disavow any such hostility ; but, returning 
once more to the old object of attack, he pronounced the action of 
the United States Bank, in continuing under a State charter, to be " a 
fit subject of inquiry." On the issues thus presented debate in Con- 
gress had already opened. 

" The revolution in Canada " to which the letter referred was the 
beginning of the frontier troubles, afterward to assume graver pro- 
portions. The " Liberal " or " Reform " party in Canada had sought 
radical changes under the lead of Papineau in Parliament, and with 
the aid of Mackenzie through the press. Failing to obtain them, they 
had organized a popular movement, at first undefined as to its ultimate 
purpose, but rapidly taking on the character of an insurrection. The 
" Patriots," as they were styled, had held a revolutionary convention 
at Toronto ; had issued an address calling on the Canadians to rise ; 
and had gathered a military force to make a demonstration upon that 
place. But this having been checked and dispersed, they appealed 
to sympathizers across the frontier in the United States, Mackenzie 
and Papineau themselves coming over to personally aid the appeal. 



183V.] THE CANADIAN "PATRIOTS." 353 

Numbers of unthinking citizens were found ready to respond with 
alacrity (as usually happens in such cases), stimulated by ambition or 
love of adventure, and still further encouraged by the strong manifes- 
tation of popular sentiment in favor of Canadian independence or an- 
nexation. Their proceedings, while nominally secret, were sufficiently 
open to attract the attention of the Governments on both sides of the 
line. Proclamations were issued by the Governors of New York and 
Vermont exhorting citizens "to refrain from unlawful acts," and 
preparations were actively made by the Canadian authorities to repel 
the threatened invasion. 

News now came that the "Patriots" and their American sympathiz- 
ers had seized and were fortifying Navy Island, in the middle of the 
Niagara River, a few miles above the Falls, and that Colonel MacNab, 
with a body of loyal militia, was posted on the Canadian shore, directly 
opposite, to watch and, if need be, to repel them. Chautauqua County 
was so near to the scene of these operations that a lively interest was 
felt, and some of its young men, contrary to the advice of older 
heads, had gone to enlist under the " Patriot " banner. 

Again, recurring to the subject of the political prospects of the 
Whig party, Seward wrote : 

I had a fine letter of Friday from Weed; yet it is all, as he is now, all made 
up of polities. He writes that he has had a free conversation with Granger, 
that Granger was anxious to have the nomination, but had spoken honorably 
and favorably of me, and did not doubt that all meant what is right, and that 
what is right would be done. I ought to add that Weed says I ought not to let 
the matter annoy me, but leave it to my party and friends. It would be quite 
amusing to you to read the various epistles I have about these days relating to 
this great subject; greater, it seems, in the estimation of my correspondents 
than in my own. You know me well enough to understand what answers I 
make. 

Westfield, December \Zth. 

The mail nowadays carries about half the letters sent me some distance 
into Pennsylvania. Your letter of the 16th of last month has just returned 
from an excursion of that kind. 

It is doubtless a great vexation to have your servants leave you at unseason- 
able times. But, just now, I am suffering a trouble of the directly opposite 
character. I have five upon my hands, each of whom is unwilling to leave. I 
.am actually unhappy under the evil, and can scarcely summon the requisite 
firmness to dismiss the supernumeraries on the 1st of January. 

On a review of my labors during the last eighteen months I can, with some 
satisfaction, contemplate the beneficial results of much that f have done, and 
recall without pain the motives of much more. In all this you have he. 
sharer of my confidence and my feelings. 

The commercial disasters of the year brought, as might be expected, 
urgent appeals from the sufferers, to those who had barely escaped the 
23 



354 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1837. 

storm, for aid and relief — appeals so numerous as to render compliance 
with a tithe of them impossible. He wrote, December 17th : 

I am almost in despair. My troubles accumulate, and I am without the 
power of doing good. I have to dismiss three clerks ; they all seem near to me as 
children, and are almost as helpless. I am engaged in correspondence to secure 
them places. One of my friends is prosecuted for four times as much as he will 

ever be worth, on the score of a harbor speculation. Poor B mourns his 

approaching dismission from a position he had supposed permanent. Then Dr. 

H writes me that bankruptcy stares him in the face, and implores me to 

relieve him. M , in the plenitude of political success and glory, writes me 

that his property will be sold on execution unless I relieve him. Every other 

resource, he says, has failed. Besides this, Z expects me to melt the hearts 

of his creditors. Alas ! I could not do it without a stronger galvanic battery 
than that which melts rocks. 

The pecuniary embarrassments of the country, which spread so much desola- 
tion in the East, have reached and involved this secluded region. It seems as if 
all the people here were expecting me to lend them money ; and all the Whigs 
in the State desiring me to make them Clerks in the Assembly. My heart fails 
me when I look upon this hopeless heap of anxiety and sorrow, and remember 
how little it is in my power to do to relieve it. I become sorrowful and grave 
daily; and not a little disgusted with the world, in which there is so little suc- 
cessful accomplishment, so little of sincerity, and so little of security. 

Letters from Mr. Weed now announced that the success of the 
Whigs in the fall election had encouraged him in a new effort to 
strengthen the party and disseminate its opinions. This was the estab- 
lishment of a weekly " campaign " paper to be printed at the Evening 
Journal office in Albany, and to be called the Jeffersonian. In behalf 
of the State Central Committee he had been to New York, and ob- 
tained the requisite funds to commence the enterprise. In reply, Sew- 
ard wrote : 

Westfield, December 2ith. 

I rejoice in the success of your mission to New York ; complete success it is 
not, but Benedict can render it so. But I fear there is a part of the system not 
yet perfected, and without which the enterprise will fail. I mean the provision 
for obtaining readers, non-paying as well as paying subscribers, if this impor- 
tant matter is left to the unaided action of our friends in the country. Here 
and there the prospectus will fall into the hands of an energetic and ardent man, 
who will procure fifty or a hundred subscribers in a county, most of whom will 
pay. Such a subscription would be inadequate to your great purpose. But it 
is all you may expect if some different effort is not made. Let me illustrate, 
by reminding you of the subscription to establish the Evening Journal. Our 
friends required two thousand dollars in all Western New York. I sent you four 
hundred from Auburn, and all you got from all the rest of Western New York 
was not more than twice that sum. Again, I have made an effort for the 
Jeffersonian. I was so fortunate as to find Plumb here the day I received your 
prospectus. He fell in with it, of course, took the prospectus to Jamestown, had 



1837.] LETTERS TO CHILDREN. 355 

it printed, sent me back twenty copies, retained twenty, sent ten to Mayville, 
and distributed the rest. I called a caucus, and subdivided the work here. We 
met the next evening to hear the reports of our committees. At the adjourned 
meeting we had twenty subscribers. Adjourned to next night. Then had fifty. 
To the next night. Then sixty, and that was thought enough. 1 insisted upon 
more. Adjourned to the next night with a resolution to have one hundred. 
We had them. Adjourned again to last night, and had then one hundred and 
fifty. And I hope to-morrow they will have two hundred. Now, this is no 
more than we ought to do ; but it is not more than your plan contemplates as 
necessary to be done. Yet it has been accomplished by unusual exertions. [ 
have attended every evening, and have made the subscription to the Jeffersonian 
the chief business as well as topic for a week. From my copies sent to other parts 
of the county, I have no return. You will ask me, " What then?" I answer, 
" You must adopt the plan pursued by the sectarists in religious controversies — 
send missionaries." It was that which carried forward the temperance reform. 
It is that system which procures from a people, liberal and ardent, the supplies 
required for propagating opinion. The people delight to see and converse with 
a missionary. They place more confidence in his statements, and he comes to 
them imbued with an enthusiasm that is contagious. I respectfully suggest that 
you modify your plan, so as to afford sufficient inducement to twenty or thirty 
individuals, who for a few months shall visit the chief towns, and procure sub- 
scriptions. It will not do to depend upon home exertion. There are few who 
have leisure to assume the duties you impose, and these few have not the 
requisite energy. 

I congratulate you upon the revelation made to you in New York, of your 
great reputation and influence. I was as well aw r are that you were unconscious 
of both as I was of their extent. Both have been fairly won, and, what is 
better, they are both in requisition for the best good of the country. I should 
have been delighted to be with you — to have seen the paralysis you suffered at 
the Astor House dinner. For the real physically induced rheumatics in the legs 
(such as you had at Barnum's in Baltimore) I have not so much respect. They 
don't make you any more amiable ; when the fit is on, at least. But this kind 
of distemper, that comes from the unexpected disclosures of the respect and 
friendship of good men, has a marvelous influence in reproducing the very 
kindness in others which causes the evil. 

There were many affectionate letters to his children in this holiday 
season. An extract or two will illustrate their half-playful, half-in- 
structive tone : 

I received yesterday morning your letter, and was greatly pleased with it. 

Black kittens mew so much and at such unseasonable hours, that I think it 
will be necessary the next time we purchase to select one of a lighter color. 

I am glad that you saw the Siamese twins. They are very nice young men, 
as I am informed. Would you like to see them when they are hunting? I 
wonder whether they both fire at once ? 

The snow I suppose has all wasted away, and if you play in the court-yard 
now it must be on the wet grass. All winter long there must be much snow 
and rain, so that the ground will be wet enough for plants and trees to grow 



356 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

next summer. Do you know that the sap, which is the blood of trees, and 
shrubs, and plants, runs down into the roots in the cold weather and remains 
there invigorating the roots? In the spring, when the warm weather comes, 
the sap ascends into the trunk and branches, and then they begin to put forth 
buds and flowers. Sap is taken from the maple-tree, in the spring, to make 
sugar, just as it is going up into the limbs. The sap rises, in some trees 
and plants, much earlier than in others. If you look at the lilac-bush in Febru- 
ary, you will find that it will already be covered with buds. 

I hope that the Indian pony proved docile and fleet in the harness. Your 
ducks, I suppose, will furnish eggs and ducklings enough to pay for the corn 
and oats you have so liberally provided for them. 

This will be the last letter I shall write before I return home. But your 
Christmas sports will all be over before I return. I shall expect to find that my 
dear boys have made good progress in their studies. Studies are the chief 
business. Sleighs, ponies, bells, ducks, gardens, and such things, are only 
amusements of no real value ; but learning is an abiding and useful treasure. 
Adieu, my dear boy. 



CHAPTER XX. 

1838. 



Auburn & Syracuse Railroad. — A Whig Legislature. — Small Bills and Specie Payments. 
— An Ice- Ad venture. — Ruggles's Canal Report. — Charles King. — Ocean-Steamers. — 
Over-zealous Friends. — Granger and Bradisn. 

The gloom which had settled upon the business community since 
the great revulsion of 1837 was partially relieved at the beginning of 
1838 by some signs of the coming of " better times." 

Auburn was rejoicing this year over the opening of the Syracuse 
Railroad, though with much less enthusiasm than it had exhibited two 
years before over the Auburn & Owasco Canal. But if its anticipa- 
tions, in the one case, were too sanguine, in the other they fell short 
of the reality of the benefits to the village, to accrue from the im- 
provement. 

It was but an imperfect structure, even yet. It extended twenty- 
three miles to Geddes, where it struck the Erie Canal. One of the 
chief reasons for the inception of the enterprise had been the desire to 
put Auburn in communication with that great thoroughfare. The rails 
were wooden ones, and the cars drawn by horses. Colonel J. M. Sher- 
wood, the public-spirited proprietor of the stage-line, aided materially 
in furnishing the " rolling-stock " by mounting on car-wheels the bodies 
of some of his stage-coaches, and furnishing the animals to draw them. 
Iron rails and locomotives were things of the future. Among the first 
passengers that accompanied him in his improvised train was Seward, 
who, with his family, was going eastward. 



1838.] AN ICE ADVENTURE. 357 

When the State Legislature met at Albany in January it was evi- 
dent that the Whig successes at the election in November had not 
been without direct results. Luther Bradish was elected Speaker of 
the Assembly. Governor Marcy's message, while following the lead 
of the national Administration in behalf of an independent Treasury, 
recommended a general banking law as a remedy for evils growing out 
of the pressure, and urged the completion of the enlargement of the 
Erie Canal. The Whigs were ready enough to concur in the last two 
propositions ; and were zealously bent upon a third, the abrogation of 
the " small-bill law," which had added to the general distress by its 
prohibition of bank-notes under five dollars, and had led to the flood of 
" shinplasters." Having a majority on joint ballot, they elected Or- 
ville L. Holley Surveyor-General, and Dr. Barstow State Treasurer, 
and filled with Whigs the positions of Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, and 
Doorkeeper of the Assembly, which had been in such request. Mr. 
Ruggles, who had been elected a member of the Assembly from New 
York, in spite of his own declination, was assigned by Speaker Bradish 
to the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, with general 
concurrence. 

Pausing at Albany only long enough for brief conference on politi- 
cal affairs with his friends, Seward started for New York. The river 
was frozen but half-across, and the milcl weather hourly threatened a 
break-up of the frail ice. It was necessary to row out, in a small 
boat, to the ice, cross it on foot to Greenbush, there take the stage to 
Hudson, and thence proceed by steamboat. It was a hazardous experi- 
ment. 

Astoe House, Tuesday Night, January 9, 1838. 

I should have written to you yesterday from Hudson " if I could have sum- 
moned courage or resolution enough," as Charles Lamh said, "to dot my i's or 
comh my eyebrows," on such a dismal day. I wanted you and Harriet here to 
hear us descant upon the perils of our fearful passage across the Hudson. It 
was an occasion I shall never forget. Nothing doubting the trustworthiness of 
our guides, we embarked in the little boat, Frances saying in a melancholy tone, 
as she pressed my hand, " We are all together." "When we reached the suppi ■-■ < I 
solid ice-pavement the boat's weight pressed it several inches under the water. 
The boat on sleds was ready for us, but no persuasion could induce the mother 
to take passage on it, while her children were left behind in the hands of 
strangers. At this moment the tremulous motion and long low sounds of tin' 
crackling ice alarmed our guides, and they, losing all self-possession, hurried 
onward. We succeeded in reaching the shore, but, looking back, saw the ice 
breaking up behind us. Heaven forgive me for bringing into such peril those 
who ought not to be involved in the hazards of my irregular life ! 

It was a tedious day at Hudson; but the boat came at last, and we arrived 

here safely. 

Philadelphia. January 18, 1S38. 

I found it impossible to write again in New York ; it was an unending eddy. 



358 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

Besides the excitement of my negotiations here, I have been every hour, when 
unemployed, and some- of them were most unseasonable hours, too, in society. 
Messrs. Duer and Macauley have been partners in my parlor. 

New York, Friday Night, January 19, 1838. 

The fog last night kept us at sea until five o'clock. "We came here in a. heavy 
storm. 

It will be time enough when we meet next week for me to tell you about my 
negotiation at Philadelphia. Suffice it now that it assures all I need. 

Philadelphia is developing like this city ; decided bias toward Clay, "Webster 
exists not there; and Harrison, wherever found, covers only preferences for 
Clay. On the other hand, the country (as I learn from members of the con- 
vention) is all for Harrison. They urged me strenuously to see that delegates 
should attend at Philadelphia in November. 

New York, Thursday Evening, January 25, 1838. 

New York is suffering beyond measure, beyond conception, from the press- 
ure. There is no business, no money, no confidence, besides a " fearful look- 
ing" for untried evils to come. In this emergency both capitalists and poli- 
ticians are restlessly engaged in seeking out expedients for temporary relief. 
During the week a precious effort was made to send the Whig Assembly into a 
general proscription and persecution of all the banks in the State. Better 
counsels, encouraged by myself, have limited the assault to the obnoxious city 
banks. 

For myself I believe that the banks ought to and must resume within the 
law, nor do I believe there is any relief but that consequent upon the resump- 
tion of specie payments, the resumption to be made easy by the passage of the 
" small-bill law." » 

The excitement in relation to the presidential nomination appears to have 
spent itself. All of the parties here have had their turn, and are now prepared 
to fuse. I have seen many here — Noah, who appears right ; Webb and Stone, 
who are right. Thero is a gentleman of much capacity for mischief, who, I 
think, is disposed to make that article. But of that when we meet. 

Journeying then homeward, he wrote : 

Auburn, February 22, 1838. 

Our party in the car was Wadsworth, Duncan, Schermerhorn, Strong and 
his wife, and young Ambrose Spencer and his wife. "We were hindered by 
snow-drifts, so that we were until eight o'clock in arriving at Utica. There 
Rutger B. Miller had prepared a set dinner for Wadsworth, Duncan, Schermer- 
horn, and myself. It was a pleasant party, and detained us until twelve. Mrs. 
Miller (H. Seymour's daughter) pressed her husband to be as honest as she was, 
and confess himself a "Whig. 

Agitation among our opponents but develops the wide difference of both 
opinion and - interest among them, and hastens what might otherwise come too 
late, the schism in which their ascendency is destined to be lost. 

As for the operations of President and Governor making, be assured it would 
do you good to see the indifference of our friends to the discussion. The de- 



1838.] THE SMALL-BILL LAW. 359 

bate is chiefly among idlers, not the efficient corps. The unparalleled distress of 
the business portion of the people excludes such profitless discussion. 

Meetings in various towns in the State were held in encouragement 
and approval of the Whig legislative policy, especially in relation to the 
odious " Small-bill Law." The call for the meeting at Auburn was 
headed with the name of William H. Seward, and many of the others 
were ascribed to his direct or indirect influence, and that of his friends. 
In an address at the town-hall at Auburn in February, Seward stated 
the issue between the people and the Administration. 

The newspapers now brought important intelligence from Albany 
and Washington. The Whigs in the Legislature were redeeming their 
promise. The " Small-bill Law " was suspended for two years, giving 
immediate relief to the community from " shinplasters." Samuel B. 
Ruggles, as chairman of the committee in the Assembly to whom the 
subject of internal improvements had been referred, brought in a pro- 
found and exhaustive report, whose conclusions, though demonstrated 
by facts and figures, seemed almost incredible. He showed that the 
immense value of the carrying-trade of the State and the West, i£ 
secured by the prosecution of works of internal improvement, would 
not only add to the prosperity of the community at large, but would 
reimburse the State itself for all advances made or contemplated. 
Nay, even if the State should expend forty million dollars upon those 
works, a quarter of a century's use of them at the current rates of toll 
would pour it all back into her coffers. Though the lapse of that time 
has now demonstrated the accuracy of Mr. Ruggles's statistics, and 
has confirmed his reputation as a leading statistician of the time, yet 
his report was then received by his political opponents with incredulity 
and derision ; and the Whigs, under whose auspices it had been intro- 
duced, Avere charged with attempting to saddle a " forty-million debt " 
on the State. Nevertheless, the Assembly passed an Internal Improve- 
ment Bill, almost unanimously, appropriating four million dollars for 
enlarging the Erie Canal. A General Banking Law was also passed 
by a large majority. 

The bill to repeal the " Small-bill Law " had been introduced in the 
Assembly early in the session, by Henry W. Taylor, of Canandaigua. 
That body passed it. In the Senate, the Administration party were un- 
willing to face the popular displeasure they were sure to encounter it 
they longer withheld " small bills." Yet they could not, at once, give 
up the ground they had occupied so long. So they, by a party vote, 
amended the bill so as to suspend the obnoxious law for two years. 
The question hung between the two Houses for a time, but the Assembly 
finally concurred in the Senate's amendment. The Democratic leaders 
claimed that their party had met the popular wishes, and at the same 
time had preserved a consistent record. The Whigs rejoiced in the 



3(50 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

fact that they had not only obtained the sanction of law to the " small- 
bill " circulation, but had also preserved the advantage of having the 
popular issue of repeal to fight for at the next election. Mr. Weed in 
one of his letters remarked: 

The Jeffersonian goes on finely. There are over eleven thousand subscribers, 
and tbe number increasing rapidly. It is, so far, the thing we want. Euggles is 
overwhelmed witb thanks and congratulations for his most admirable report. 

The " Patriot " war in Canada had culminated, and apparently 
ended. During the winter its events had been exciting and important. 
Colonel MacNab's militia, having seized at Fort Schlosser the supply- 
steamer Caroline, of the Navy Island assemblage, had set fire to her, 
let her drift down the rapids and over Niagara Falls. Great excite- 
ment was produced by this event, and the stories of robberies and mur- 
der with which it was said to have been accompanied. The President 
had ordered troops to the frontier, and in his message described it as 
" an outrage of a most aggravated character, accompanied by a hostile 
though temporary invasion of our territory; " and the Secretary of State, 
Forsyth, addressed the British Government, demanding explanation and 
redress. Congress had passed a law requiring the disarming and dis- 
persing of the " Patriots." A warning proclamation was issued by the 
Executive, and General Scott was sent to the frontier,' to see that it 
was complied with. Navy Island was soon evacuated, the arms and 
munitions of Avar taken possession of by the authorities, the leader Van 
Rensselaer arrested, and the "Patriot army" dispersed and scattered, 
for the time, though it partially reunited for subsequent operations on 
the St. Lawrence and the lakes. 

There were rumors and reports also of presidential intrigues, and 
of congressional disputes and duels, with incidents partaking both of 
comic and of tragic character. Alluding to these various items of news, 
Seward wrote to Weed: 

Westfield, March \0th. 

Thank yon for an early adjournment, if it was advised upon grounds of gen- 
eral policy for the party ; but if because you have had enough of the blessing of 
a majority in the ITouse, why then I thank you no less. For, when the day of 
your deliverance has come, I shall hope to see your scrawl once a month. 

So, so, Mr. Weed, now that the "Patriots " are dispersed, the leaders divided, 
and the general in jail, you are becoming quite free in speaking as you ought. 
I trust your paper will fall into the hands of Chancellor Kent and his family. 
I had scarcely favor enough in their eyes to restore you, after your "patriotic" 
articles in the commencement of the affair. 

I have a long, good letter from Childs, all on the subject of presidential can- 
didates. ITo thinks all prudent men are settling down upon the name of Harri- 
son. A letter from E. P. Marvin coincides exactly, but substitutes the name of 
Clay. Now, I suppose that both are equally correct, and that, after all, the mem- 



1838.] N. P. TALLMADGE. ;,,,| 

bers of Congress will have less to do with the subject than anybody in tho 
country. 

I am about worked down here. I shall leave for Batavia on the 20th, and 
sball soon tbereafter be at Auburn. I mention this as an important item for 
the head of "movements in fashionable life" in your newspaper, not thai I 
would bo understood as at all intimating that I would take a letter oul of the 
post-office from you. No, no ; I am like members of Congress. 1 bold no cor- 
respondence with editors. I have recently been fairly converted to t! 
that editors are not gentlemen, especially Whig editors in Albany when i 
is a Whig Legislature there. 

Referring to his own affairs at Westficld and Auburn, he remarked 
in a letter to Mrs. Seward : 

Sunday Xitjht. 

Rev. Mr. Huse was absent to-day r , and I have read service and a sermon for 
him, morning and evening. I had a respectable auditory. The exercise has con- 
vinced me that clergymen enjoy no sinecure on Sundays; and I always knew 
they did not on secular days, if they diligently prepared their sermons. 

Hurried as I have been with other tbings, I have on my hands the prepara- 
tion of a discourse for the Young .Men's Associations at Syracuse and Troy. 
One must answer for both. It must be finished, and it is yet in its roughest 
shape, and but half of it written at all. I have written to Granger that I will 
be with him next week. It is really quite a relief to be here. I hear no more 
of politics than is convenient, and what I do hear is from those whose informa- 
tion is very ancient. 

Saturday, March 11th. 

I propose to leave here on Tuesday, and then what a journey I have before 
me ! Two entire days to Buffalo, and three "to drag my slow length along" to 
Batavia for a resting-place. But I shall set out with more pleasure than 1 came 
here with. 

I think I shall be like "the Needy Knife-Grinder " when I meet the Young 
Men's Association at Troy — I shall have no story to tell. My address has grown 
to ten pages, and then was hung up. When, where, and how, in my wanderings, 
shall I complete it? But I am going now to add to it some half a dozen more 
stiff sentences. 

I have been not without fear that you were sick. But the mail is now n 
week, making a funeral-like progress, and I will believe that it has, somewhere 
in the sloughs of these intolerable ways, a letter of warm feelings and your own 
clear and calm thoughts. Weed writes me a brief, but, as always, a calm and 
satisfactory letter. A letter comes from N. P. Tallmadge communicating h< 
and fears, and asking correspondence on political matters. So strangely do things 
fall out in politics! 

Mr. Tallmadge had occupied a seat in the State Senate al the 
time of Seward's entrance into that body, and had been elected by the 
Democrats to the United States Senate in 18oi$. 11^ remained a firm 
supporter of General Jackson's Administration; but, after Mr. Van 
Buren's accession, separated from the partv, on the sub-Treasury issue, 
and thenceforward acted with the Whi^s. 



3(52 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

A letter from Granger, written before he received mine, says be is to leave 
on tbe 22d, but that a day or two would make no difference. I suppose that he 

will meet Mr. E , and will learn enough from him to anticipate the time when 

I can arrive at Canandaigua. For reasons good, I hope he will wait for me. 

And now comes news that the "Patriot " general-in-chief is imprisoned in 
a vile debtor's jail, for no other crime but raising armies in one country to burn 
and pillage the people of another ; a fate they so well deserve because they pre- 
fer to live under a government of settled order, instead of one that offers the 
glorious advantages of experiment. And Peter ! I imagine I can see him now, 
fresh arrived from Clntes, full charged with rumors that the " Campbells are com- 
ing" from Navy Island and marching to the rescue. How voluble he must be! 
Little ability has he had, I trow, to practise the great cardinal virtue he so much 
wants, temperance, in such exciting times. 

Peter Crosby, here alluded to, was an old servant of Judge Miller's, 
afterward employed by Seward in the care of horses and garden. Very 
fluent in conversation, he had an apparently inexhaustible store of 
reminiscences of his adventures, among which were some that are 
popularly supposed to belong to other men. He was a great favorite 
with the children, who used to sit on his knee in the kitchen winter 
evenings, and who learned from him with unquestioning faith that, 
before he buckled on his sword as a private in Captain Seward's artil- 
lery, he had fought with Napoleon at Marengo, and Austerlitz, and 
Waterloo ; that he also had a hand in the skirmishes of the " neutral 
ground " in the Revolution; that he was a sailor once, and was wrecked 
on an island, but was providentially saved in time to be buried alive 
by a savage tribe, into whose hands he had fallen. 

If not steady in all his habits, he was in the one of conviviality on 
Saturday nights. This, though incurable, was overlooked on account 
of his years of faithful service, one incident of which had been his 
seizing a runaway pony, by throwing his arms around its neck, just as 
it was dragging, apparently to death, one of the little boys, whose 
foot was caught in the stirrup. 

He was, like most of those of his nationality, a warm sympathizer 
in the projected raids of the " Patriots " upon Canada, as the above 
extract implies. 

The Assembly now almost unanimously voted in favor of large ap- 
propriations for the canals, in accordance with the views of the com- 
mittee. The Senate, however, would consent only to the four millions 
to be expended in the current year for enlarging the Erie Canal. The 
General Banking Law passed the Assembly by eighty-six to twenty- 
nine votes, the Democrats generally voting against it. The bill was 
amended by the Senate, which finally passed it by twenty to eight. 
The Legislature voted to adjourn on the 18th of April. 

March ldth. 

It is most manifest that the revolution this time " goes not backward." The 



1838.] WHIG SUCCESSES. ;;,;:; 

town-meetings this spring are auspicious of a more complete overthrow of the 
political speculators than ever occurred in this country. I think the Whig party 
goes on with the same strength and power that distinguished Mr. Jeffers 
complete triumph. 

Do you know, I never until now knew exactly the justice of your homage 
to Charles King? I have just learned from his beautiful and manly articles in 
the American what you knew so long ago. 

God speed the Jeffersonian ! I like every word in it right well. By-and-by, 
when I get at leisure, I will put a shoulder to the wheel once more, and the 
high conception of thirty thousand subscribers shall be realized, to Benedict's 
contentment. 

I look with eagerness for Euggles's report. I know it will be good, and 1 

shall value it more highly for its enthusiasm and magnificent conceptions. Let 

it come soon. 

Auburn, March 27, 1S38. 

I am rejoiced to see that the New York & Erie Eailroad bill has passed, and 

with so great unanimity, and with the very opposition it received. What will 

be its fate in the Senate ? How can they refuse to pass it ? 

Tin, ling. 

I am so little accustomed to be in a majority, and to encounter the annoy- 
ances incident to my present position, that, but for your judgment or feeling, 
I should, before this time, have thrown up my hands and declared I would 
never be the candidate of an established majority, or for its nominations. Lit- 
tle credit the world would give me for that ; but I should be as free and inde- 
pendent as I love to be ; and I should possess my own conscience and lie satis- 
fied with my own place. 

Referring to a sudden change of Democratic votes in favor of the 
" Small-bill Law " and internal improvements, he said : 

Aunnnx, April 2, 1838. 

It is most certainly a bold change of front ; but I was not unprepared for it. 
I did not see how the enemy would dare go into the next campaign under the 
fearful odds arrayed against them. I will not tease you with idle questions 
about the details. I shall see you sooner than you can give me answers : but I 
am sure our policy is an obvious one, and is just and sound. 

Our town-meetings are supposed by us to be looking well throughout the 
county. We shall certainly have a great triumph here. We have never carried 
but two of the wards. It is now noon, and we are sure of three, and are ahead 
in the Fourth; but the " Fourth Ward " here, as in your city, is* the stronghold 
of the enemy. 

Arr.URX, April C<, 1838. 

You have the town-meetings. Are they not beyond your most sanguine 
hopes? We are even more successful than last autumn, and what makes it i 
satisfactory is, that a larger vote was polled than at any pr< \ ious election. Hie 
Connecticut election almost turns the beads of our people here. Hut I pray 
you, if you can, repress the exhibition of such wild joy as marked the last fall 
triumph. 

Our friend Granger made a beautiful speech in New York. I have just read 



3C4: LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

it, and doubt not it was well received. I never saw anything of his that was 
better. He will be fortunate as before in being present at the rejoicing, and in 
being the bearer of the intelligence to Washington. 

I am in a thousand scrapes. Every man thinks I am a bank, and that I can- 
not suspend specie or other payment. With scarcely ready money enough to 
plant my garden-seeds, I find all my neighbors, "Whigs and Conservatives, requir- 
ing my name and my money. This is bad enough ! But I have now before me 
two letters, one from Seneca Falls, and one from Batavia, from good political 
and of course personal friends, praying for aid. This is the most trying case 
I ever found. I would give them all I have, but that would be nothing ; and 
that they won't believe. 

I will be with you on Tuesday, though I had rather be drawn and quartered 
than expose myself at this juncture to the jealousies, and curiosity, and imperti- 
nence, that assail me wherever I go. 

Tell Harriet and Maria that I have set out roses and woodbine, and planted 
bowers for them to enjoy this summer, and we expect them to come and enjoy 
them. 

A few days later he wrote home from New York : 

I occupy a quiet nook in the American Trust Company's office ; but how 
long I may be allowed to hold absolute possession I do not know. The world is 
always in a whirl here, and I am always in the thickest of it; and just now it 
whirls more rapidly than ever. I am making some headway in my affairs ; none 
of my associates have yet arrived. Granger is here on his return from Washing- 
ton. The Kents are all well, and very kind, as always. Granger and I went 
yesterday to Spring Lawn, and spent a delightful day with Mrs. Webb and the 
Colonel. Weed is here for two days. My room is a levee. 

April 2Gth. 

My life begins to be a little more quiet ; but I have not dined at home in a 
week. Sometimes I have taken two dinners, and occasionally a supper. On 
Monday I dined with Mr. Charles A. Davis ; Tuesday with Mr. Philip Hone ; 
Wednesday with Mr. Grinnell; Thursday with Mr. Foot. To-day I dine with 
Gulian C. Verplanck ; to-morrow with Mr. Jones, and on Monday with Mr. 
Sidney Brooks. Last evening I spent at Mr. W. S. Johnson's. 

I have purchased two beautiful figures for the garden : one a gardener lean- 
ing on his spade to talk with the visitor ; the other a flower-girl with her basket. 
Where will you put them? 

To-night I am to go to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 
and I find myself gazetted in advance with Governor Marcy, Governor Mason, 
and Mr. Bradish, for a speech, though I hardly know what I am to say. 

It was during this visit to New York that he found himself in the 
midst of the excitement and rejoicing which followed the announce- 
ment that the Sirius and the Great Western were coming up the bay, 
thus, as one of the daily journals said, " satisfactorily proving the 
feasibility of performing the voyages of the Atlantic by the aid of 
steam." The Great Western had come in fourteen days and a half 



1838.] THE GREAT WESTERN. 

from Bristol, and brought sixty passengers. Congratulatory l< tl 
between the authorities and the British consul, collations and l> 
on board the steamers, commemorated the event of such international 
importance with suitable ceremonies. Among the incidents of tin- 
time was a dinner given by the Mayor of New York to the Court of 
Errors, at which the chief dish was a chicken-pic baked at Bristol in 
England. A few days later the departure of the Great Western, on 
the 7th of May, on her return-trip, was a gala-day. Ten thousand people 
gathered on the Battery to see her off. The bay was thronged with 
all kinds of craft, the shipping gay with flags, and the air resounding 
with patriotic strains from the various brass bands, of " Hail ( Jolumbia '" 
and " God save the Queen." The Great "Western herself carried an 
ensign on which the flags of the United States and England were com- 
bined, after the manner of quarterings on coats of arms. A large 
number of distinguished guests went on her down the bay, among 
whom were Governor Marcy and Mr. Seward. The Commercial Ad- 
vertiser exultingly announced that " Neptune himself is believed to 
have retreated to his cave in despair, as ho was not seen during the 
day, while the Tritons held fast to the shad-poles to keep from being 
swept away." 

New York, April 27, 1838 — Friday J/. 

The Baltimore election shows that the tide of our good fortune is not yet 
beginning to ebb. I congratulate you less for the gain we have made than the 
assurance it gives of continued prosperity of our cause. Give us the Fourth 
Ward, and I ask no more guarantee for the State. 

" Life in New York " has varied little with me since you left, except that it 
has become a trifle more tranquil. The unexpected hazard of the New York 
election brought a damper upon our confidence, ami forthwith everybody l 
to give good reasons for the defeat we were to suffer in Baltimore. 1 not 
that you exercised your ingenuity in the same way. It is now passing strange 
that we have succeeded. 

The Great Western is almost worn out as a novelty. When you 
down next week I shall be able to go on board with you quietly. Hit' 
access has been at the peril of life, limb, or drapery. I have an invitation I 
on board to-day with the Common Council. But I have an engaj you 

know, at Vcrplanck's. 

I had a long visit from Tallmadge after you left, and saw his brother this 
morning. Fortunately, I think the Conservatives here are not prepared i 
hold move, else they would precipitate everything. They will proceed cautiously, 
and will call a convention (after both the others) at Herkimer. 

Mr. Bradisb came this morning. I paid my respects at an early hour. He 
appears well. I regret that he is likely to remain so short a time. 

Sew r ard had been anxious, as his letters indicated, to relieve the 
Whig party at the coming canvass of any embarrassments on account 
of supposed rivalry or antagonism between himself and Granger. 



366 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

rived in New York, he found that those who were accustomed to man- 
age and decide such questions had made up their minds that his own 
nomination was desirable, and by many of them it was regarded as a 
sine qua non of success at the election. He wrote : 

As Granger came here last Saturday, and Weed on Monday, I thought the 
long-deferred explanation would come ; and I demanded of the latter that I be 
at liberty to withdraw if Granger was not inclined to do so. 

The explanation was had between them, the result being by agreement re- 
ported to me. 

Other conferences followed, the upshot of which was that Mr. 
Granger and his friends preferred to go on with the canvass for the 
nomination, although prepared to acquiesce in the result of the con- 
vention if it should be adverse to him, as they did not apprehend the 
loss of the State under whatever candidate, and believed that his 
(Granger's) strength with the people rendered it advisable to continue 
their efforts. Seward had been the gubernatorial candidate of the 
Whig party in 1834, the year when it had polled its highest vote. On 
the other hand, it was urged that Granger had prior claim, having been 
in 1830 and 1832 the candidate of the Antimasonic party, before it was 
merged in the Whig organization. 

Mr. Bradish, Speaker of the Assembly, was talked of in the north- 
ern counties as a candidate for Governor. Like Seward, he avowed his 
readiness to withdraw from the field, if in so doing he could promote 
the harmony of the party or its success. In view of what had already 
occurred, however, it was deemed best by his friends that he should not 
discourage the efforts in his favor. Other candidates began also to be 
mentioned, though less prominently ; among them Judge Edwards, of 
New York. The Whig State Convention was called to meet on the 
12th of September, at Utica. Seward wrote : 

I am sorry to hear that Bradish has set his heart upon what warm friends of 
both say ought to be my point of ambition. But I would be perfectly satisfied 
if he and the community, agitated by the question, could only know that in this 
competition I am compelled to sustain a part by the wishes of those whom, as a 
patriot, as well as friend, I am bound to respect instead of my own ambition or 
selfishness. I am already so wearied in it that, if left to myself, I should with- 
draw instantly and forever. I am ill-fitted for competition with brethren and 
friends, although I lack no zeal in opposition to a common enemy, or firmness 
in encountering " a sea of troubles." 

The promised lecture - engagement for June was now fulfilled. 
Writing from Albany he said : 

I went to Troy on Monday, and found myself welcomed by a very hospitable 
reception. An invitation was immediately handed to me to a public supper to 



1838.J A CANDIDATE'S EXPERIENCE. .,,,; 

be given me by the Whigs of the city. My lecture was read, and received with 
somewhat more favor than I anticipated. I had a large and highly-respectable 
audience, filling their large court-house. This, considering the intense summer 
heat, surprised and gratified me. I made a call at Horatio Averill's. Ii was 
impossible to leave there until I had been presented to the good Whigs who 
called upon me in large numbers at eleven o'clock yesterday. 

The tedious negotiations begun two years before to complete the 
purchase of the Chautauqua lands from the Holland Company were 
now drawing to a close. Seward and his co-partners me1 in New York 
and made the final arrangement. One of the partners had, in view of 
the changed financial condition of the country, grown anxious to re- 
linquish his interest in the enterprise, and be released from' its liabili- 
ties. Seward, desirous to overcome all difficulties and discords, whether 
at New York, Philadelphia, West field, or Amsterdam, agreed to take 
the other's share in addition to his own. This business kept him two 
or three weeks in New York. 

Meanwhile, the canvass throughout the State for the nominations 
at Utica was going on with vigor, and not without asperity. One of 
his letters describes his own experience of it : 

New York, July 8, 183 
Politically all is quiet here. The excitement I lived in last spring lias, in a 
great degree, subsided; and, except the officious intrusion of the subject of my 
nomination on all occasions, and the constraint which it imposes, I am without 
annoyance. But from Auburn, from Albany, from Canandaigua, from Roches- 
ter, from Buffalo, and from Washington, I learn continually that there is a tierce 
excitement directed against me, and that friends are alarmed and rivals' friends 
stimulated. 

These reports do not much annoy me. Stories aro in circulation absurd and 
ludicrous enough. They accuse me of having compassed all the borders of the 
State, personally or by agents, to secure the honor they deem so great. Tic. 
that the "young man at Niagara" who moved my premature nomination was 
three days with me at Auburn. They accuse me of an unjust conspiracy to de- 
stroy Granger. They allege that I seek the empty honor, with a pertinacious 
determination to attain it, even by a division of the party. They represent me 
as a speculator, taking advantage of the sufferings and embarrassments oi 
unfortunate to enrich myself. They allege that I persecute and oppress the 
settlers in Chautauqua, that 1 edit the Evening Journal, that I regulate the Bank 
of the United States, and that I control the movements of Henry Clay.' Bui 
with a clear conscience and greater magnanimity than is manifested toward me. 
I shall go safely through all this storm. 



368 LIFE AND LETTERS. [183S. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

1838. 

The Canvass.— Whig Young Men's Convention.— Whittlesey.— Fillmore and Tracy.— The 
Episcopal Diocese.— Whig State Convention.— Nomination of Seward and Bradish.— 
•• A Speculator."— The Antislavery Interrogatories.— The Election. 

A Whig Young Men's State Convention met at Utica on the 11th 
of July, Peter B. Porter presiding. Among those who took part in it 
were General Leavenworth, Gabriel Furman, Robert H. Pruyn, Mat- 
thew Yassar, Harlow S. Love, F. H. Ruggles, John H. Martindale, Pal- 
mer V. Kellogg, Cicero Loveridge, W. A. Sachet, and Jarvis N. Lake. 
The resolutions were reported by Horace Greeley, " the editor of the 
Jeffersonian." They were against the sub-Treasurj-, against experi- 
ments in national finance, in favor of internal improvements, the credit 
system, and small bills, and pledged support to the nominees of the 
coming Whig State Convention in September ; the object of the Young 
Men's gathering being to stimulate interest and enthusiasm in the 
cause, but not to express preference for any particular candidate. The 
Democratic press, however, maintained, and not without show 7 of reason, 
that this Young Men's Whig Convention meant that the Whigs should 
nominate a young man — that it was " the machination of a clique, con- 
sisting in part of the would-be candidate for Governor, and his fichis 
Achates of the Evening Journal, to forestall public opinion." 

The sub-Treasury debate had occupied a large share of the atten- 
tion of Congress. The project was made a cardinal point of the Ad- 
ministration policy, and became an issue in the coming elections, by 
the Senate passing the bill, and the House of Representatives laying 
it on the table. 

Governor Ritner, of Pennsylvania, had issued a proclamation, re- 
quiring the banks of that State to resume specie payments in August. 
The Bank of the United States, having reorganized under a Pennsyl- 
vania charter, had come to the relief of the Government by placing 
two millions at the disposal of the Secretary of the Treasury, through 
a purchase of its own bonds at par. Referring to these events, Seward 
wrote : 

Philadelphia, July 14, 1838. 

It seems to me that "the Monster " has, in the last move, .-.toned for all the 

of his letter to -T. Q. A. Ritner's proclamation was, asyouwillconjecte.ro, 

previously understood, and all is agreed. The bank resumes on the 26th instant, 

■i full explanation (perhaps better omitted) will be made. If it be as wise 
as Ritner's proclamation, all will be right. 

AuBtHRN, July 29, 1838. 

M.\ "garden," with its fruits and flowers, is so redundant of beauty that I 
have been constantly hoping you might be again transplanted into it to enjoy it 



1838.] WESTERN NEW YORK WHIGS. 

with me before my departure. I have good promise of grapes, and will try to 
send some to you if they escape -lack Frost. 

By-the-way, I pray you, make my warmest acknowledgments to II G 

for that beautiful article in the Fredonia Censor. I have never seen anj I 
better timed, or in better temper, or more discreet. I started from my chair as 
I read it, and said to myself, "No man could believe that this was written by 
anybody but myself." Its temper, manner, and the very facts used, seem sd to 
be exclusively mine own. 

I have several days desired an opportunity to give you our plan of organization 
in Cayuga. We have a committee-room, always open ; ami a clerk who sp< 
all his time there. Every morning each member brims ail hi- newspapers, 
documents, handbills, etc., and throws them upon the table. Then the cl 
puts them up, severally, in blank envelopes. In the evening, at seven preci 
the committee are expected to meet. The chair goes to the most punctual, 
rather he into the chair. The towns are called in order, and letters, communi- 
cations, and speeches, are read and heard from each. The mure extensive 
animating the correspondence, the more the committee-man who presents i; 
receives the approbation of the meeting. The meetings are open to all \\ 
and they soon become interesting and efficient. We have twenty-two towns, 
and assign each to some one individual, who is efficient and knows most of the 
people in it. These twenty-two men meet, every night, in the committee-room, 
and superscribe and address the newspapers, documents, etc., to persons in their 
respective towns. This done, they are forthwith carried to the post-office. 
Finally, the same committee-men sit down and each addresses a letter to his 
town, giving the information received that night in committee, and soliciting 
further intelligence, thus infusing a spirit into the towns which returns to ani- 
mate themselves. And thus we draw into service many men, in every town, 
who would otherwise be inactive. 

The same plan is carried out as to counties. Fight committee-men are ap- 
pointed, one for each Senate district, who make repori in the same way. 

If you think favorably of this plan, have it as extensively ado] I ! as pos- 
sible. 

Buffalo, Avgvst '. 1 
While at Canandaigua I made a call at Mr. Greig's, and received several 
Conversation, now consisting chiefly of exciting matters in relatioi 
political question, is by no means pleasant or healthful, especially when it turns 
on the hundred suspicions and malicious calumnies that such a time brit 
I thank Heaven that trouble will end soon. 

The stage called for me at 3 a. m., and set me down at Roche ter : 
found earnest friends there in the persons of F. Whittlesey, S. •'. Andr 
T. H. Rochester, and some others, and opponents as decided and 
scarcely as wise, in some gentlemen who, at present, seem to < onl :•"] the affaii 
our party there. Whittlesey accompanied me to Buffalo. We stopped 
where we found among all the Whigs, of whom A. II. I be most 

decided, cordial, and unbroken feeling. We landed also at Locbport, v 
there were many fast and devoted friends. Our next stage was t<> Niagara I 
by railroad. We staid there during the night, bad a long walk over tl 
shore and Goat Island, made a brief visit to Clifton and Table 
and slept, and the next morning came on to Bui 
24 



370 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

I parted from Whittlesey in the afternoon at Black Rock. I leave for West- 
field to-morrow morning. I had a long talk with Fillmore. He affects or feels 
entire neutrality, hut expressed himself as both bound and desirous to inform me 
of the whole ground ; says that he believes Seward will be nominated, and has 
so told Tracy. He expects that, and, if I do not read him wrong, is favorable to 
it ; but the circumstances of his own position render him cautious, and he will 
not act. 

The American was filled, and the crowd seemed to represent the whole 
country. The first man I met was the Rev. Mr. Shelton, who was eloquent on 
politics. My arrival there called about me many friends, and also many who 
had but ill-concealed resentment ; and it was quite obvious that it would not be 
difficult to call up a feeling of party discord there. 

Let me say to you it is quite fortunate that these unprofitable discussions are 
soon to have their close. 

He added a note to C. Morgan : 

Our system of organization will be adopted forthwith in Ontario, and Mon- 
roe and Seneca, and I have no doubt will engage the attention of our friends 
here. 

Let our friends with you demonstrate its practicability and efficiency by a vig- 
orous prosecution of the system both in the towns and counties. Write to Mr. 
Bishop, Mr. Frederick AVhittlesey, and Mr. S G. Andrews, Rochester; to Mi-. 
Fillmore, M. C, here ; also A. H. Tracy, Esq. 

Two or three days later, in a letter to Mrs. Seward from Westneld, 
he wrote : 

Preferring, as you know, the land to the sea, and night traveling to that of 
these heated days, I left Buffalo at half -past ten at night, and arrived here at one 
yesterday. 

It is a bright and glorious morning ; the scene is tranquil, and I, relieved from 
excitement, have commenced already the arduous labors to extricate myself from 
the huge undertaking that has so long engrossed so much of my care and atten- 
tion. I suppose it is an idle dream; but it often seems to me that, if we were 
all here, I might enjoy tranquillity and peace. Yet I know full well that it is the 
mind that makes peace or war ; that it is my temperament and constitution that 
attract the thousand cares, and these would as certainly call them round me here 
as else wh ere. 

My good friend Plumb is with me, and I am to go this afternoon to May- 
ville with him, and then on board " the splendid and fast-sailing steamboat 
William II. Seward " to Jamestown, to return in the morning. 

• "Westfield, August 10, 1838. 

I went on Tuesday to Jamestown and had a delightful excursion on the lake. 
The boat was gayly decorated with all her colors. The captain and passengers 
were pleased in showing me this gay array and combination of my name 
upon her sides and on her flags. If it did not awaken my vanity, it did excite 
in me no small emotion of satisfaction, and ought to have excited the most 
grateful acknowledgments to a beneficent God, when I reflected how different 



1838.] ST. PETER'S AT AUBURN. :; ;i 

were the circumstances under which I visit this country now from those which 
appertained to it and to me when I first saw it in L836. 

Last evening I spent at Mr. Reynolds's, who had a party in cbmplimenl to 
various friends from Buffalo. One of the ladies told me an incident illustrativt 
of some peculiarities of social life here that may amuse you a- it did me. Mr. 

A married a widowed lady of Buffalo. He had at the time a servant-girl 

who, after the first Mrs. A 's death, occupied the -eat at the head of the table. 

When Mrs. A the second arrived this damsel was required to sit lower down, 

and when a party of friends visited them Mrs. A availed herself of th< 

casion to exclude her from the table altogether. The next Sunday was tl, ■ com- 
munion service. Mr. A and his bride were there — the latter a communicant, 

as also was the girl, who took a seat directly in front of them. Just before th< 
id iief prayer she rose and audibly pronounced, " I desire the prayers of the Church 

for Mr. A and his family. I should think the present Mrs. A couldn't 

look with confidence upon the sainted Mrs. A if they were to meet here." 

The clergyman having omitted to comply with this affectionate and pious request, 
the girl rose again after the long prayer had been (dosed, and said: "It was 
the sainted Mrs. A 's dying request that her husband would give greater at- 
tention to religion, and her dying request ought to be attended to."' 

The Convention of the Episcopal Church, which met in Utica in 
August this year, had before it the question of dividing the diocese — 
the whole State of New York as yet constituting- but one. Among the 
clerical delegates were the Rev. Drs. Hawks, Potter, and Whitehouse : 
among the lay delegates, Washington Irving, John ( !. Spencer, and 
John A.King. It was decided at this convention to create* the new 
Diocese of Western New York, of which the Rev. Dr. Delancey was 
afterward made bishop. Seward, as a delegate from Auburn, fa\ 
both these measures. 

St. Peter's Church at Auburn, which be represented and had always 
attended, was founded in the early part of the century as a missionary 
station. During succeeding years, as the town increased in size, the 
congregation grew in numbers and prosperity. The first building 
destroyed by fire, but was replaced by a larger edifice of cut st< 
Gothic in architectural decoration, and its pulpit was occupied in suc- 
cession by Rev. Drs. Rudd, Lucas, and Croswell. Seward's p'\\ 
on the right of the chancel, and when in Auburn ho was always i 
seen in his seat on Sunday morning. He uniformly declined to take 
any share in the management of the secular concerns of the chi 
and would not accept the position of vestryman or church-warden. 
This was from no especial dislike to such duties, but was in accordanc 
with his habit of declining official position in any corporation, 
whether religious, financial, educational, or municipal. He took no 
part, therefore, in any dispute over clergymen or church finan 
though always ready to contribute liberally. On several occasions 
when the church subscription fell short of the required amount, he 



372 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

would make up the balance from his own pocket. Of the cordial re- 
gard that subsisted between him and the various clergymen who at dif- 
ferent times filled the pulpit, his letters contained many evidences. 

Sermons he usually listened to attentively, and discussed their 
themes afterward at the Sunday dinner-table. Of course, with the 
ripening development of his own intellectual powers, he soon came to 
note how few were marked by original thought, and how many, even 
by estimable and worthy preachers, were trite and commonplace. He 
used to say that his reverence for the pulpit had been so carefulty cul- 
tivated in early life, that it was always a surprise to him when he 
found that the clergyman was preaching a discourse not so good as he 
could write himself. 

In August the various counties commenced choosing their delegates 
to the State Convention. The "Whig Committee in Franklin County 
published a circular avowing their preference for Mr. Bradish, and ad- 
verting to the other persons who had been named : 

Let the convention meet, and, influenced by public considerations alone, 
make a nomination ; and whether the candidate for Governor shall be Kent or 
Spencer, Duer or Ogden, Verplanck or Hoffman, Tallmatlge or Root, Granger 
or Barnard, Seward or Bradish, or any other suitable man, the friends of Mr. 
Bradish, at least so far as we know, will give such candidate a cordial, firm, 
united, and vigorous support. 

The Convention met on the appointed day, September 12th, at 
Utica. The delegates, on assembling, seemed to be nearly equally 
divided as between Seward and Granger ; but a considerable number 
from the north avowed their first choice for Mr. Bradish. Discussion 
developed the fact that the nomination of Seward would be one very 
generally acceptable to the Whig masses, as his legislative record and 
vigorous advocacy of internal improvements had made him well known 
throughout the State, and he had, in 1834, polled the highest vote ever 
given for a Whig candidate. 

The convention organized in the afternoon, at the Court-House. 
Hugh Maxwell was chosen president. Among the delegates were Mil- 
lard Fillmore, Alvah Hunt, Charles E. Clarke, Chandler Starr, Fortune 
C. White, Albert H. Porter, James K. Lawrence, Robert C. Nicholas, 
Henry Fitzhugh, Day Otis Kellogg, Henry Van Rensselaer, John May- 
nard, D. B. St. John, and many others since prominent in public affairs. 

The friends of Seward, believing that he was the choice of the 
greater portion of the Whigs throughout the State, had expected to 
find a majority of the delegates outspoken in his favor. When the 
convention assembled, however, it was found that delegates from sev- 
eral localities were non-committal in their expressions, or prepossessed 
in favor of one of the other candidates. On the first informal ballot 



1838.] NOMINATED FOR GOVERNOR. 

the vote stood — Seward, 52 ; Granger, 30 ; Bradish, 29 ; Edwards, 1 • 
showing that, although having a large plurality, Seward fell shorl of a 
majority of the whole. Animated by this discovery, the in ad 
Mr. Granger made personal appeals in his behalf, the president, Mr. 
Maxwell, and Mr. Samuel Stevens, making strong speeches in his favor. 
The result was soon seen in the rapid increase of Granger's strength 
on the next ballot, which stood thus : Seward, GO ; Granger, 52 ; Bra- 
dish, 10 ; Edwards, 3. On the third ballot Granger's vote ran up to tl e 
highest place, thus : Granger, 60; Seward, 59 ; Bradish, 2 ; Edwards, 
2 ; blank, 1. 

Seward's friends saw now that exertion was necessary on their part, 
or they would be defeated. A formidable element of Granger's 
strength was the support he was receiving from the representatives of 
the region interested in the Chenango Valley ('anal, an enterprise in 
which he had been the accepted champion. While conceding thai 
Seward might be a stronger candidate in the State at large, they 
adhered tenaciously to the one most prominently identified with their 
favorite scheme of local improvement. "Weed," said Alvah Bunt, 
"tell me to do anything else ; tell me to jump out of that window, at 
the risk of breaking my neck, and I will do it to oblige you ; but don'; 
ask me to desert Granger and the Chenango Valley Canal !" Never- 
theless, argument prevailed. ' Speeches and not less effective con\> - 
sational appeals brought back the votes which Seward had lost, and 
the tide turned again in his favor. Among these speeches those of 
Chandler Starr and Day Otis Kellogg were especially effective. [1 
had now become evident also that the choice was narrowed down to 
the two leading candidates, and that the next ballot would probably 
decide it. 

The fourth ballot was taken, and resulted — Seward, 61 : Granger, 
48 ; Bradish, 8. 

This settled the question. The convention adjourned till morning. 
The next day, on reassembling, the nomination of Seward for Governor 
was ma'de unanimous, and Bradish was unanimously nominated 
Lieutenant-Governor. The president and vice-presidents were ap- 
pointed a committee to inform the candidates. Samuel Stevens, as 
chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, reported a series denouncing 
the Democratic party for "tampering with the currency," recapitu- 
lating the war on the currency and credit system by the removal of the 
deposits and the building up of the "money power" of local banks, 
as well as the "sub-Treasury scheme," "which, it was charged, aimed to 
" accumulate overbearing political influence " by "controlling ] 
ary interests." The true issue, they declared, was a "sub-Treasury or 
no sub-Treasury, with an equal, safe, and convenient currency. I 
abrogation of the "Small-bill Law" was indorsed, as well as the Gnan- 



374 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

cial policy laid down in Ruggles's report on internal improvements at 
the last session of the Legislature. 

The resolutions closed by denouncing " experiments and expedi- 
ents " and " specie circulars," and declaring that the Whig party 
sought " the restoration of the currency, of commerce, of prosperity, 
and tranquillity." An elaborate and carefully-drawn address was also 
reported, in the same vein, detailing the history, situation, and pros- 
pects of the State, political and commercial. Speeches followed by 
Samuel Stevens, Millard Fillmore, and Charles E. Clarke. 

The result of the convention was received with cordial approval 
by the Whigs throughout the State. Ratification meetings were held 
in the various counties, the meeting at the Exchange at Auburn being 
especially enthusiastic. The Whig press throughout the State gave 
the nomination an unqualified support, and in a few days a letter was 
published from Mr. Granger, saying that his parting request to a dele- 
gate on his way to the convention was, that " if either Mr. Seward or 
Mr. Bradish attained a majority at the informal balloting, my friends 
would give the successful competitor their united support," and that 
in accordance with that request the motion was made for the unani- 
mous approbation of the names presented. " In a contest like ours," 
he continued, " all personal feeling should be merged, and every Whig 
who may be honored with the public confidence of his party is to take 
the place assigned to him without a murmur, and to apply his best 
energies to secure a triumphant result." 

Mr. Weed wrote to the candidate this characteristic note : 

Saturday, September 15, 1838. 

Well, Seward, we are again embarked upon a " sea of difficulties," and must 
go earnestly to work. You have heard from the good aud true men who were 
at Utica all that occurred during the canvass. Let us now remember all that 
was fair, and forget all that was faithless. 

Maine has given us her cold shoulder, hut we shall have time to recover and 
rally. My faith in Pennsylvania is still unshaken. But even should Pennsylva- 
nia forsake us, I will not doubt the Empire State. 

Seward wrote on the same day to him : 

Auburn, September 15, 18S8. 

The members of the convention, from the west, passed through this place 
yesterday. The feeling was altogether as kind and harmonious as could have 
been expected. H. W. T., J. Q. G., and R. C. N". and T. F., of Batavia, called, 
with thirty or forty others. All expressed to me their cordial acquiescence, and 
all expressed themselves uniformly in the same way to everybody, so as to dis- 
sipate all alarm. M. F., of Erie, also exercised a happy influence. Iloxie and 
Inglis, and Mr. Corse and. Mr. Lawrence, were with us. After two hours with 
me at home I went to the hotel and dined with them. 

The official communication was received last evening. I have sent my an- 
swer this morning. I send you copies of both : 



1838.] THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. ;;--, 

w TT „ _ Utioa, - 13M. 

TV . II. bEWABD, l\»q. 

Deak Sik : As President and Vice-Presidents of the Whig Convention a 
bled at this place to nominate candidates of the Whig party for tin- 
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor at the ensuing election, we have been dir< 
by the convention to inform you of your nomination by that body as their can- 
didate for the office of Governor. 

This nomination was unanimously made, and we have the honor to n 
that you would signify your acceptance of the same. 

Be pleased to address your reply to Mr. Maxwell, New York. 

We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servants. 

II. Maxu ell, 

Presidt nt of the €<■;. 

Ari:n:.\. - [5th. 

Gextlemex : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your commu- 
nication announcing my nomination by the Whig State Convention, recently 
assembled at Utica, for the office of Governor of this State. 

Be pleased fo make known to the members of that body that I accept the 
nomination, with a profound sense of the honor conferred upon me by this 
renewed demonstration of the confidence of my Whig fellow-citiz< 

I am, gentlemen, with sincere respect and esteem, your obedient servant. 

W. II. Sewakd. 

HiJGn Maxwell, Esq., President; and Isaac Lacy, Latham A. Bn:r.mvs. Victoby Blrdseye. and 
Jeremiah II. Pieeson, Esquires, Vice-Presidents of the Whig State Convention. 

Avbct.n, September 2 
My letters come thickly upon me, and, after making all allowances for inter- 
ested motives and blind adulation, there is still enough to turn my head of gratu- 
lation from the good and the pure. 

Arr.rr.x, S ; 7th. 

Has it never occurred to you, as an evidence of the feeling and spirit of the 
party, that this nomination is conferred upon our candidate without any one's 
asking his preference for President ? No such question has been asked, publicly 
or privately, although the nomination has been seventeen days before the people. 

Do not adopt the measure about the Chenango matter without grave r 
tion, and well ascertaining whether there is absolute necessity. Mark me! Tho 
elevated vantage-ground we hold is weakened when candidates or their fri 
begin to explain or certify. It can rarely be done with safety, and always ought, 
where it is possible, to be avoided. 

» 

The Democratic Convention met at Herkimer on the same day 
that the Whigs met at Utica. It renominated Governor Marcy and 
Lieutenant-Governor Tracy, adopted resolutions, and an address declar- 
ing adhesion to the Democratic principles, but containing one expres- 
sion which, however consistent with past avowals, was unfortui 
and ill-timed for present effect. This was a sentence to tl hal 

the Democratic party would cooperate with the general Admin 
in efforts to suppress the circulation of bills under live dollars. 



376 LIF E AND LETTERS. [1838. 

The returns of elections in other States, during September and 
October, further»inspirited the Whigs : they had carried North Carolina, 
Kentucky, Rhode Island, Indiana; had gained in Illinois, and had re- 
elected Governor Ritner in Pennsylvania. Personalities constituted, in 
those days, as unfortunately they do still, a staple element in a political 
canvass. Seward's connection with the Holland Land Company was 
thought to be a vulnerable point for attack. Newspapers led off by 
saying that the purchase in Chautauqua was " one of the specu- 
lating concerns " with which Seward " had been connected and for 
which he had acted as agent," and that " the Bank of the United States 
afforded facilities for the scheme," winding up with the remark that if 
Seward " would surrender up to the settlers of Chautauqua the gains 
which he draws from their hard earnings, by selling their bends to a 
foreign corporation, he might with a better grace ask them to vote for 
him." 

Of course, this attack brought out an indignant reply from the 
Evening Journal, showing that Seward " had not drawn a dollar or a 
dime from the hard earnings of the settlers, but on the contrary stood 
between them and their oppressors ; that he took upon himself the 
duties of pacificator, and put an end to the system of extortion pre- 
viously existing." This defense was supplemented by assurances from 
Chautauqua that " the people of that county, without personal ac- 
quaintance with Mr. Seward, four years ago, gave him a majority of 
over fifteen hundred for Governor. Now, having witnessed the ability 
and integrity of his administration of the land-office for two years, 
they will, in November, evince then* estimate of him by a majority of 
two thousand." 

The accusation of being a " young man " was also renewed, though 
having less weight since he had grown four years older. The oppro- 
brious epithet of " Locofoco " which the Whigs bestowed upon their 
antagonists was retorted to by the pun that the " Small-bill party " 
would not be content without " a little Bill " as candidate for Gov- 
ernor. 

Contrary to the habit of his life in regard to personal accusations, 
Seward himself took notice of the charge in reference to Chautauqua, 
by publishing a letter to the citizens of that county, detailing the his- 
tory of his connection with the Holland Land Company, and saying : 

You know that your farms and firesides have not been put in jeopardy by me, 
but in so much as a deed subject to a bond and mortgage, with ten years' credit, 
is a more safe tenure than an expired and forfeited contract of sale, they have 
been secured to you ; and that you have not been delivered over to a " soulless 
corporation," but that your affairs have been arranged to secure you against any 
possible extortion or oppression. 

You will recollect that, in all the settlement of the estate, no cent of com- 



1838.] . ANTISLAVERY INTERROGATE ;; -~ 

pound interest or of costs lias gone into my hand; ; no man h lo 

acre of land which he desired to retain, with or without money — no arrears 
have been prosecuted — no foreclosure instituted, and every forfeiture relin- 
quished, upon an agreement to pay interest. 

He closed his letter by saying that it was written because du 
their welfare, which would be affected by discontents about the titles, 
and that, however willing to leave his own conduct to the test of time 
and candor, he could not suffer their interests to be put in jeopardy. 

There is a class of men who go before a great reform as pioneers 
do before an army. With undisciplined strength and zeal they push 
eagerly forward, in straggling column, hacking and hewing at what- 
ever comes, and so clear the way for the orderly tread of the disciplined 
battalions. They win no battles, but they open the way for battles to 
be won. They wonder, not without bitterness, at the slow movem 
of the general who insists on keeping the main body shoulder to 
shoulder. It would be asking too much of human nature, perhaps, to 
expect them to comprehend why the whole army cannot be pion< 
Such a class were the ultra-antislavery men, and such were their I 
ings, during most of his life, in regard to Seward. 

The Antislavery Society, now grown to such proportions as to 
be able, in some degree, to affect the result of the election, propounded, 
through a committee composed of Gerrit Smith and William Jay, in- 
terrogatories to the candidates in nomination. These interrogate 
were three : 1. In regard to granting fugitive slaves trial by jury ; 
2. In regard to abolishing distinctions in constitutional rights, founded 
solely on complexion; 3. In regard to the repeal of ''the law which 
now authorizes the importation of slaves into this State, and their de- 
tention as such during a period of nine months." 

Seward, as the whole record of his life had shown, was an earnest 
opponent of slavery, and had, furthermore, the sagacity to foi 
that to precipitate the issue prematurely i:i that canvass was simply 
to court defeat. He accordingly, in a calm reply, while avowing his 
firm faith in the trial by jury, and saying the more humble the individ- 
ual "the stronger is his claim to its protection," and declaring his op- 
position in clear and definite terms to "all human bondage," neverthe- 
less refused to make ante-election pledges as to his action upon 
cific measures, until they should actually come before him I r his 
sion. Of course, when the three subjects of these interrogatories came 
up, as practical questions of administration or legislation, £ 
action was all and more than they had asked. But his i 
election, though avowing more advanced sentiments than the bul 
the Whig party were yet prepared to sustain, were only partially 
satisfactory to the antislavery leaders, who denounced them through 
the press. The greater part of their followers, however, were from the 



378 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1S38. 

Whig- party, ami did not hesitate to vote for Seward and Bradish, in 
preference to the candidates of the Democratic party, whose senti- 
ments were avowedly hostile to their own. 

As the elect inn drew near, the usual appliances of processions, 
meetings, handbills, and mottoes, were brought into requisition. Dem- 
ocratic handbills flourished, in large black letters, such inscriptions as, 
"Resumption of Specie Payments," "Hard Money," "No Bank Rags," 
"Jackson Forever," "An Independent Treasury," " W. H. Seward, 
the Agent of the United States Bank and Holland hand Speculators," 
" The Money Power," etc. Those of the Whigs, in letters equally 
black and large, proclaimed, " No Sub-Treasury," "No Government 
Shinplasters," " No Separation of the Government from the People," 
"No Protests, Experiments, or Mortgages," "A Sound Currency," 
"Seward, the Poor Man's Friend," "Repeal of the Law against Small 
Bills," " Reform, Retrenchment, Education, and Internal Improve- 
ment," "Prosper Credit, Prosper Commerce,'" " Small Bills redeemable 
in Specie, the Poor Man's Currency," etc. 

A Chautauqua County Convention adopted resolutions denouncing 
the statements in regard to Seward as unfounded imputations upon 
them, which they were called on to repel by their votes. 

By a happy omen, as the Whig newspapers said, election came this 
year on the anniversary of General Harrison's victory at Tippecanoe, 
the 7th of November. The three days' contest was an exciting one. 
The polls closed. The A'otes were counted, and, as the returns came in, 
the Whigs grew more and more elated, till, on Saturday, the Auburn 
Journal was able to announce, " Go ring the bells, and fire the guns, 
and (ling the starry banner out ! The Empire State is redeemed ! " 

The Whigs oi' Auburn moved in procession to Seward's dwelling, 
to congratulate him upon his election. They fired a salute of one hun- 
dred guns in his honor on Saturday, and followed it up with another 
hundred on Monday, when the news came in from Chautauqua that 
that county had given Seward twenty-two hundred majority, more 
even than it had promised. 

Many days elapsed, as usual, before the complete returns of the 
State were received ; but, when they were, it was found that the major- 
ity for Seward and Bradish amounted to over ten thousand. 

The Evening Journal, at Albany, was especially jubilant. One 
entire page was covered by the picture of an eagle, with outspread 
wings, bearing in his beak. and talons such mottoes as, " As goes the 
Fourth Ward, so goes the State," "The Sober Second Thought of the 
People," " Victory ! " This bird was destined to play a part in all 
future celebrations of elections, being claimed by the Argus as a trophy 
to grace its columns whenever the Democrats achieved a victory, and 
flying back to its original perch on the Journal whenever the Whigs 
regained success. 



1838.] THE GOVERNOR-ELECT. ;;;;, 

The Whigs carried a large majority of the Assembly, though not v.-t 
enough Senators to change the Democratic complexion of that body. A 
majority of the congressional delegation were also Whigs. Among them 
were Francis Granger, Ogden Hoffman, Edward Curtis, Moses H. Grim 
James Monroe, Christopher Morgan, Theodore A. Tomlinson, Thomas 
Kempshall, Harvey Putnam, Richard P. Marvin, and Millard Fillmi 
among the Democrats, Gouverneur Kemble and John G. Floyd. 

The close of the contest brought the following note from Mr. Wee !: 

Frid ,v. ' /■ oth. 

Well, dear Seward, we are victorious; God be thanked, gratefully and de- 
voutly thanked! 

Judge Miller will of course come to Albany with you. We want the aid of 
his experience and wisdom. A fearful responsibility is upon you. God grant 
you the light necessary to guide you safely through! I go to New York this 
afternoon to temper and moderate the joy and rejoicings of our friends. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
1838-1839. 



A Busy Season. — The "Kane Mansion." — The Inauguration.— The Message.— .A Legisla- 
tive Dead-Lock. — State Officers. — The Oneidas. — Geological Survey. — "The Three- 
Walled House." — The " Atherton Gag."— Hoi eley. — Spencer.— Dr. Potter. — 
Canadian Raids. — Secretary Poinsett.— Foreigners. — Colonel Worth. 

Great w T ere the Whig merry-makings and festivities over the result. 
It seemed almost too good to be true that they had actually gained 
control of the State government at last. Eating and drinking still 
occupied a prominent place at political assemblages — a custom doubt- 
less derived from England, happily since fallen into disuse. There 
were festivals and suppers, with toasts and speeches, at Albany, at 
Newburg, at Coxsackie, at Whitehall, at Batavia, at Florida, and at 
other places. Occasionally these gatherings would be further inspired 
by the reception of letters or toasts from the party leaders. 

While his supporters were thus giving themselves up to merriment, 
the newly-elected Governor had plenty of anxiety and work. The 
seven weeks which intervened before entering upon the duties of 
gubernatorial office were busy ones. The house at Auburn was of 
course thronged with visitors at all hours, seasonable and unseasonable, 
and the mails brought him each clay an increasing avalanche of letters 
in regard to his new duties ; letters of congratulation ; letters of ap- 
plication; letters of solicitation ; letters of objurgation, and letters of 
advice. These honors (or annoyances, whichever they may be) are the 
experiences of every newly-chosen chief magistrate ; bui the shower of 
them was in this case the more abundant because the "U hig party was 
now, for the first time, realizing its long-deferred hopes of power. 



330 LIFE ANI) LETTERS. [1838. 

The patronage at the disposal of the Executive, larger then than now, 
was sought for with appetites keen from long fasting, and, as every 
Whig had shared in producing the unexpectedly successful result, nearly 
every one in the eastern part of the State at least f elt«himself entitled to 
say how the fruits of the victory should be used. Seward subsequently 
said that he received in the Eighth District a majority equal to his entire 
majority in the State; that during the short interval between his election 
and inauguration he received more than a thousand applications for office, 
and of these applications only two came from beyond Cayuga Bridge. 

There was an abundance of conflicting advice from a legion of ad- 
visers, fearful lest some misstep might lead to the early loss of the 
power just gained. Never, probably, was a Governor's message sub- 
jected by its friends to such severe scrutiny and anxious criticism, al- 
though the issues of public policy upon which the election had turned 
were clear and Avell-defined ones. 

But those of the new Governor's friends who were timid were fearful 
that he would say too much, while those who were sanguine were afraid 
he would say too little. The Governor-elect prepared a complete draft 
of the important document with his own hands in his study at Auburn 
before submitting it to others, and then took it with him to Albany early 
in December. Chief among the advisers there was Mr. Weed, who made 
a few judicious suggestions of amendments, all of which were adopted. 
John C. Spencer, who was to be Secretary of State under the new 
administration, with that indefatigable industry and precision which 
characterized him, wrote and rewrote paragraphs enough to have made 
an entire new message, of which only a small part could be accepted. 
Samuel B. Ruggles was relied upon to furnish the figures for the esti- 
mates of the future business of the canals. Dr. Nott came over from 
Schenectady to assist in conference on the subject of education. John 
H. Beach assisted in the preparation of the financial statistics. 

One of the paragraphs referred to the site then just purchased for 
the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, on a hill overlooking the valley of 
the Mohawk. Some one raised the point that Seward's description of 
the spot was too ornate. " Yes," said Judge Miller, with whom direct- 
ness and brevitjr of speech were essentials, "strike it all out; say the 
site is well selected." 

The suggestion was adopted ; but three weeks later Seward had a laugh 
at the expense of the proposer of the amendment, when an opposition 
paper pointed to this passage as being especially " curt and ungracious." 

Upon Mr. Weed, as chief adviser in all their party councils, the 
Whigs had already bestowed the sobriquet of " the Dictator." A letter 

to him said : 

Wednesday Morning, December hth. 

I have denied myself the time to write to you. My correspondence consumes 

two hours a day, the message the residue. It begins to walk. 



1838.J THE KANE MANSION. 33] 

I deny everybody I possibly can, and find I can work to good adv..! 
better here than oven in the closet, where my imagination might dream the 
of Clinton lingers. Pray tell me bow long you think you can extend mj 
lough ? 

You are right as to agriculture, but how J. C. S. would be surprised 
the message extended into an encyclopedia ! 

If Marcy required six months to move into a house, and Croswell sis Da 
to move out, I, a countryman, may be indulged three weeks to g< t into mine. 

December 8th. 

V. B.'s message is, I trust, not better than his successor's in this State mi 
so you see I am " thanking God, and taking courage."' 

I am so busy answering letters "of a certain description," that I sci 
have time to write to you. 

Don't decide npon the proposition of inauguration ceremony until you 
message. The character of that may not be conclusive upon the proposition; 
but, if it is a failure, don't magnify it by ostentatious display. 1 incline to 
believe the ceremony better dispensed with. 

Friday Morning, December \-Uh. 

I had no idea that dictators were such amiable creatures. It reminds me of 
old Hassans (Fatima's father's) expression, " My dear, terrible son-in-law," in 
"Bluebeard." I am sorry to say that I agree with Pruyn, King, and Greeley, in 
voting you down as to the emendation of the St. Nicholas letter. " I had a 
son," said the old man, " to whom on his setting out in life I gave this good ad- 
vice : 'Now, my son, there's always a right way to do things, and a wrong 
One or the other you must always take. Be sure and get the right one.' And 
don't you think," said he, afterward, "the fellow was so stupid he woul I 
take cither way ! " 

I would like to go forthwith to Albany. But the truth is, it's no easy 1 
to find out all about the condition of the State, and set it down in a book to 
satisfy this fastidious generation of Whigs. A message I must have and it ill 
have before I leave this town; for this reason, that if I were let alone at Al- 
bany, I couldn't get my books, papers, and habits, fixed before the 1st of Jan- 
uary; and as to being left alone, how could I shut myself up in a house that 
everybody has been engaged in preparing, and therefore knows every access to 
it and every hiding-place in it ? 

I devote this day and to-morrow to this business; Sunday to church for the 
last time here; Monday, to funds, finance, domestic arrangements, etc.; 
then I shall reach the capital early or late next week. 

One of the first cares to be attended to in Albany had been to ch 
a suitable residence for the Governor. Of course it would hardly ans 
for the Whig Governor to take a house which had I ight for his 

Democratic predecessor, and which the Whigs had unsparingly r diculed 
as " three-walled." Several others were proposed, bul vvas 

finally in favor of the "Kane Mansion," at the corner of Westerlo and 
Broad Streets — the grounds around which wore formerly this.' of a 
beautiful country-seat of that family, but were .inning to be 



382 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

intersected by city streets. The house was a spacious yellow-brick 
edifice, with broad wings, surrounded by a grove of horse-chestnuts, 
hemlocks, and pines, and with about four acres of grounds. It was in 
all respects well adapted for an official residence. A broad hall, fifty 
feet by twenty, ran through the centre, making an admirable reception- 
room for visitors, with a suite of parlors on one side, and family-rooms 
on the other. One wing contained a dining or ball room as spacious 
as the hall. The other wing nearest the street contained a room 
suitable for a library and business-office, with an adjoining room for 
a secretary. 

The old house lacked what are now called "modern improvements ; " 
but then no other house had them. Oil-lamps graced the gateway 
and the stoop without, as well as the chandeliers and mantels within. 
Candelabra were used on the dinner-table, and no one dreamed that 
there could be any light of more splendor. The great hall and the 
long dining-room each had one of Dr. Nott's newly-invented coal-stoves, 
and the parlors had grates to burn coal imported from Liverpool. 
Wood-fires heated the other apartments, or were supposed to, at an era 
when rooms were not expected to be warm except near the chimney. 
Water, clear and cold, was drawn from the depths of a great well 
that stood behind the house. The kitchen fireplace and brick oven 
were garnished with appliances which would now be deemed exceed- 
ingly primitive, though feasts had been served up from them that were 
considered royal. 

The house had before been occupied by Governors Clinton and 
Tompkins. Some of the black servants, who had appertained to the 
former official households and were now reemployed, were full of tra- 
ditions connected with the domestic life of those Governors. They 
pointed out the stairway where De Witt Clinton fell and broke his 
knee-pan ; the wine-cellar where Governor Tompkins stored his old 
madeira, and the lonesome dark passage-way through which wandered 
" the spooks " of some deceased persons, names and griefs unknown. 

When the announcement was made that the Governor was to live 
in the " Kane Mansion," the opposition papers, availing themselves of 
the cue given by former Whig denunciations, proceeded to call atten- 
tion to the fact that even the "house which the Whigs called a 'mar- 
ble palace' was now not thought good enough for their Governor ! . . . 
He must have a palace, with park, and grounds, and avenues ! " The 
old house had been a stately mansion, but the cutting through of streets 
had shorn it of the splendor of "park and avenues;" so the Whigs 
were able to defend themselves by pointing to these circumstances, 
and to the fact that Governor Seward was to pay the rent out of his 
own pocket. 

To furnish this house, and rent it for a single year, consumed about 



1838.] AT HOME IN ALBANY. 

twice as much as his salary for the entire terra ; but it was his habit 
not only to expend, for the public benefit, all that he • ived 

from the public Treasury, but as much more from his private r< 
as they would bear. Housekeepers and servants were at once em- 
ployed, and the household speedily organized. Seward went down to 
take possession ten days before the opening of his official term : 

Albany, / 

If I was oppressed with labor and cares at home, I have oot found a bed of 
roses here. Augustus and I came very pleasantly along with much less of salu- 
tation or importunity for office than I expected. We came into our I 
evening at five o'clock. The carpets were laid in the nicest manner, the si 
was heated, the lamps soon lighted, and some fine smoking-hol brook-trout were 
ready for our supper. After tea, Weed came in. We smoked and talked away 
the evening until twelve. This morning every wish was anticipated, and all 
our cares provided for. Thus far, although I have had company in abundance, 
the house has been quiet, and we are of opinion that you will fe tranquilly 
located when you come here, notwithstanding all tin- cares that may 1 
there is so much luxury in space, and so much comfort in the certainty I 
those you depend upon for the duties of servants understand and seek faithfully 
to perform them. Augustus is writing you a geographical account of the estab- 
lishment. 

A day or two later, he wrote : 

I am beginning to see my way through. Mr. 151atchff.nl is making a fair 
copy of the message. Mr. Cary is here, domiciled with me. I expect my father 
to-morrow. The town is full. They stay with me until twelve at eight. After 
Xcw-Year I shall begin to clear away the accumulating correspondence. I have 
one hundred and fifty unanswered letters to-day. We shall bi and 

keep the horses. " To the victors belong" their own horses! 

This alludes to a question which had arisen as to whether the gray 

ponies, capital little travelers as they were, were sufficiently "stylish," 

as well as sufficiently strong, to draw the handsome heavy can 

which a Governor must ride in. 

December % 

Christmas will be fully honored in your domicile. Its observance has 
very different in mine. The message ha- been a harder duty here than it was 
in Auburn. There I enjoyed the fervor and glow of composition, and 1 turned 
aside the less impatient friends with more ease than I can h< 

The ordeal of criticism here is more severe. I have bestowed no considera- 
tion upon any thing else. It will be ready on Saturday, and \ even now I 
to be relieved. I have had some friends to dinner daily, and we go wk- 

wardly, in some respects, for want of your presence and supervi ion. 

Mr. Bradish boards at Mrs. Lockwood's. His vindication of his 
tha abolition question will appear in a few days. lie shov 
proposing to invite him to divide the honors of the New-Tear with n 
doubtful whether I can find time to tell you the details of tl >n, but I 

will ask Blatchford to do it. Granger comes on the 15th. 



384 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1838. 

Albany, Thursday, December 27, 1838. 

If you happen to get a paper that shall contain the fcrov^rnor's message for 
1839, you may read it with safety. It has been subjected to such criticism that 
I scarcely recognize a paragraph of the draft I read to you at Auburn, and yet 
there is not a sentence in which it is not my own handiwork. It is yet my 
morning's study and my "night's entertainment." 

A great warfare is going on about the ponies. Mr. and Mrs. De Witt, John 
Townsend, Augustus and I and Nicholas, agree that w r e won't sell them to a 
hard-hearted purchaser. Weed insists upon the sacrifice to pride and vanity. I 
don't know how it will end. The calls thicken upon me; they have been about 
one hundred so far, to-day. I should fail in the attempt to give you an inventory 
of the hams, beef-tongues, turkeys, etc., for New-Year's-day ; they are all being 
" fixed for a feast." There will be five thousand people in the house next Tues- 
day. God grant us all a good deliverance ! 

Ten Broeck Van Vechten is smitten with the palsy ; his hands hang lifeless 
at his side, and his legs are useless. He is Judge- Advocate-General, under Gov- 
ernor Marcy. He sent for me to-day to signify his desire to hold on, under me, 
his classmate ; and is actually coming to attend me on New-Year's-day, in a 
rocking-chair. 

The Governor-elect had. some time before designated Mr. Samuel 
Blatchford to be his private secretary. Several of the military staff 
had also been already selected, and were to be commissioned by the 
Governor on New-Year's-day. They were : 

Rufus King, of Albany, Adjutant-General ; Jonathan Amory, of 
New York, Spencer S. Benedict, and John F. Townsend, of Albany, 
aides-de-camp ; Robert C. Wetmore, of New Yoi'k, military secretary. 
Mr. H. G. O. Rogers, of Albany, was appointed messenger and door- 
keeper of the Executive Chamber. 

At midnight the strains of a band of music from without announced 
to the Governor the commencement of his official term. The serenaders 
were invited into the hall, and so began the first reception of the day. 

At eleven o'clock, on New-Year's morning, the Governor and Lieu- 
tenant-Governor elect proceeded to the Capitol to be sworn into office. 
The ceremony of inaugurating a Governor at Albany was a very sim- 
ple one. There were no processions or speeches. The Governor usu- 
ally entered the Executive Chamber, already vacated by his predeces- 
sor, took the oath, and entered at once on his duties. On this occasion, 
however, the crowd to witness the ceremony was so great that the new- 
Governor took a place on the landing of the broad staircase, in the hall 
of the Capitol, where Chancellor Walworth administered the oath of 
office. 

The Legislature met on the same day, and the new Lieutenant- 
Governor proceeded to the Senate-chamber, to enter upon his duties 
as presiding officer, for which his imposing presence and dignified 
bearing admirably fitted him. The private secretary w T as dispatched 



1839.] THE FIRST MESSAGE. 

with two copies of the Governor's message, to be delivered to the two 
Chambers. The official duties of the Governor, for the day, wen- now- 
ended ; and the more arduous social ones began. Before taking bis 
carriage, he wrote this brief note : 

Executive Chamber, 11 a. m., ) 
January 1. I ) 

My deak Frances: "We are here. The ceremony is over. A joyous people 
throng the Capitol. This is the first message. 

Returning to his house, he found there a rapidly-increasing crowd 
of several thousands. At noon the doors were thrown open, and the 
eager throng poured in to shake hands, and congratulate the new 
Governor, who stood in the great hall surrounded by his military staff. 

The old-time custom of undertaking to ford the multitude on an 
occasion of public rejoicing was still in vogue at Albany. The carpets 
were all taken up, long tables were spread with a collation, and re- 
plenished as fast as the surging crowd swept them oil'. The multitude, 
sans cerhnonie, commenced festivities, orderly enough at first, though, 
as the day wore on, and the graver visitors were succeeded by others 
less dignified, taking somewhat the air of a saturnalia, but not an un- 
friendly one. The rooms were so blocked that occasionally a move- 
ment of the dense mass would bring down one of the tables with a 
crash. With the slender police force then in existence, it is only 
remarkable that so few scenes of confusion, disorder, or riot, marked 
these tumultuous assemblages. 

The scene was enlivened by the successive visits of military com- 
panies with their bands of music, for whom fresh tables were spread in 
the hall above. As the crowd could not all get admission, turkeys, 
hams, etc., were passed over the heads of those within to those with- 
out, while barrels of New-Year's cakes stood by the door and were 
handed out to all comers. 

At dark the doors were closed, a welcome relief to the Governor, 
who had shaken hands with three or four thousand people, and hit 
standing around the house as many more. The "banquet-hall de- 
serted" looked desolate enough, but no serious injury had been done, 
further than the attendants in the course of* the next week could 
remedy. 

Meanwhile the Legislature had organized, the Lieutenant-Governor 
had made his speech to the Senate, and the newly-elected V\ : 
George W. Patterson, had made his to the Assembly. 

While the Clerks of the respective Houses were reading the 
sage, already in print, it was dispatched to the newspapers east, v 
north, and south, forwarded by special engine over the A!i hawk A Hud- 
son Railroad, and sent by special messenger to New York. 

An Executive message is usuallv understood to lie a mass of drv 
25 



386 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

statistics and drier recommendations, without special connection, and 
forming several columns of very dull reading. It is praised by all the 
partisans of the Executive writer, and denounced by all his opponents, 
but little remembered by either, except as they happen to approve or 
disapprove some one of its details. Governor Seward's message of 
1839, however, had a unity and coherence of plan on as grand a theme 
as that of one of Homer's epics. Whoever studied it, if any did, might 
have predicted his future course on political questions, for it contained 
the groundwork of his political philosophy, and of the policy that 
guided him throughout his entire public career. In substance it was 
this : 

America is a land of latent, unappropriated wealth ; the minerals 
under its soils are not more truly wealth hidden and unused, than are 
its vast capabilities and resources, material, political, social, and moral. 
Two streams that come from the Old World, in obedience to great 
natural laws, are pouring into it daily fresh, invigorating energies. 
One of these streams is the surplus capital of Europe. The other is 
the surplus labor of the world. Both steadily increase in volume and 
velocity. It is idle to try to roll back their tide. It is wise to accept 
them and to use them. Instead of delaying about one great line of 
communication from the sea to the lakes, rather open three — through 
the centre of the State, through its northern counties, and through its 
southern ones. Instead of vainly seeking to exclude the immigrant, 
rather welcome him to our ports, speed him on his Western way, share 
with him our political and religious freedom, tolerate his churches, 
establish schools for his children, and so assimilate his principles, his 
habits, manners, and opinions, to our own. In a word, open as far as 
possible to all men of whatever race all paths for the improvement of 
their condition, as well as for their mental and moral culture. Can we 
ask for other signs than we enjoy, " that our race is ordained to reach 
on this continent a higher standard of social perfection than it has ever 
yet attained, and that hence will proceed the spirit which shall renovate 
the world? The agency of institutions of self-government is indispen- 
sable to the accomplishment of these sublime purposes. Such institu- 
tions can only be maintained by an educated and enlightened people." 

In accordance with these principles as a basis, his recommendations 
in detail were to prosecute the work on the canals ; to encourage 
the completion of railroads ; to establish a Board of Internal Improve- 
ments ; to encourage and extend charitable institutions ; to give 
more enlightened care to the reclamation of juvenile delinquents ; to 
improve the discipline of the prisons, separating the male and female 
convicts ; to elevate the standard of education in the schools and col- 
leges ; to establish school-district libraries ; to provide for the education 
of the colored race, as well as the white ; to reform the organization 



1839.] APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE. ;;,- 

and practice of courts, so as to lessen delays of justice, especially 
in chancery; to cut off superfluous offices and unnecessary patron 

executive and judicial; to substitute fixed salaries for artfully-multi- 
plied fees; to abolish the army of inspectors " who hinder the agriculture 
and the commerce they profess to protect ;" to repeal the "Small-bill 
Law," and no longer embarrass "the only currency which can be main- 
tained, a mixed one of gold, silver, and redeemable paper ; " to authorize 
banking under general laws instead of special charters ; to apply rigor- 
ous safeguards, especially in populous cities, for the purity of the 
ballot-box. He unhesitatingly accepted Ruggles's estimate thai the 
canals would more than reimburse the cost of their construction and 
enlargement, paid a tribute to Clinton's wise forecast in founding the 
system, and recommended the erection of a monument to his memory. 

This message, whose predictions have now been verified by sub- 
sequent events, and whose recommendations have in a great degree 
been adopted in the statute-book, was thought at the time, even by 
friends, to be a bold one, and criticised by opponents as a reckless and 
visionary one, though its ability was on all sides conceded. It is need- 
less to reproduce here the newspaper controversies, or the legislative 
debates, of which it was long the subject as an exposition of the doc- 
trines of the new party in power. 

The comments of the opposing press, indeed, were varied. They 
called it a " curious piece of patchwork," "the labor of several hands," 
"the effusion rather of the sophomore than of the statesman," con- 
taining "the visionary schemes of theorizing politicians," " magnificent 
plans based on a false, foundation," etc., etc. 

Jnow began a season of unremitting toil. The new Governor, as 
leader of the political revolution which had taken place, became the 
focus upon which concentrated the wordy war of legislation and the 
fierce struggle for office. Without any other clerical assistance than 
that of his indefatigable private secretary, without cabinet counselors, 
with a Senate politically opposed to him, with judges and all office- 
holders appointed by his opponents, he had only the support of the 
Whig Assembly, and his Whig friends outside of the government, to 
rely upon. 

All the hours of the day were not numerous enough to give audience 
to impatient visitors. 

The appointments within the gift of the Governor, while they did 
not comprise the cabinet counselors (which the head of almost every 
other government is accustomed to select), vet embraced manj offices 
since abolished or made elective. He was to nominate judges, surro- 
gates, county clerks, masters and examiners in chancery, inspectors of 
prisons, wreck-masters, weighers of merchandise, measurers of grain, 
cullers of staves and heading, inspectors of Hour, of lumber, of spirits, 



388 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

of salt, of beef and pork, of pot and pearl ashes, of green hides and 
calf-skins, of sole-leather, of fish and liver oil, etc., superintendents and 
commissioners of various sorts, besides the port-wardens and harbor- 
masters, notaries public and commissioners of deeds, which in later days 
form the bulk of his patronage. 

Yet, numerous as they were, they were not enough to satisfy one 
applicant in ten. They never are. And the most embarrassing feat- 
ure of all was, when personal friends and political leaders, well entitled 
and well qualified, engaged in rivalry which made it impossible to satisfy 
one without disappointing the others. Applications came through every 
channel, through members of the Legislature, through Whig commit- 
tees — through meetings and conventions organized on purpose to recom- 
mend them, through personal visits engrossing the Governor's time, 
and through shoals of letters amounting, in those days of high postage, 
to no small tax on his pocket. 

A few illustrations will serve to show the character of his replies, 
as well as the rules that governed his action. 

To Mr. Beardsley, of Auburn, he wrote : 

Whatever power I have to make appointments to office is altogether un- 
pledged, and, in order that it may always be so, I in no instance form an opinion 
for myself until the exigency arrives when my action is demanded. "When that 
time comes I seek always to find a suitable and qualified candidate of good 
character — one whose selection would most promote the public good, and whose 
appointment would give the most general satisfaction. 

To John B. Murray, of New York, he wrote : 

i 

Great as are the inconveniences resulting from misapprehensions, it is a # rule 
from which I never depart that I cannot discuss, by correspondence, the pre- 
tensions of candidates for office. An acknowledgment of an application, when 
made directly, is all. I make this statement because your letter desires a reply. 
I am always willing to hear the views and wishes of applicants and their friends, 
but the reasons why I cannot and ought not to answer them are obvious. 

To Seth C. Hawley, of Buffalo, he said: 

I thank you for the evident frankness and kindness with which you write, 
and, as it is both improper and impossible for me to discuss in my correspond- 
ence the claims and pretensions of candidates, I can only say this in reply. 

To the chairman of the Whig General Committee in Brooklyn he 
said : 

I am willing to receive information in every manner, and from all sources, 
in regard to applications, and I do not object to receiving recommendations from 
Whig committees and county conventions where such bodies deem it important 
to address me. As the chief magistrate of the whole people, I do not hold such 
communications entitled to authoritative force, and from long observation of 



1839.] A GOVERNOR'S CORRESPONDENCE. ;;o, 

their practical results I regard them unfavorably, as tending to convert the 
appointing power into an engine of proscription for freedom of opinion. 

To J. L. Chester he wrote : 

I cannot be a party to an agreement whereby one individual .shall resign his 
commission, that another shall be substituted in his place. To enter into Buch 
a stipulation would be to deprive myself of the right, indispensable to an ho 
and proper exercise of the appointing power, to inform myself of the merits 
and claims of all candidates. 

To W. Samuel Johnson he remarked, about a troublesome case: 

I, too, wish this affair were out of the way; but it is a part and parcel of 
the entire burden that I put my shoulder under. It shall be in good time dis- 
posed of, with a sole view to the public interests. 

To one who proposed to resign the place of Supreme Court Com- 
missioner and retain those of Master and Examiner in Chancery, he 
replied, declining 1 to advise, and saying: 

Far from being desirous that my power shall be increased by the recurrence 
of vacancies in the public offices, and unwilling by previous stipulation.- to em- 
barrass myself, I leave this and all similar matters to the natural and ordinary 
course of events. 

To Andrew "Williams, of New York, who had written, expressing 
surprise at receiving a commission, he answered : 

I can give no better apology for the liberty taken with your name than that 
at an early period of the session your name was suggested to me as a very 
suitable one for nomination to the office, by my recollection of your persevering 
diligence and success in your profession, and your ardent and eloquent vindica- 
tion of principles. 

The correspondence of a Governor is an heterogeneous one. The 
pile of letters upon his table that greet him every morning <>n entering 
the Executive Chamber are of every size, shape, and style. One-third 
of them are devoted to the absorbing subject of appointments to 
office. Then there are official communications from public officers in 
reference to pending measures or accounts ; from sheriffs and district 
attorneys in relation to criminal cases; from the various State insti- 
tutions about their needs; from brother Governors in regard to 
requisitions, or transmitting legislative resolutions, and the like. Be- 
sides these legitimate subjects of official care, then' are others not 
quite so regular. There are missives of advice on all sorts of subjects, 
from all sorts of persons, most oracular and positive on things they 
know least about. There are requests from people he has never seen, 
to be introduced to persons he does not know, for his position is sup- 



390 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

posed to render him acquainted -with everybody. There are claims and 
appeals for money, some piteous, some aggressive, among them details 
of cases of real hardship and worthy enterprises, yet amounting in all 
to enough to drain the State Treasury as well as his individual purse. 
There are invitations to attend all manner of commencements, celebra- 
tions and balls, with honorary memberships in societies of fame and 
note in metropolitan centres, as well as obscure ones in remote village 
academies. Then there are authors, artists, and inventors, who solicit 
examination of their latest work, for a Governor is supposed, ex-officio^ 
to have more taste and learning than other men. There are requests 
from autograph-seekers, most of whose notes betray their juvenile 
years. Then there is occasionally a letter from a happy father, inform- 
ing him of a new namesake who is expected to imitate his virtues ; but 
this is counterbalanced by half a dozen anonymous scrawls accusing 
him of vice and crime. Last, and most painful, and most persistent of 
all, are the daily appeals from, or in behalf of, the innocent wives and 
children of guilty wretches undergoing punishment and wanting to be 
pardoned. 

Each of these letters, when received by Governor Seward, had i 
prompt, courteous, and considerate answer. The task of preparing 
these answers involved more than ordinary labor, in view of the un- 
usual circumstances of the time in which he came to the charge of the 
Executive office. 

An applicant for a place, who sent with his letter some handsomely- 
bound volumes, received them back with this note : 

You will not misunderstand me. I by no means suppose any impropriety 
was intended on your part, and the present of a literary work might, under 
many circumstances, be proper and right. Yet I deem it necessary to adhere to 
my established rule to receive no gifts from applicants. 

The first official dinner given in the Executive Mansion was to 
three Indian chiefs who had come from the Oneida and Stockbridge 
tribes to greet the new " father," and lay before him the claims and 
the grievances of their tribe, at that time under State protection. The 
chief of the Oneidas said : 

Father, I address you according to the covenant of friendship of our fore- 
fathers. After your race had increased and become greater tban mine, your 
great chiefs were to be fathers to my people. I am pleased to find that you, 
though young, and just raised to be the father of a great nation, condescend to 
notice your red children also. You kindly invited us to eat, and to smoke the 
pipe of peace with you, which we have now done. I thank the Great Spirit 
above for his goodness in allowing us to have the social interview at this time, 
and for inclining your heart so favorably toward us. May he be a Father to 
you and assist you to accomplish satisfactorily all the great work you will be 
called upon to do for your great nation, and give you many and happy days! 



1839.] VISITORS AND APPLICANTS. 

Father, it is very probable that I am the last of the Muhheconnew that will 
ever come on business to this place. My present fireplace is so Ear removed 
toward the setting sun that it is really hard to come here; bul I hope you will 
not suffer me to come in vain. I wish to have the business <>f my cation with 
this government settled, then I shall be satisfied and willing to bid adieu to my 
fathers, brothers, and the land containing the bones of my forefathers. This is 
all I have to say. 

The Oneidas were living at this time, a part of them on their reser- 
vation in the State, and the rest in their new homes in Green Bay, 
Wisconsin. 

Years afterward one of these ehiefs, with a mournful shake of his 
head over the changes of the times, said, " The big kettle was always 
hanging over the lire for the Indian when Seward was the greal 
father.'' 

Social life in Albany at this period has been so fully described m 
the letters of 1831 to 1831, that it is hardly necessary again to adverl 
to it here. The town had grown since that lime in population and in 
wealth, and there was an influx of new faces at and aboul the Capitol, 
but most of the resident families were the same, and the hospitable 
customs continued. 

There was in 1839 no such well-organized system of associations 
and asylums for the relief of the poor as now exist, and the tax upon 
the compassion as well as the pockets of the charitable was in winter 
an onerous one. Fortunately, the art of swindling, by cases of pre- 
tended distress, was also much less completely organized than now. 
None were turned away empty-handed from the Governor's door ; and 
those whose appeals came by mail were treated with like liberality and 
given the benefit of all doubts, although both classes seemed, instead 
of being relieved by the bounty, to increase by it in number and impor- 
tunity. Later, in writing to a friend, ho remarked : 

I have thus far yielded to those applications to an extent which neither my 
public compensation nor private fortune will bear; and I Had it necessary in 
this as in some other matters to deny myself the pleasure of consulting impulse - 
of generosity. 

There was no time or opportunity to ascertain the truth of their 
tales. The customary alms to them was at first a dollar to each, but 
their number multiplied so rapidly that it became 1 necessary to reduce 
it to half or even a quarter. 

Among the letters was one from Edward Everett, then Governor of 
Massachusetts, who was distributing to the libraries of the se> 
States a publication of great historic value, the "Journals o( the I 
vincial Congress of Massachusetts " during the year that opened the 
Revolution. 



392 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

On the very first day of legislative session the Whigs fulfilled their 
promises by attacking the " Small-bill Law." Mr. Taylor, of Ontario, 
brought in a bill for its unconditional repeal, and of course the Whig 
Assembly promptly passed it. The Democratic leaders showed they 
were now not ignorant as to which was the popular side of this question, 
by introducing a similar bill into the Senate. The obnoxious measure 
was speedily abolished by a vote almost unanimous, although Colonel 
Young, with proverbial consistency, and his colleague, Mr. Spraker, 
adhered to it till the last. 

As the Democrats had a majority in the Senate, they determined 
not " to advise or consent " to the nominations of the Whig Governor 
except in cases of absolute necessity. All removals, in order to make 
new appointments, were thus defeated ; and even officers whose terms 
had expired held over, the Senate declining to confirm any successors. 

In the midst of this pressure of business came the distressing intel- 
ligence of the death of Seward's only sister, Cornelia. She died at her 
home in New Jersey, of a sudden attack of quinsy. Beloved by all who 
knew her, her death cast a gloom over the household at Albany and at 
Auburn. Writing a few days later to Mrs. Seward, he said : 

Albany, January llt/i. 
I begin this letter with little hope that I shall be suffered to proceed through 
five lines before I am called away. Ever since that dreadful bereavement I have 
been unable to write. I could not write on that subject, and it was treason 
against nature and affection to write on any other. 

Our dear sister was brought to Florida. You know not how much this has 
soothed my grief. Death I no longer look upon as an unmingled evil, and the 
relief of its circumstances renders it less horrible. 

On the 26th of January died Stephen Van Rensselaer, at the Manor- 
House in Albany. He had been formerly Lieutenant-Governor, and 
was at the time of his death Chancellor of the University, President of 
the Canal Board, and senior major-general. His death was communi- 
cated to the Legislature by special message of the Governor, and both 
Houses, with the State officers, attended his funeral. 

Among other communications received by the Governor was one 
making inquiry as to what could be done about colored seamen in 
prison under the laws which South Carolina had now seen fit to enact 
in reference to all who came into her ports. He replied : 

1 am not aware that there could be any objection to the Governor's submitting 
such a case, when it occurs, to the Legislature of this State ; and I certainly agree 
witli you that, when the party oppressed is unable to bear the expense of legal 
proceedings to recover his liberty, the State ought to assume the burden. 

New State officers were now to be chosen — the terms of the Secre- 
tary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, and Attorney-General, having 



1839.J THE STATE OFFICERS. 393 

reached their expiration. All were to be elected by the Legislature. 
A caucus of the Whig members was held on the evening of the 31st of 
January to nominate these officials, as well as a candidate for United 
States Senator. As the Whigs would have a majority on joint ballol 
of the two Houses, no doubt was entertained of the election of the 
caucus nominees. John C. Spencer was nominated with general ac- 
quiescence for Secretary of State, his talents and legal ability b 
acknowledged on all hands. Bates Cook, of Niagara County, a former 
member of Congress, and a leading Antimason of integrity and financial 
skill, was named for Comptroller, it being conceded that the Eighth 
District, the stronghold of the party, was entitled to that place. That 
of Treasurer was assigned to the river counties ; Jacob Haight, of 
Catskill, formerly a "Bucktail" Senator, and subsequently a linn fol- 
lower of Adams, was selected. Over the attorney-generalship there 
was a contest between the friends of Joshua A. Spencer, of Utica, 
Samuel Stevens, of Albany, and Willis Hall, of New York. The high 
professional standing of the two former was warmly urged in their 
favor, but the New-Yorkers claimed with some justice that their locality 
was entitled to one of the offices, and, as Mr. Hall's legal learning and 
talent were unquestioned, the nomination was accorded to him. 

Adoniram Chandler was at the same time designat< d as candidate 
for Commissary-General. A printer by profession, he had served in 
the War of 1812, and was a member of the Legislature of 1838. 

Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, after some hesitation, was renominated for 
United States Senator, though not without dissenting voices that 
claimed an original Whig should be put in nomination, instead of one 
who had come in at the " eleventh hour." Elected to his scat in 1833 
by the Jackson men, he had acted with that party until after Mr. \ an 
Buren's inauguration, when he broke with them on the sub-Treasury 
issue. Those who followed him out of the Democratic ranks took the 
name of "Conservatives," and under his lead had held a convention at 
Syracuse in October, at which they formally pledged their support to 
Seward and Bradish. In view of the effective services thus rendered, 
and his confessed qualifications on other than partisan grounds, the ob- 
jections were overruled, and he was nominated. 

On the 4th of February the two Houses, having gone into joint 
ballot, elected the Whig nominees for State officers and Commissary- 
General. The next day was set down for the election of I nited Si 
Senator. The Democrats were especially hostile to Mr. Tallmadge's re- 
election, viewing him as a deserter from their cause. They determined 
to avail themselves, therefore, of their control of the Senate, to defeat 
action. It beingan essential preliminary to a joint ballot that each 11 
shall first separately agree upon a candidate, the eighteen Democrj 
Senators, instead of combining their votes, scattered them so that no 



394 LTFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

candidate should receive a majority. The thirteen Whig Senators, of 
course, voted for Tallmadge. The ingenious plan of the Democrats once 
nearly miscarried. Two of them having voted for Samuel Beardsley, 
the Whigs all voted for him, which brought the Senate within one vote 
of a choice. Warned by this, the majority refused to vote any further, 
and took the ground that the choice ought to be made by joint resolu- 
tion. As this was impossible, the election of Senator was blocked for 
that session. 

It is doubtful whether any political organization ever gains by such 
devices to thwart an opposing majority seeking only to exercise its con- 
stitutional prerogatives ; for, if temporarily successful, they usually 
react upon their movers with damaging force at the next election. It 
was so in this case. The Whigs had an advantage in being able to 
parade in the next campaign a " senatorial black list " of eighteen 
names for popular condemnation. 

Replying to a friend who deemed one of the newly-appointed State 
officers an unwise selection, Seward remarked : 

Albany, February Ibth. 
The cabinet appointed by the Legislature is, as a whole, as perfect as could 
be expected to be formed at once by any party coming into power. Be this as i 
it may, while I appreciate your motives in your frank explanation of your views 
upon this subject to me, I am sure you will not expect from me a discussion 
of the merits of the appointment in reply. It was my duty to receive,' not to 
make, a cabinet, and it is now my duty to secure its harmony and efficiency, not 
to prevent them. 

The cabinet proved an able and effective body of State officers, and 
entirely harmonious relations prevailed between them and their chief 
during their continuance in office. 

John C. Spencer was its best known and most active member. 
Rigid, stern, grave, with dark hair and keen eye, his appearance com- 
manded respect; and he rarely unbent except in the society of intimate 
friends. By them he was esteemed for his great abilities and his in- 
domitable industry and energy. One of his associates said, " Spencer 
is not only ready, but wants to do all his own work and all of every- 
body else's." 

On the 18th of February Samuel B. Ruggles was elected by the 
Legislature as Canal Commissioner to fill the vacancy occasioned by the 
death of Stephen Van Rensselaer. His earnest manner and wonderful 
memory of facts and figures already made him an authority on all canal- 
enlargement questions, and he had a happy faculty for striking illustra- 
tions to adapt mathematical truths to popular comprehension. 

There was hardly a day in which the Governor and Mr. Weed did 
not meet. Their long intimacy and close political connection had al- 
ready given rise to the designation of " Weed and Seward men," ap- 



183'.).] HORACE GREELEY. •• ,- 

plied to such of the Whigs as were supposed to be especially in their 
confidence and support. 

A story, frequently since published in the newspapers, must have 
originated about this time. It was to the effecl thai Seward was ou 
one occasion riding- on the driver's seat of a stage-coach to enjoy his 
cigar. The driver casually inquiring his name, and receiving for reply 
that he was Governor Seward, thought his passenger was endeavoring 
to hoax him, and would not believe it. Finding him still incredulous, 
the Governor offered to leave it to the landlord of the next tavern to 
decide. When they drove up, the landlord, a personal acquaintance of 
the Governor, was standing in the door. After exchanging salutati 
the question in dispute was stated, and Seward said : "Now tell him. 
Am I the Governor of the State of New York or not V " " No, certainly 
not!" replied the landlord, to the groat satisfaction of the driver. 
" Who is, then?" queried Seward. "Why," said the landlord, "Thur- 
low Weed ! " 

Though the incident never occurred, the story was so accordant with 
his habit of riding outside to smoke, and with the popular understand- 
ing of his relations with Mr. Weed, that it was generally accepted as 
true. Seward himself used laughingly to relate it, and say that, though 
it was not quite true, it ought to be. 

Occasionally, in his frequent visits at the Governor's house. > 
brought with him a slender, light-haired young man, stooping and near- 
sighted, rather unmindful of forms and social usages, and yet singu- 
larly clear, original, and decided, in his political views and theories. 
This was Horace Greeley. He had been brought up to Albany by Mr. 
Weed a year or so before, to conduct the Whig campaign newspaper, 
published under the auspices of the State Central Committee, and 
issued once a week from the Evening Journal office during the year 
beginning in February, 1838, and ending February, 1830. It wa 
journal of eight pages, of quarto size, and began its career with the 
characteristic declaration that, 'while selecting the name of Jefferso- 
nian, yet "in doing this we neither seek to cover any errors of our 
own beneath the mantle of Mr. Jefferson, nor to represent him as 
pecially the god of our idolatry. We detest man-worship in all its 
forms and under all its devices. Error would find no shield from our 
opposition even under the great name of Thomas Jefferson." 

The Jeffersonian was devoted to politics, and gave what no other 
paper at that time sought to give, an accurate rksunie'oi political intelli- 
gence. The editor, with the indefatigable industry that marked his char- 
acter, used to pass one or two days of each week al Albany up 
the Jeffersonian, and the remainder in the larger city, where he ' 
publishing the New- Yorker, making the trip between his two fields of 
duty by the night-boat. The Jeffersonian and the A" - Fork r 



396 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

favorite journals in Whig- families — the one for its vigorous essays 
and political statistics, the other for its admirable literary taste. The 
editor was regarded by his friends as having great ability, great in- 
dustry, much eccentricity, honesty, and singleness of purpose, and no 
political ambition save in his profession. 

Much interest had now been excited by the debate in Congress over 
the " Atherton gag " and its adoption by the House of Representatives 
in December. This was a rule imposed by a Democratic caucus, and pro- 
viding that every " petition, memorial, resolution, proposition, or paper, 
touching or relating in any way or to any extent whatever to slavery, 
or the abolition thereof, shall, on presentation, without any further 
action thereon, be laid upon the table without being debated, printed, 
or referred." It was an impolitic step for the Democratic party. Mr. 
Clay, speaking in the interest of the slaveholding States, counseled 
that it would be wise to receive and consider, and then, if need be, 
refuse the prayers of petitioners, rather than provoke a popular issue 
by denying the right of petition. Mr. Calhoun and his followers, how- 
ever, prevailed, and the right of petition became an issue between the 
Whigs and Democrats in the Northern States. 

The Assembly of New York promptly adopted resolutions denoun- 
cing the " Atherton gag " as a violation of the constitutional rights of 
the people of the States, protesting against its continuance, and de- 
manding its repeal. 

An incident of the debate at Washington had a dramatic interest, 
and strongly impressed the popular mind. A chained slave-gang, by 
accident or design, was driven past the Capitol while the antislavery 
debate was in progress ; and a resolution offered by Mr. Slade, of- Ver- 
mont, to prevent the repetition of such a spectacle, was decided to 
come under the provisions of the " Atherton gag," and to be therefore 
inadmissible. 

. Not less dramatic was the sight of the venerable white-haired ex- 
President, John Quincy Adams, who now, on the floor of the House, 
" in season and out of season," was leading, animating, and encourag- 
ing the supporters of the right of petition throughout this long and 
stormy debate. It was during its progress that he startled his hearers 
with the declaration that, in case of war, the Government would have 
power to abolish slavery, in order that the nation might be saved — a 
doctrine so alarming that barely half a dozen men in the Chamber 
would avow agreement in it. 

The geological survey of the State, already commenced, found an 
earnest friend in the new Governor. In a message to the Legislature 
in February, he communicated the progress and condition of the work, 
and the reports of the several scientific men who had been employed. 
He remarked, " It affords me great pleasure to bear my testimony to 



183'.).] THE STATE GEOLOGICAL HALL. ; .,; 

the ability and fidelity with which the duties of these persons have 
been discharged;" and predicted that the "geological survey will 
abundantly repay the munificence of the State by numerous and lasting 
benefits." He suggested that suitable arrangements should be made 
for the preservation and exhibition of the collection of specimens, as 
the whole would form "a museum of the highest interest." 

His sympathy in the work was not limited to his public I 
but was manifested in a cordial and hearty cooperation with the sa- 
vants in their labors. He invited them to his house for frequenl con- 
sultations, severally or collectively, audited and facilitated their ac- 
counts, advised as to the preparation of their work for publication, 
and promised to prepare an introduction to it — a promise afterv 
fulfilled by his "Notes on New York." The geological survey was 
more than its name implied, for it extended as well to other branches 
of natural science. The State was divided into four districts. The 
geological examination of the first was assigned to Wm. W. Mather; 
of the second to E. Emmons ; of the third to Lardner Vanuxem ; of 
the fourth to James Hall. Dr. Lewis C. Beck was to prepare a re- 
port on the mineralogy of the State ; Dr. James E. DeKay one on its 
zoology and ornithology ; John Torrey one on the botany ; and Tim- 
othy A. Conrad one on the paleontology. A couple of drau 
were employed at intervals to assist in sketching animals, plants, and 
fossils. This was the working force to whom the world is indebted for 
the elaborate and exhaustive series of volumes on the "Natural ! fistory 
of New York." And the services these scientific gentlemen rendered 
were compensated at a rate considerably less for each than the wj 
of a day-laborer nowadays. The act authorizing the survey appro- 
priated only twenty-six thousand dollars per annum during four ; 
and even the whole of this was not used. 

The survey originated in a desire to explore the mountains of the 
State for coal. It dispelled all the illusive hopes that a supply of that 
mineral existed in New York. But it resulted in a thorough examina- 
tion and compilation of facts in regard to the natural history of the State 
in all its phases. 

There was on the corner of State and Lodge Streets, in Albany, a 
massive old yellow-brick building erected many years previous, and 
occupied by the State officers in the discharge of their official functions. 
The new cabinet were installed in this ; but, before the n oi 

their terms, the more modern and commodious State-Hall, on Eagle 
Street, was completed and ready for their accommodation. The old 
building was then taken as a repository for the collection of z< 
and geological specimens. It was used for that purpose for several 
years, until it was finally torn down and replaced by a larger structure 
devoted to the same object. 



398 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

There was another building in Albany, however, which at this time 
was the subject of much greater political interest. This was the cele- 
brated " Three-walled House." 

The Legislature of 1837 had passed a law authorizing the purchase 
of a suitable Executive mansion, and appropriating therefor twenty 
thousand dollars. Mr. Edwin Croswell, editor of the Argus, and a 
leader of the Democratic party, had held for fifteen years the position 
of State Printer ; which, it was alleged by his Whig opponents, brought 
him an annual income from the State of thirty or forty thousand dol- 
lars. Though these figures were exaggerated, yet the place was one 
whose value and importance rendered it a subject of warm contest 
between the two parties. The Whigs wanted the State Printer, and 
proposed to limit the office to a fixed term of years. In this they 
were unsuccessful, having control only of the Assembly, and the Demo- 
crats in the Senate were able to defeat any law looking to CroswelPs 
removal. It was charged in the Whig newspapers that, through his 
agency, the State had been induced to purchase for an Executive man- 
sion, at a cost of nineteen thousand dollars, a house owned by him 
— one of a row of dwellings opposite Academy Park, -which proved 
to have been built against the adjoining one without an additional 
party-wall. It was claimed that better houses were offered to the com- 
mittee at lower prices. As the block in which it stood contained the 
residences of several of the Democratic magnates, it received the nick- 
name of " Regency Row." 

Endless were the jokes and ridicule about this " Three-walled 
House." One will suffice as a specimen : 

" This is the house the State bought ; 

These are the people all tattered and torn, 

The ' cobblers and tinkers,' once held up to scorn, 

Who turned out the ' Regency' all forlorn, 

Who had fattened so long upon the corn, 

In league with the man all shaven and shorn, 

With curls and cane so daintily worn, 

Who fingered the cash, being five thousand more, 

For three walls only, than would have bought four, 

Which was paid for the house the State bought." 

The old St. Peter's Episcopal Church was still standing on the 
northwest corner of State and Lodge Streets. Its congregation with 
pardonable pride traced its origin back to the days of Queen Anne, and 
treasured with care the old communion service which she had bestowed 
upon it when it was yet a missionary station among the Indians, as 
well as the tinkling bell sent over from England to summon the little 
congregation to worship. Grown now numerous and wealthy, they 
had called the Rev. Horatio Potter to be its rector. Governor Seward 
and his family attended there during his residence in Albany. 



1839.] THE NORTHEAST BOUNDARY QUESTION. 399 

The Rev. Dr. Potter at this time was still youthful, tall, thin, with 
the paleness even of an ascetic. His exceedingly grave and eai 
manner rendered his sermons solemn, impressive, and often pathetic. 
Yet in conversation he was always genial, gentle, and humorous. 

The Typographical Society of Albany invited the Governor to 
their anniversary supper in March. In acknowledging the toast in hi 
honor, he remarked : 

Whatever we possess of philosophy, of literature, of liberty, and religion, 
seems, if not to have been produced, at least to have been diffused among all our 
people by the art of printing. It is a law of <>ur condition that we are constantly 
employing, for temporary ends and immediate advantage, agents who | 
are yet but partially known, and whose results will astonish future ages. < »(' no 
agent is this more true than of the press. 

There had long been an unsettled question as to our northeastern 
boundary, involving a piece of territory in dispute between .Maine and 
New Brunswick. As it was, for the most part, uninhabited forest, no 
serious complication had grown out of it, until a party of lumber-men 
from New Brunswick commenced cutting trees there. The .Maine au- 
thorities sent out a land agent to disperse these trespassers, but the 
trespassers captured the land agent. The Governor of Maine called 
out the militia to march to the disputed territory, and redress the 
grievance. The Governor of New Brunswick ordered out troops to 
repel this invasion. Prisoners were reported to have been captured on 
both sides, and lodged in jail. Great excitement arose in Maine, and 
spread to other States, especially those on the northern border. Con- 
gress, before its adjournment on the 4th of March, enacted provisions 
of law, giving the President additional powers for public def n- , and 
authorizing the appointment of a special minister to treat with Great 
Britain. In view of these circumstances, Governor Seward sen! a 
special message to the Legislature, saying that, while abstaining from 
interference with the duties of the Federal Government, there never- 
theless were occasions when the States should make known "that we 
are a united people, jealous of our sovereignty, and determined to 
resist aggressions upon the rights or territory of the Union." [n the 
present emergency he, therefore, recommended an expression of appro- 
val of the measures adopted by Congress, and of concurrence in the 
policy of the General Government. 

The message was referred to a special committee in the A ;sembly. 
Although the proposed action was calculated to strengthen the hands 
of the national Administration, yet there were some members of its 
party who exhibited a preference for resolutions savoring mon 
"State rights," denouncing the New- Bruns wickers, expressing sym- 
pathy with Maine, and proposing to make common ith her. 



400 LIFE' AND LETTERS. [1839. 

Ultimately, however, resolutions concurring- in the sentiments of the 
Governor's message were agreed to by a unanimous vote of the Assem- 
bly, and transmitted to President Van Buren. Under the judicious 
action and advice of the respective Governments of Great Britain and 
the United States, the provincial troops and State militia were recalled 
from the scene, the prisoners released, and so the war-cloud blew over, 
and the question of disputed boundary was remitted to its proper 
sphere of diplomatic negotiation. 

The official titles of the Governor of New York were, " Governor 
of our said State, General and Commander-in-Chief of all the Militia, 
and Admiral of the Navy thereof." The popular contempt into which 
the State militia had fallen, and the fact that the navy never existed, 
had made these titles subjects of more mirth than respect. A story 
was current that Governor Tompkins once was out w T ith a fisherman in 
a sail-boat, in New York harbor, when they encountered a sudden 
squall. The fisherman hastily stepped forward to lower the sail, calling 
to Governor Tompkins, as he did so, " Quick, put the helm a-star- 
board ! " The Governor, hesitating, called out, " Which way is star- 
board?" The astounded fisherman stopped short, ejaculating with 
indignant surprise, " Gosh ! Are you admiral of the navy of the State 
of New York, and don't know the starboard side of a clam-boat ? " 

The renewal of interest in the militia system and the reforms in its 
discipline, due in a considerable degree to Seward's efforts in that direc- 
tion, had relieved the reputation of that branch of the service, and 
brought it into higher esteem. Uniformed companies, armed, equipped, 
and drilled in accordance with regulation standards, were now numerous. 

Many Canadian frontier troubles had grown out of the " Patriot 
War." Various raids, more or less successful, had been attempted 
by the " Patriots " during 1838. One party had boarded a British 
steamer, lying at an American wharf on the St. Lawrence ; and, 
doubtless in retaliation for the Caroline affair, had robbed and set 
fire to the boat. Another party had surprised and captured a troop of 
Canadian cavalry. In November, five hundred men with cannon had 
crossed the St. Lawrence, and attacked the town of Prescott, and, when 
repulsed, had taken shelter in a windmill, where the}' - were surrounded, 
several killed and wounded, and one hundred and fifty captured. Still 
another party of four hundred had landed at Sandwich, Upper Canada, 
burnt a steamboat, and set fire to barracks, but were routed, and many 
were taken prisoners. Another proclamation was now issued by the 
President, warning the persons engaged in these raids that they must 
not expect any interference of the Government in their behalf. The 
Canadians, who had been expected to rise and join the misguided in- 
vaders, rose only to repel them. Many had been captured, some exe- 
cuted, and others transported to the penal colonies. 



1839.] "PATRIOT" RAIDS IN CANADA. |.Q] 

The popular sympathy, which was actively excited by their punish- 
ment, however deserved it might be, gave rise to apprehensions of new 
outbreaks. Seward was called upon, during the early months of his 
administration, for the exercise both of his civil and military functions 
in regard to them. 

He communicated to President Van Buren information received 
from Major-General St. John B. L. Skinner, who was in command of tin 
New York militia at Plattsburg, of outrages committed at Alburg, 
Vermont, and at Rouse's Point, and requested information in regard to 
the rumored withdrawal of United States troops from that region. 
There came an answer from the Secretary of War (Joel R. Poinsi 
saying : 

I beg to assure your Excellency that this department entertains n<> such inten- 
tion. The troops of the United States now there will not be withdrawn from 
the Canada frontier in any event. Their presence and unremitting exertions to 
preserve the public peace will, however, be unavailing, unless aided by the efforts 
of those who have it in their power to exert a salutary influence over public 
opinion on that border. The President is fully aware el' the greal importance 
of your Excellency's aid in maintaining the good faith of the Government, and 
relies with confidence on your cooperation. 

To this Seward replied : 

Sincerely desirous of preserving the relations of peace and harmonj so indis- 
pensable to the prosperity of this State and the whole country, no duty resting 
on nie in that respect will be omitted. 

In another communication he asked that the officers of the United 
States might be directed to give him the earliest information of any 
conjunction which should seem to render it expedient that anus should 
be furnished to the militia. Poinsett's answer was a promise of imme- 
diate compliance, and the army officers were instructed accordingly. 
An active correspondence at once began between those officers and 
Governor Seward and his Adjutant-General, Rufus King. Colonel 
Worth, who was then in command of the i'nit >d States troops on the 
frontier, reported the force subject to his orders and their disposition, 
and suggested the propriety of placing a portion of the State arms in 
charge of the United States garrisons, to be issued to the militia. The 
suggestion was at once complied with : three thousand stand of arms 
were sent to Vergennes, three thousand to Sackett's Harbor, and tin- i 
thousand to Fort Niagara. 

The measures thus taken were tive. If any further move- 

ments had been contemplated by the misguided "Patriots," tiny were 
seen to be hopeless, in view of the combined action of tie- State and 
Federal Governments. 
2G 




402 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

The next step to be taken was one of humanity — an effort to save 
some of the victims from the consequences of their own folly. To this 
Seward now addressed himself, and ultimately the Canadian authorities 
acceded to his representations. The Provincial Secretary of Upper 
Canada wrote to the New York Secretary of State : 

I have the honor to inform you that, on the receipt of your answer to my 
communication, in which you so forcibly express, on the part of Governor Sew- 
ard, the high value which his Excellency attaches to the act of clemency in- 
tended to be exercised toward the younger portion of the banditti captured in 
the recent attempt to invade this province, his Excellency, Sir George Arthur, 
instantly determined to carry that merciful measure into immediate operation. 
... I am accordingly instructed to acquaint you, for the information of Gov- 
ernor Seward, that orders have already been issued to the sheriffs for the libera- 
tion of all whose names were transmitted on the 28th. 

Some of the unfortunate men had been transported to Australia. 
Efforts were made by Seward in their behalf also. He wrote, among 
others, to Joseph Hume, then a member of Parliament, whose acquaint- 
ance he had made in London, in 1833. He remarked in regard to one : 

Among the unfortunate individuals who were made prisoners in Upper Can- 
ada, and are now in Newgate, is one named Linus W. Miller. He has written 
to his parents desiring to be furnished with letters certifying his reputation and 
circumstances at home. They have applied to me for that purpose. Your name 
is so well known in this country, as a friend of liberty and a philanthropist, that 
I have not hesitated to solicit your counsel and sympathy for the unhappy young 
man. 

The letter then proceeded with further details about Miller, who 
was a young lawyer from Chautauqua County. The interposition in 
his behalf was effective, but not until after he had reached Australia. 
He returned home, and subsequently published a volume descriptive of 
convict-life in Australia. 

The first veto of a chief magistrate is apt to be a subject of some 
solicitude, as he is usually accused of throwing down the gage of battle 
for a controversy with the legislative body. Seward's first veto, how- 
ever, was not of this sort ; but was to no one more acceptable than to 
the originators of the bill, j In the haste of preparing and passing a 
law for a turnpike-road, they had forgotten to state where the road was 
to commence, or whither it was to go ! ( When the bill was laid before 
the Governor for his signature, he discovered that, though it secured to 
the corporators the right of taking toll on the road when made, it did 
not secure the right of making it anywhere in particular. He returned 
it with these objections ; and the Legislature amended it accordingly so 
as to give the Masonville Turnpike " a local habitation and a name." 

The business of the Court of Chancery had so largely increased 



1839.] A LEGISLATIVE DEAD-LOCK. p );; 

that a law was passed, in March, 1839, authorizing the appointment of 
a Vice-Chancellor in the Eighth District, and an assistant Vice-Chan- 
cellor in the First. In April Murray Hoffman was nominated for the 
place in the. First District, and Frederick Whittlesey for thai in the 

Eighth. 

Although much time was spent in each branch of the Legislature 
in the discussion of internal improvements, no important results were 
achieved, owing to the dead-lock between the Senate and Assembly. 
The Whigs claimed, and believed they had proved, that steady increase 
of canal-tolls would pour back into the coders of the State all the 
money expended upon the enlargement. The Democrats denied thai 
this was proved, and charged the Whigs with attempting to saddle a 
"forty-million debt" on the State. The Whigs said no burden was to 
be imposed on the tax-payers, while the Democrats insisted that, if the 
expenditures were persisted in, the money would have to come out of 
the tax-payers' pockets. Accepting the recommendations of the Gov- 
ernor, and the expositions of an able report by (Julian ( '. Verplanck, 
in the Senate, the Whigs had passed through the Assembly laws look- 
ing to the prosecution of the enlargement of the Erie (.'anal, the con- 
struction of the New York & Erie Railroad, and other similar proji 

But these measures, on reaching the Senate, were promptly defeated 
or laid on the table, by the majority in that body, who were fortified in 
their position by the report of Comptroller Flagg, on his retirement 
from office, which showed that the work on the enlargement, compar- 
ing the present calculation of the commissioners with the loose esti- 
mates formerly made, would cost ten or twelve millions more than had 
been contemplated. 

Colonel Young, who led the opposition to internal improvements, as 
he had that to banks, declared, with evident sincerity as well as con- 
sistency, that "bank-paper is a stupendous system of fraud, falsehood, 
crime, and suffering ; " that "the system of internal improvements is a 
system of utter folly, absurdity, and wickedness;" and remarked that 
" the Pyramids of Egypt possessed one advantage" over our internal 
improvements, because it would cost no further sacrifice to keep them 
in repair; " and so they would not impose a perpetual tax, like profli- 
gate railroads and pauper canals." 

When the Democrats, in their turn, introduced measu 
the size and cost of the canal enlargement, they encountered the same 
dead-lock, preventing them from making any progress, excepl in the 
Senate. 

This antagonism between the two Houses > to all other 

political questions. Of the various measures which the Governor ' 
recommended, only the "Small-Bill Law," the partial curtailmenl 
fees of clerks of court, and a few provisions in aid of common schools 



404 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

and the purity of elections, were able to pass the ordeal of the Senate. 
The other legal reforms, the changes in the terms of officers, the reduc- 
tion of patronage, the improvement of prison discipline, the bill to 
secure trial by jury of fugitive slaves, and the resolution for the divis- 
ion of the surplus revenue, all had a hearty support by the Assembly, 
but all came to naught in the Senate. 

So in regard to appointments : the Senate refused to confirm the 
Governor's nominations, even where the terms of incumbents had ex- 
pired, and the Whigs, who had anticipated a lavish distribution of 
patronage, were balked by the tantalizing spectacle of the Democratic 
office-holders still remaining in place. This, however annoying to indi- 
viduals, was on the whole an advantage to the party ; for It is the 
hope of patronage, rather than the possession of it, that conduces to 
party strength. 

One of the removals from office proposed by the Governor, and 
shown by special message to the Legislature to be needed, was that of 
the inspectors of Sing Sing Prison, who had been shown, by a legis- 
lative investigation, to be lax in their supervision, and to have per- 
mitted cruelty and inhumanity in the discipline of the prison, result- 
ing, in some cases, in the. death of convicts. In his message the Gov- 
ernor said : 

It is quite certain that such inhumanity was never contemplated by the 
founders of our penitentiary system, nor has it heen generally known hy the 
people that it was practised. 

If our system of imprisonment with silent dormitories and social labor cannot 
be maintained without the infliction of such punishments as are disclosed hy this 
report, then it was established in error, and it ought to be immediately aban- 
doned. Bat such is not the case. Human nature has some generous and virtu- 
ous motives left in its most depraved condition. Equality and justness, kindness 
and gentleness, combined with firmness of temper, would, with very few excep- 
tions, secure the cheerful obedience of even the tenants of our State-prisons. . . . 
There is a constant tendency among those who are invested with power over 
their fellow-men to exercise that power capriciously and tyrannically. 

Among the vexatious cases arising under the refusal of the Senate 
to act upon nominations was that of the judges in Fulton and Mont- 
gomery Counties. The new county of Fulton had been set off from 
Montgomery, and in it resided the judges nominated by Governor 
Marcy, though not yet confirmed. The Senate would confirm no new 
nomination by Governor Seward for Fulton, and the judges declined 
to act in Montgomery, though they would not resign their commissions, 
as this would enable the Governor to fill the vacancies. By this dead- 
lock both counties were left that year without county courts. 

The law for school-district libraries was passed in Ajoril. The law 
of the previous year had appropriated fifty-five thousand dollars, and 



1839.] FOREIGN-BORN CITIZENS. p ,;, 

fifty-five thousand dollars more were raised by the counties. B\ the 
act of this year the trustees of each district wore authorized eith< 
purchase themselves such books as they deemed suitable, or to request 
the Superintendent of Common Schools to select the library for them. 
On the 18th of April occurred the semi-centennial anniversary of 
Washington's inauguration as President. The New York Historical 
Society held a celebration of the day, and invited ex-Presidenl Adams 
to be their orator. Regretting his inability to be present, Seward 
wrote them : 

The fame of Washington can neither be increased nor diminished; but his 
principles may be more deeply impressed upon the nation. The celebration you 
propose is among the means of reviewing our original Constitution or of dra 
the Constitution back to its first principles. 

On Saturday night, April 20th, a bright blaze in the direction of 
the river betokened a fire, which had broken out in a stable in the 
southern part of the city. It soon spread into a disastrous conflagra- 
tion, destroying the Methodist Church on Herkimer Street, and shops 
and dwellings throughout an area of two acres. Numbers of poor 
families, thus suddenly turned out of their homes, sought refuge at the 
Governor's, who with his household spent that night and the following 
clay in finding them shelter and food, and in making search for lost 
children who had become separated from their parents in the panic. 

Of course, Seward's views in regard to foreigners gave rise to much 
discussion, lasting throughout his administration, if not throughoul 
his life. Most men are patriotic, but patriotism by many is held to 
include a large degree of prejudice against other nations. Seward's 
philosophy about foreign citizens was difficult for them to comprehend. 
Many of his opponents really believed him an artful demagogue seeking 
to cajole foreign votes by flattery. It was not half so ingenious a 
scheme as they supposed. One simple leading idea governed the whole 
of it. This was, that the American nation, having been born of Euro- 
pean immigrants and their descendants, would probably continue to 
grow and thrive by increase of the elements to which it owed its origin. 
It seemed to him, therefore, the duty of a statesman to accept the 
fact as he found -it, and to endeavor, by the influence of republican 
education, to fit the people, who are certain to come, for the respon- 
sibilities they are certain to have. His answers to the various letter 
addressed to him by representatives of different nationalities about this 
period illustrate his habits of thought in this regard. 

To a German association, who informed him of Ids election as an 
honorary member, he wrote : 

I trust that the labors of your society may be eminently beneficial in con- 
tributing to the happiness and prosperity of the German immigrants w fa 



406 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

advantages afforded by the free institutions of our country. Such associations 
may be very useful, not only in maintaining those institutions in this country, 
but in diffusing the knowledge of democratic principles in Europe. 

To the Scotchmen inviting him to attend a St. Andrew's day supper 
he said : 

I owe a debt for Scottish hospitality, which I should be most happy to ac- 
knowledge at your festival. I honor your countrymen, alike for the enterprise 
which leads them to seek the advantages of fortune in other lands, and for the 
veneration for their native country, to cherish which is one of the objects of 
your association. 

To the descendants of the Dutch settlers, inviting him to a feast in 
honor of St. Nicholas, he said : 

The assiduity, the love of peace, of order, of justice and equality, and the 
devotion to religion of the Dutch colonists of this State, were invaluable elements 
in forming the character and manners of a republican people. The history of the 
Netherlands is full of instruction to mankind. Holland has been the rival of the 
greatest states in arts and arms. She was fortunate in the proud distinction 
she attained, and more fortunate in her failure to obtain complete superiority. 

To the Englishmen inviting him to the celebration of St. George's 
day he replied : 

Be pleased to express to the society my acknowledgments for this mark of 
their respect and kindness, and my sincere congratulations upon the prospect of 
a continuance of the relations of peace and friendship between America and 
England — relations indispensable alike to the prosperity of both countries, and 
to the general improvement of the condition of mankind. 

To the Irishmen he said : 

As our forefathers have done before us, so would I freely admit the people 
of all countries, and thus increase the moral and physical strength of our new 
and growing country. I would provide, as they did, for the security of repub- 
lican institutions, and the ascendency of»republican principles; not by imposing 
new prohibitions upon any class of citizens, but by establishing institutions for 
universal education. I would plant free schools in the city, accessible to the 
children of the most humble ; and I would open their doors by the sides of our 
railroads and canals. This is an adequate, and will prove to be the only, safe- 
guard of liberty. 

To adopted citizens in Philadelphia, of various nationalities, he 
wrote : 

It seems to me that there is enough of national interest, of national ambition, 
and of national pride, in this country, to enable us to banish all sectional feelings 
and all hereditary prejudices. I feel that I cannot err in inculcating philan- 



1839.] THE BIBLE. .p,- 

thropy even broader than patriotism, and a love of liberty as comprehend 
human society. 

News now came from Auburn that at the town-meeting this spring 
the village had given a Whig majority of '■)')'■). This marked the 
transition from the time when it was a stronghold of "Jackson " senti- 
ments to the period during which it adopted those advocated by Sew- 
ard — a period thenceforth continuing for thirty years. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

1839. 



A Levee in New York. — The Bible. — Habits of the Letter-Basket. — J. P. Kennedy. — Hamil- 
ton. — First Diplomatic Question. — A Canal- Journey. — Visit ! son.— Future 
Railroads. — Animal Magnetism. — Van Bureu's Progress. — Fourth of July with Sunday- 
School Children. 

The Legislature adjourned on the 7th of May. Released from daily 
attendance at the Executive chamber, Seward was now able to make a 
brief trip to New York. It was in the line of official duly to person- 
ally visit the different State institutions there. The Whig leaders in 
the city, somewhat discouraged by the untoward result of their char- 
ter election, welcomed the prospect of an Executive visit to stimulal • 
the drooping spirits of their followers. 

It happened that his arrival in New York was at the time when the 
American Bible Society was holding its anniversary meeting in the 
Broadway Tabernacle, John Cotton Smith presiding. Learning that 
he was in the city, the officers of the society sent a committee t" the 
Astor House to urge his attendance. He complied with their wish, 
spent a part of the day on the platform, and made "h few brief remarks 
in response to a call for a speech — closing them by saying : 

I know not how long a republican government can flourish amonj 
people who have not the Bible — the experiment has never been tried. Hut this 
I do know, that the existing government of this country could never have had 
existence but for the Bible. And further, I do in my conscience belii 
if at every decade of years a copy of the Bible eould be found ii Daily 

of the land, its republican institutions would be perpetual. 

On the ensuing day, in accordance with what has been the custom 
of Governors before and since, he passed the morning at the Govern- 
or's Room in the City Hall, surrounded by the portraits of hi- prede- 
cessors, and received there a throng of visitors. Among them wer 
personal and political friends, besides the usual gathering of those who, 



408 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

from mingled motives of patriotism, vanity, and curiosity, always want 
to shake hands with a Governor or a President. Although his name 
had now become a familiar one to the public, his face was as yet by 
no means universally known. While the crowd was passing, one of 
his friends, a large, fine-looking man, stood by his side conversing with 
him several minutes. Every stranger that came up during that time 
passed by the slender, youthful Governor, shook hands with his portly 
friend, and went off entirely satisfied. Seward used laughingly to 
refer to this incident, as showing that a portly figure and imposing 
presence were decided advantages to a public man, such attributes 
being unconsciously associated in the popular mind with the dignity 
which befits a ruler. " And these were advantages," he used to say, 
" that Granger and Fillmore had over me from the start." 

The levee over, he spent an hour at the Mercantile Library rooms, 
and in the evening attended a concert of the pupils of the Institution 
for the Blind, at Chatham Street Chapel. This asylum, as w r ell as that 
for the deaf and dumb, was always a subject of special interest to him. 
" The philanthropy of our age," he remarked, in one of his messages, 
" seems gifted with powers almost divine. It brings to the deaf and 
dumb the joys of conversation ; to the blind the knowledge and uses 
of external relations ; calls back erring reason to its throne ; and even 
reclaims the guilty from ways of transgression." 

The next morning he returned to Albanj*, encountering there " a 
swarm of letters " which had accumulated during the latter clays of the 
session. It was his rule that every correspondent was entitled to an 
answer, and a courteous one. But at this period, as well as often in 
later years, letters came in such numbers that to answer each as it was 
received became simply impossible. Accordingly, they were thrown 
each day into a large basket, and then the first day that could be 
spared from public questions or cares was devoted to them, beginning 
at the top of the basket and going down to the bottom, answering the 
letters seriatim. 

" But this is wrong," said one of his assistants ; " the last letter will 
get answered first, and the first last. Let me turn the basket upside 
down." 

" No," said Seward, " begin at the top ; then half of the letters 
will have a prompt answer, and the other half an apology for the de- 
lay. But, if you begin at the bottom, the reply to every one will be 
behindhand." 

Many of his correspondents were doubtless mystified as to why 
their communications were so long unattended to, and yet were always 
answered ultimately ; but his intimate friends knew the habits of the 
letter-basket. It stood by his writing-table, held about a bushel, and 
was often heaped to overflowing. 



1839.] EXTRADITION QUESTIONS. j (l! . 

Among those written during- this week of comparative leisure was 
one to John P. Kennedy, of Baltimore, afterward widely known by 
his literary works, and Secretary of the Navy during the Administra- 
tion of President Fillmore. He was then in Congress, and had made 

a great speech. Seward wrote him : 

Albany, May 17.1 
Your speech on the bill making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic 
service is a just, fearless, and eloquent exposition of the principles brought by 
General Jackson into the administration of the Government, and the chars 
and temper of that extraordinary man. You have dune the country Bervii 
the philosophical view you have presented of the causes of General Jackson's 
success, and of the influence that success has exerted upon the Constitution. 

Another letter was to a Whig committee, representing one of the 
movements already on foot in the interest of Mr. Clay and of General 
Harrison. Declining to take part in any controversy about men, while 
prepared to support whoever should be the Whig nominee, he wrote : 

Albany, 

lam satisfied that you will agree with me in the opinion that I shall best 
advance the ultimate success of Whig principles, and most effectually proi 
the harmony upon which that success depends, by 1 ;". ing the discussion of the 
nomination without interference on my part. 

In the same spirit he wrote to Josiah Randall, of Philadelphia : 

In answer to your letter of the 20th I can only say that I neither write 
nor speak on the subject of the presidential election An answer to your 
ter in the frankness which, if you were with me, I should use. would be a de- 
parture from that principle — rigid adherence to which, it seems, does not save 
me from misrepresentations. . . . I cannot consent to be drawn into the dis- 
cussion, even indirectly. 

Acknowledging a pamphlet from Alexander Hamilton, of Xew Yi >rk, 
on the subject of banks and the currency, he remarked : 

You are right in saying that this is the right conjuncture in which to secure 
the country against the evils of a redundant paper currency. But the public 
mind on this subject takes its direction from the < of the mo-; r< 

evil, and hitherto all changes in public policy have been indicated by experi- 
ence of evil, rather than a deliberate and well-considered purpose to make the 
currency safe, before it was found to he disordered. I am triad you have din 
your attention to the subject, for, whatever may be the fortune of the reform 
measures you propose, it is certain that good must result from the discussion. 

As yet there was no extradition treaty with Great Britain, and 
vague ideas prevailed as to the surrender of criminals in foreign coun- 
tries. The vexed and unsettled question of "State rights" tended 



410 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

in this as in other matters to weaken both the coherence and the powers 
of the Union. The right to deal with extradition cases was claimed 
for the State and denied to the Federal Government. The Governor 
of Vermont had issued his warrant for the delivery of a fugitive on 
the requisition of the Governor of Upper Canada. 

Governor Seward, in the first case presented to him, took decided 
ground that both the right and the duty belonged to the Federal 
Government, and that laws and treaties should be made to recognize it. 

The District Attorney at Buffalo had written, requesting him to 
make a requisition upon Sir George Arthur, the Lieutenant-Governor 
of Upper Canada, for the delivery of a person indicted for crime. His 
answer illustrated the spirit in which he met the first question, in regard 
to foreign relations, ever officially before him: 

The law of nations recognizes the mutual right to demand the surrender of 
fugitives from justice. The right to demand, and the obligation to surrender, 
are reciprocal. I am satisfied that the authority necessary to the exercise of 
this right rests with the General Government and not with the governments of 
the States. The Constitution devolves upon the General Government the care 
of foreign relations. That Government has the sole power to make treaties with 
foreign states. Application was made to me in a case similar to that now pre- 
sented. I considered it my duty to refer the applicant to the General Govern- 
ment. The answer of the Secretary of State was, in substance, that, inasmuch 
as Congress had not passed any law on the subject, and there was no provision 
by treaty in relation to it, the General Government had declined to act. I can 
imagine no circumstance which would more seriously embarrass the General 
Government in its conduct of the foreign relations of the country, and more 
certainly tend to bring the public peace into jeopardy, than the discordant action 
of the several States in the exercise of this power. ... I shall deem it my 
duty, in a respectful manner, to bring the subject to the consideration of the 
President of the United States. 

Manufactures of woolen or cotton as yet maintained only a strug- 
gling existence in any except the New England States. Some public- 
spirited citizens of Buffalo had erected a woolen-mill, on "the creek" 
in that city, as an experiment, and sent to the Governor some specimens 
of articles manufactured there. In his answer he remarked : 

With whatever degree of satisfaction we may regard the condition and pros- 
pects of our country, it is certain that the highest attainable independence will 
not be reached so long as we remain tributary to Europe for productions conge- 
nial to our soil and climate, and remain dependent upon European manufact- 
urers to prepare them for our use. 

On the 24th of May he left Albany for a visit to Auburn, taking 
his family, who were to spend the summer at the latter place. A part 
of the journey was made by canal, in a manner now obsolete, and even 
then tedious, but not without comfort and quiet. The cabin of a 



1839.] A CANAL- JOURNEY, .j j j 

"line-boat," as the freight-boats were called, to distinguish them I: 
the "packets," was chartered, and the family, having undisturbed pos- 
session of it, glided slowly on their voyage, eating and sleeping 
board, varying the monotony by sitting on deck to read, or by an occa- 
sional walk on the bank. As the horses slowly paced oil' their allotted 
two miles per hour, it Avas not difficult to walk on before them, and on 
arriving at a " lock," where there was sure to be more or less deten- 
tion, one could sit down and wait for the boat to conic up. For an in- 
valid, as Mrs. Seward was, it was much preferable to the jolting of the 
stage, and cost but a day or two more of time. Leaving the canal at 
Syracuse, they spent Sunday there, and arrived on Monday at Auburn. 
Writing to Weed on that day, he said : 

Arr.i'itx. Monday, May '.'7. : 
"We had a comfortable journey to Utica. The agent of the line-boat as 
me we should reach Syracuse seasonably to take the two-o'clock car from 
place to Auburn. We had a nice cabin, pleasanl party, and good accommoda- 
tions. But we entered Syracuse just as the sun left it. We could not travel in 
tho night, nor on Sunday, and therefore staid until this morning. 

The country appears very fine. Our home manifests, by some outward 
that the hands that embellished it have been withdrawn: but I shall tr\ to put 
it in order before I leave for the west. Of course, I am unable to announce 
my purposes as to the future. There are some bright spot- and green, even in 
this thorny way. The first call I had to-day was from a negro, w ho came | 
to me that I had conferred upon him a boon next to that of life. Be was par- 
doned after eleven years' confinement in the State-prison, undi i for 
life; and his heart had dried up under an abandonment of all hope of liberation. 
It was the more gratifying to me to receive the poor fellow'- acknowledgm 
because the pardon was issued without petition or interposition from any person 
in his behalf, except a general representation by the chaplain of all the hard 
cases in the prison. 

I am writing- with my window open into the shrubbery, and the air is redolent 
of sweets, and the birds are in full chorus. 

During this brief rest at Auburn he had a visit from the Secretary 
of State, Mr. Spencer. This, and the letters passing almost daihj 
tween him and Mr. Weed, kept him en rapport with the progress of 

public affairs in Albany. 

Ai i 

You see that the papers are again upon " Executive usurpation." as th 
it. It is, I think, very well. You will do well to continue the popular \ 
you present, Thankful that T have not been tempted to go into i 1 
personally, I see now additional reason for continuing the 

The canal is doing nobly. And it would be easy now to excite u 
behalf of a central railroad. What do you think of a convention on thai - 
ject? I think I shall cause it to be suggested in the . I ■ " ial this v 

Did ever politicians, not to say statesmen, blunder as W< ingt i 
have done? Toryism is impracticable everywhere. Melbourne and Russell 



412 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

must exult in this strange and unlooked-for whirl, which threw thern out of 
power only when their power was exhausted, and instantly restored them, with 
a vast increase of popular feeling. 

Aubcen, Wednesday Evening, May, 1839. 

It has rained every day since I came here. It is a busy season. Few cares 
of state have followed me, and I have relieved my friends of the duty of call- 
ing upon me by anticipating them, meeting them where they " most do congre- 
gate," in the post-office, printing-office, and the street. Thus I have saved to 
myself much time, and am improving it by thorough devotion to my business. 

Altogether mystified to-night concerning the Virginia election, I gave it up 
to the Argus this morning, but claim it to-night on the strength of Horace 
Greeley, who is second to none but the Journal in such matters. Fortunately, 
there is consolation enough to balance any grief for either result. 

Thursday Morning. 

The "Wednesday's daily is before me. Its answer is able and conclusive. I 
do not think anything better can be or need be said. Give my compliments 
to the adjutant for it, and my thanks. Mr. Spencer returns to Albany on 
Monday. 

He visited the State-prison with me. It was a visit under circumstances 
that awakened strange feelings within me. I saw a fine, tall, well-looking man, 
of less than middle age, lying upon his back in the hospital, with an arm from 
which he had on Saturday last chopped off the entire hand at the wrist. I 
asked him how the accident happened. He answered that he thought it was 
the will of God that he should cut off his hand. I asked him why he thought 
God required it ? He said because it would be the means of his obtaining a 
pardon. Poor fellow ! he was entirely ignorant that to the one that held con- 
verse with him had been delegated the prerogative of mercy. 

R. 0. "Wetmore is excused from the duty of military secretary. What 
think you of Henry Van Rensselaer, or J. G. Hopkins, of Ogdensburg, young 
Pumpelly, of Oswego, or young Church, in Alleghany ? 

Auburn, June 5t7i. 

I had a long and profitable season with the secretary, and have consulted 
him upon many important subjects. 

We had yesterday a proud day at Syracuse for that town and this. About 
two hundred of our citizens went over with the locomotives to celebrate the 
completion of our railroad. We dined at Rust's. The party was pleasant, and 
there are many circumstances I should be pleased to communicate, but, like ex- 
periments in " animal magnetism," they will not bear being written. 

The railroad had at last been extended to the village of Syracuse, 
and laid with iron rails. Two engines, the " Auburn " and the " Syra- 
cuse," had been purchased for it, and a stone building erected for their 
shelter, where they received admiring visits from the people of the 
surrounding country. The dinner at Syracuse was enlivened with 
toasts and speeches, for one of which Governor Seward was of course 
called upon. His prediction that a few years more would see a com- 



1839.] "ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 1 ^3 

plete line of railroads from Albany to Buffalo was received with en- 
thusiasm. A week later, a party of two hundred from Syracusi 
turned the visit. "The meeting of the villages" was a subjecl 
mutual rejoicing, and justly, for trade and intercourse between them 
then sprang up, which have ever since continued. 

Stimulated by this success, the Auburn & Rochester Kailr<.a<l I 
pany soon after held a meeting, examined the reports of the engin< 
and resolved to push their work to speedy completion. 

Nor was the march of improvement to be confined to his own J 
as Seward foresaw. He wrote to a friend on the eve of depart 111. 
Europe, in reference to its ultimate influence on the West : 

I am surprised by the information that you are so soon to embark for Eng- 
land, although such announcements from one's friends are becoming so freq 
since the splendid success of steam, that the voyage seems to require It 33 pr< p- 
arat ion than it was customary to make, a few years since, for a journej from 
New York to Niagara. . . . A new impulse is now to be given to European immi- 
gration, by the successful establishment of steam navigation upon the At!, 
Whatever opposition party interests may raise against the system of inti 
improvements, commenced in the different States, an enlightened mind cannol 
fail to see that the completion of our great thoroughfares through the State, and 
the corresponding improvements in the Western States, will be rapidly carried 
forward. 

Arr,ri:\\ June *ltli. 

It does look like making a residence here for the season, and ! feel, I confess, 
much reluctance about quitting the place, now the sun has condescended to look 
down upon it. But I have been busy; with the private' secretary to aid me, my 
official business will sooner or later be all done, and then I cannol rest. All next 
week will do it up. I'll get a breathing-spell lure, and go to Albany for two or 
three days to appoint beef and pork inspectors, justice for Albany, etc., 1 
week. 

The 'animal magnetism" business was bad enough, but it was not mj 
ticular vanity,"' and I therefore have been able to look with a front <>\' brass upon 
the laughers; nay, I have even enjoyed the joke; and the world is much • 
merciful than I should he if they do not have a merry season at my expi 

What a beautiful letter is thai of Spencer to the < ;ua commiti 

never met anything of the kind so felicitous. 

My letters must he sent her.' unless the secretary will op' d them, which, but 
for busying him with cares foreign to his office, I should prefer. I don't 
yet how soon I can send Blatchford back to Albany. Mr. Beach is better; I 
shall go to see him this evening. 

The war is fairly opened, I see, about appointment-. I tr 
of State will defend us— and be will merit ten thousand acknov k d ;i 
article of "Plowden" was very able; but it satisfied me t 1 
clearly with us. 

I have just been, with Mr. and Mrs. Gi »rge Coml . of Edinburgh, through the 
Auburn Prison. Palmer will be a popular agent. 



414: LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

The allusions to " animal magnetism " refer to some exhibitions of 
"clairvoyance" and "mesmeric passes" at a private residence in 
Albany. The subject happened to be then engaging attention in sci- 
entific circles. Books and pamphlets on it abounded, and the news- 
papers contained many stories of its marvels. One seance was attend- 
ed by Governor Seward and his family, Dr. Nott, John C. Spencer, 
Peter B. Porter, and one or two other members of the Legislature. A 
professor in the seminary conducted the experiments — one of which 
was an imaginary clairvoyant visit to and through the Executive man- 
sion. The spectators divided in opinion, as they usually do — Seward 
being among the skeptical, as he generally was in such matters. Mr. 
Spencer was claimed among those rather inclined to believe ; while 
Dr. Nott, with his usual caution, contented himself with pronouncing 
the results " strange and unaccountable." Peter B. Porter sat himself 
down in a chair, and requested the experimenter to prove his science by 
putting him to sleep if he could ; and the professor spent half an hour in 
ineffectual " passes " — though one glance at * the resolute, wide-awake 
face opposed to his own might have warned him that his labor would 
be wasted. When it became publicly known that the Whig officials 
were attending such seances, of course the Democrats charged that the 
administration was " run by animal magnetism," and had many jibes 
and jokes thereanent. 

On the 18th of June a third son (William Henry) was born at Au- 
burn. 

The close of the month found the Governor at his post in the Exec- 
utive chamber. A letter to Mrs. Seward announced his arrival : 

Albany, Saturday Morning. 
The traveling by stage at night was, as it always is, wearisome. But I arrived 
here in twenty-one hours after parting with you. Nicholas has gone to the 
post-office, to see whether he can find a letter there from Dr. Mosher, saying that 
you have continued to be as well as when I left you. I met Mr. Weed at the 
car-house, and he accompanied me "home;" so I am to call it, although the 
chief enjoyments that constitute home are left at Auburn. An applicant for an 
office in New York waited upon me while Harriet was preparing my dinner, and 
favored me with his company until night. The Adjutant-General and Mr. Lyman 
spent the evening. . . . Nicholas has kept matters very well. The ponies were 
brought up last evening from the pasture, and are now in the yard. They seem 
elated with their unbounded liberty. 

A committee had come from Harrisburg, in the spring, to confer 
with the authorities at Albany on the subject of a connection between 
the public works of New York and Pennsylvania. Charles B. Penrose, 
Speaker of the Senate of the latter State, was its chairman, and Wil- 
liam Purviance (afterward member of Congress) was one of its mem- 



1839] THE APPOINTING POWER. j j - 

bers. The Governor had put them in communication with the Legisla- 
ture. He now found at Albany their letter of acknowledgments. 

The specific plan this committee had in view was not carrii I 
but in a very few years an interlacing network of railways and canals 
connected the two States, and was deemed indispensable to their pi 
perity. That it was ever deemed wise or even possible to keep the 
two States from making such connecting links is now almost forgotten. 

There used to be a portrait in the City Hall at Albany, painted for 
the Common Council by Goodwin, of Auburn, during such hours as 
Seward could spare for a sitting, in the early part of this year. It is a 
full-length picture, representing him standing near a table strewed with 
law-books and papers. The heavy curtain is drawn aside from the open 
window in the background, through which is seen a railway-train trav- 
ersing a valley. The face and figure arc youthful, almost boyish, 
though the attitude is one of self-possessed dignity. It was the first 
of several portraits taken during his official term at Albany. 

The columns of the Argus and Evening Journal were now filled 
with sharp controversy over "the appointing power" and "Execu- 
tive usurpation." The Democrats had been so successful in blocking 
the Governor's appointments during the session that they were disp 
to pursue their advantage in the recess. The Governor, being no 
longer under the necessity of submitting nominations to the Senate, 
commissioned officers to fill the places of those who were "holding 
over." This was contested, his opponents insisting that his power of 
appointment was limited to new vacancies occurring since the adjourn- 
ment. The appointment of Mr. Gray as flour-inspector in Xew York 
became a test case, the incumbent, Mr. Tappan, disputing his claim in 
the courts. Application was made to Judge Nelson, of the Supreme 
Court, for an order to compel the Governor, Secretary of Si 
and Comptroller, to reinstate the former Commissioners of the Lunatic 
Asylum, whom they had superseded by the appointment of new i 
The argument in the courts was vigorously supplemented in the n 
papers. In one of his letters to Mark II. Sibley, of Canandaigua, Mr. 
Seward said : 

I am glad you find the editor of the Journal, as we all believe here, on the 
vantage-ground, in his controversy with the Argus. Croswell is a most able and 
skillful editor, and it requires constant attention to watch and guard against his 
attacks. 

Ex-Governor Marcy was understood to be one of the assailants in 
the Argus, while Secretary Spencer occasionally supplied an ai 
the defense in the Jour mil. However, the court 

question by sustaining the Governor's action as being in accordance 
with law. These decisions were highly creditable to the i -ice 



410 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

and impartiality of the judges, since most of them belonged to the op- 
posing party. 

The long, bright clays of summer render it the favorite season for 
holiday and out-door gatherings in the Northern States. Invitations 
began to come thick and fast for the new Governor to take part in cel- 
ebrations, reviews, commencements, and other festivities now at hand. 
Among these it was necessary to make a choice. Declining invitations 
to deliver addresses at Rutgers College and at the Mercantile Library, 
postponing a review of General Sanford's First Division of the Militia 
till September, regretting his inability to review that of General Lloyd, 
excusing himself from Fourth-of-July celebrations at Lansingburg, 
Albany, and Philadelphia, he complied with the request of Drs. Spring, 
Milnor, and Bangs, Daniel Lord, James G. King, and others, that he 
would attend a celebration which the New York Sunday-schools were to 
hold on Staten Island. 

July 2d. 

I am busy enough, and my business scarcely diminishes, although I am dili- 
gent. Mrs. Spencer is very pleasantly situated, and her house looks very com- 
fortable. The secretary returned last evening from the West. I go to-morrow 
to West Point, and by the evening boat to New York ; then, on the next morn- 
ing, to celebrate the Fourth on Staten Island with the Sunday-schools ; and I 
hope to return on the next day to this place. I go without lightness of heart, 
because I feel it to be time lost from work ; and yet it is both proper and use- 
ful, and therefore by no means to be omitted. I have refused to go to New 
York " to receive the President." But it is right to refuse, and I "care not for 
consequences. After the noise of the Fourth, I shall, with the help of two 
hands, force off my business, and then look in upon you, and go to the west. 

Mr. Van Buren, consummate tactician and skillful political manager 
as he was, had nevertheless suffered himself to be persuaded by his 
friends into making a " presidential tour." Leaving Washington in the 
latter part of June, he traveled in his own carriage from Baltimore to 
York, Harrisburg, and other towns in Pennsylvania, receiving every- 
where public demonstrations in his honor. He was expected soon to 
reach New York. In the ceremonies of the presidential reception 
there, under the auspices of the Common Council, the Governor was 
invited to participate. His reply was frank and courteous : 

It would lie an unusual proceeding for the Chief Magistrate of the State to 
leave his duties at the capital to take part in such a demonstration, and, in 
view of the hostile political relations between himself and Mr. Van Buren, to 
do so now would afford evidence of inconsistency and insincerity. Neverthe- 
less, should the Chief Magistrate of the Union favor the place of my residence 
with a visit, or should my duty call me into his vicinity, I should with cheerful- 
and pleasure pay him all the respect called for by his public station, or 
properly due from mine. 



1839.] THE STATEN ISLAND CELEBEATION. .\\ 7 

So straightforward an answer disarmed criticism by either friends 
or foes. The one could not complain that he did not adhi 
litical faith, nor the other that he was lacking in courtesy to the I 
ident. 

Fourth-of-July morning dawned brighl and clear. The I 
New York lay calm and unruffled in the sunshine. Twelve thousand 
delighted children were safely embarked on four large steamboats and 
nine barges, which moved out from the wharves and down the bay in 
majestic procession. The steamboats and barges were furnished gra- 
tuitously. The fleet was divided into two squadrons — one starting 
from the North River and the other from the East River side. Th< 
Sandusky, as flag-ship, led the way, having on board the commit! 
and the Governor. A band of music on her deck, composed of blind 
boys from the State Institution, struck up the national anthem. 
its strains died away they were taken up and echoed from a distanl 
barge by children's voices chanting an ode. This, as it ceased, was re- 
sponded to from another boat ; and so, as the fleet moved on, each 
sel in turn took up the chorus — the others listening in silence to the 
voices that came to them across the water. Meanwhile, the city be- 
hind them, gayly decorated with flags, was lessening in the distance, 
the rattle of guns and crackers in its streets glowing momentarily 
fainter and fainter, while all around the rapid movements of boats and 
steamers filled with excursionists, merriment, and music, lent addition- 
al life to the scene. It was a novel spectacle, and one long remem- 
bered by the children. The kind-hearted gentlemen who planned ii 
for them set an example that was to be more widely copied than they 
dreamed of, for. ever since that day, Sunday-school exci 
become as common as, up to that time, they had been rare. Arrived 
at Staten Island, the army of children was landed and marched to a 
cedar-grove, not far from the Quarantine. The coincidence was ad- 
verted to, that, on the 4th of July, sixty-three years before, the forces 
of Sir William Howe were occupying the ground on which this p' 
ful celebration was now assembling. 

The usual religious exercises took place, followed by Governor 
ard's address, in which he remarked : 

It is a purpose worthy of our coming here, to render ascriptions of praise 
and thanksgiving for the divine favor and protection, nor could any other 1 
raonial of worship be so suitable as that you have adopted, of bringing hi 
the children and youth of your great city, to relate to them, beneath th 
shade, and upon the hillside, the wonders that God hath done in our behalf. 

Adverting then to his conviction that education, thi 
the whole people, not merely of favored classes, is an essential elemenl 
of national progress and safety, he added : 

27 ' 



418 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

This is the work in which you are engaged. Seldom does it happen to any 
citizen to render to his country any service more lasting or more effectual than 
that which is accomplished by the teachers of such schools as these. 

Leaving the children at their collation, the Governor embarked on a 
steamboat tendered for his return. As he approached the old North 
Carolina, lying at anchor off the Battery, a courteous hail invited him 
on board. She was then in commission, and under command of Captain 
Ballard, who showed his guest the ship and her seventy-four guns, gave 
him an official salute with them, and sent him off in the " launch " to 
catch the Albany evening-boat. This was the De Witt Clinton, 
then considered a palace among river-steamers, being the largest, and 
having added to her other appointments the unheard-of luxury of 
" state-rooms " on her upper deck. Captain Roe, then and for many 
years her commander, received him on board and sheered out of the 
usual course, to land him at Sing Sing. There he was expecting to 
spend the night quietly, at the country residence of one of his aides- 
de-camp, Colonel Amory, whose villa was on the bank that overhangs 
the Croton River, where it unites with the Hudson, a short distance 
above the town of Sing Sing. But in the evening a gathering of cit- 
izens with a band of music came out to Colonel Amory's to serenade 
the Governor, who duly acknowledged the compliment. By morning 
the little town was in a stir with preparations to greet the unexpected 
Executive visitor. When he came down the road at ten o'clock from 
Colonel Amory's, he paused to examine the excavation then going on 
for the projected Croton Aqueduct, which was to supply New York 
with water. The workmen threw down shovels and barrows, and 
hastily gathered in crowds to give "three cheers for the Governor." 
Then a military company met him at the outskirts of the village and 
escorted him to the hotel, where Mr. Albert Wells made him a speech 
of welcome on behalf of the citizens, to which he made suitable re- 
sponse. The prison opened its massive doors for his inspection, and 
some hours were passed in studying the condition of the institution and 
its inmates, now become one of his chief responsibilities. A hospitable 
invitation to remain for a public dinner was declined, and then, taking 
a carriage, he drove to Peekskill, twelve miles, the nearest point at 
which the Albany boat could be reached, and there only by taking a 
ferry-boat over to Caldwell's Landing. 

While the children's festival on the shores of Staten Island was 
passing out of popular remembrance, it had suggested to him a sub- 
ject of anxious thought. It had led him to reflect that while those 
twelve thousand children were sharing enjoyment and instruction, 
double that number lurked, ragged and neglected, in foul streets and 
crowded tenements, who were growing up in ignorance and vice. 
Studying carefully the statistics of the schools, and invoking the coun- 



1839.] TIIE PARDONING POW I JR. jp, 

sel of those experienced in educational affairs, he endeavored to find a 
solution of the problem thus presented. Out of these reflections and 
conferences grew the recommendation in regard to schools, in his oexl 
message, which was destined to be for years a " bone of contention " 
religious and political. 

There came, about this time, a communication informing him of his 
election as an honorary member of the "Horticultural Association of 
the Valley of the Hudson." This was from A. J. Downing, who had 
already begun to lead that improvement of national taste which has 
added so much to the beauty of nearly everj American rural 1 le. 

Writing on the same day to Henry Barnard, of Hart lord, he said : 

Connecticut has an enviable distinction in having been the firsl of the States 
to found and adequately endow common schools. She is already enjoying rich- 
ly, and the whole country participates largely in, the fruits of h< r earlj moral 
cultivation of the people. 

With like interest in all schools, he complied with the requesl of 
the trustees of the Albany Female Academy, to be one of the com- 
mittee to examine the girls' compositions, and award the prize of a gold 
medal to the best. The rough draught of the "reporf " is still pre- 
served.; it is in the handwriting of Seward, and signed by the other 
two members of the committee, the Secretary of State and the I' 
Dr. Sprague. 

Evidently it cost the distinguished committee-men as much labor 
as some documents on much graver matters, for there were sixtj 
compositions to be read, and they were trying to speak with kindly 
commendation of as many as possible. Professing inability to decide 
on the shades of merit between several compositions equally good, they 
recommended the trustees to give gold medals to half a dozen of the 
girls, which recommendation an interlineation in the hand of John * '. 
Spencer, however, cuts down to " five ! " 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
1839. 



Tie Pardoning Power.— Experiences, Sad and < - .— Goingto' 

Clinton.— Heniy Clay at Auburn.— President Van Burenin Ubany. A R 
Three Black Men.— Tour tlir. iii-;: the Northern Counties.— Contf n n 
Clever Caricature. 

Cases of far more melancholy nature were now pressing for the 
Governor's judgment. There is a "black care" thai riles on the 
shoulders of every Governor, that follows him by day, haunts him by 



420 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

night, and will not be shaken off. This is the "pardoning power." 
There are two or three thousand poor wretches always in. prison, or on 
their way there, or to the scaffold, and hardly one of them but has 
either a wife or" a child, or a friend, to implore Executive clemency. 
Public opinion itself, which is an avenging Nemesis as long as the cul- 
prit is at large, softens as soon as he is behind bolts and bars ; and not 
unfrequently the turnkey who locks him in, the public prosecutor who 
arraigned him, the jurors who convicted, and even the judge who sen- 
tenced him, join in the appeal for his release. If legal and religious 
influence is wanting, there are always clergymen whose hearts incline 
to mercy, and lawyers with whom "stay of proceedings " is a part of 
their vocation. Yet, if the Governor weakly yields to the pressure, 
the same instinct of self-preservation in the community which sent the 
criminal to jail is aroused with fresh indignation by seeing him again 
at liberty in the streets. But the suitors for mercy will take no de- 
nial. How can they? Their pleading letters come in every mail; 
their piteous faces are ever round the door of the Executive chamber. 
They watch the Governor's path ; they wait in his hall ; they sit on 
his doorstep. If he be of a kindly, compassionate nature, disposed to 
listen to their " oft-told tale " of misery, he will have time neither to 
eat, nor sleep, nor write messages, nor make appointments. The appli- 
cants and their applications are often unreasonable, grotesque, and 
absurd, yet always sad and always painful. 

One of Seward's early experiences of this sort was shortly after his 
inauguration. A well-dressed, lady-like woman, evidently in deep 
grief, was imploring the pardon of her brute of a husband, sent to 
State-prison for beating her. She staid during the whole evening, ex- 
hausting all her powers of argument and entreaty, and deaf to any 
answer but a favorable one. Growing excited and frantic over the ill- 
success of her plea, she threw herself on her knees, and with sobs and 
hysterics refused to get up until her prayer should be granted. The 
Governor, while vainly endeavoring to calm her, was startled at see- 
ing in the open doorway the sudden apparition of York Yan Allen, his 
black waiter, arrayed in overcoat and cap, with a lantern in his hand. 

" What do you want, York ? " 

" I beg pard'n, sir," replied York, with the dignified courtesy which 
distinguishes his race, " but 1 thought de time had arrived when you 
wanted me." 
' " Want you ? What for ? " 

"Governor Clinton used to allers tell me I was to take 'em away 
when dey began to go on like dat," pointing to the kneeling female, 
" and Governor Tompkins, too, sir, allers." 

Equally to the surprise and relief of Governor Seward, the lady 
seemed, like York, to take it- as a matter of course. Rising and adjust- 



1839.] CASES SAD AND GROTESQUE. j ■_, ] 

ing her shawl and bonnet at the mirror, she courtesied adieu, am] . 
off to the hotel under the escort of York and his lantern. 

Yet there arc many cases when the exercise of the pardoning p 
is not only judicious, but is followed by benelicial results. Such a 
was that of Catharine , to whom Seward wrote : 

State of New Yokk, Executive Department, Alba 
Yours is a case of manifest and confessed guilt. You arc pardoned. Jt is be- 
cause you are young; because this is your first exposure to the law ; because you 
are a woman and a stranger, and it may in charity be believed that your virtue 
would have resisted temptation had not want and seduction combined to effect 
your ruin. If consigned to a State-prison, your good name would be irretriev- 
able, and the associations to which you would be exposed would forbid all hope 
of reformation. I have thought it my duty to accompany the pardon, now 
freely sent to you, with the advice that yon return as speedily as possible to _\our 
aged and afflicted mother; that you justify tins extraordinary act of mercy by 
humble and persevering assiduity in domestic duties, which is the only way to 
regain the respect and confidence of your friends and neighbors, [f you will do 
this, you will carry consolation to the heart of your parent; and I shall have 
the satisfaction of knowing that 1 have not done injustice to the public in yield- 
ing for once to impulses of sympathy'. 

One of the benevolent friends who had aided her happened 
journeying- through a remote; rural region a few years later, when 
unexpectedly met Catharine there — now grown an industrious, res] 
able woman, and regarded with esteem by all her neighbors. She took 
from her bosom the letter of the Governor, and said it had saved her 
from ruin ; and that she had carried it about with her ever since it 
brought her the welcome news of her release. 

Both those who solicit pardons and those who grant them are apl 
to look at the case of the individual sufferer, without bestowing much 
thought upon the interests of the community at large. Yet tins is 
really of far more extended consequence. The habit of generalization 
in political study, which was always a characteristic of Seward, was not 
laid aside when he came to examine these cases. There is a bulky 
manuscript volume of his decisions. Each shows how careful was his 
examination, and how solicitous he was that every one should stand on 
the firm ground of general principle, rather than mere compas 
feeling. Some were thought stern, but none were unjust. Many 
were unexpected, for "influential backers " failed of effect, while 
very friendlessness which seemed to shut out hope proved a 
to Executive kindness. 

A forger had been convicted in Dutchess County on evidence winch 
left no doubt of the crime. But he was a man of property, and his 
high standing in the community and the church had brought him tie- 
help of learned counsel and sympathizing neighbors, to whom the ver- 



422 LirE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

diet of the jury was a surprise. So strong was the pressure of public 
opinion in his behalf, that the jury recommended him to the clemency 
of the Executive, and the court suspended sentence in order that the 
application might be made. In his answer the Governor said : 

These circumstances furnish gratifying evidence that the court and jury have 
discharged their responsibilities conscientiously, as well as mercifully ; but not 
that they entertained any doubt of the prisoner's guilt. I cannot yield to this 
application under the impulse of feeling, or from respect to the popular sympa- 
thy, or upon consideration of the respectability of the prisoner's family and 
relatives, consistently with the principles which should control me. The appli- 
cation is therefore denied. 

A rough in Catskill had committed an unprovoked assault in the 
street, and been sent to the county-jail for thirty days. Influential 
political friends asked his release. The Governor asked in return : 

Upon what grounds could Executive interposition be justified? To set 
aside the verdict of juries and the judgments of courts, where no error, injus- 
tice, or oppression exists, would be to subject the entire administration of jus- 
tice to Executive caprice, and to destroy that confidence in the certainty of 
punishment, and that salutary respect for courts of justice which, far more than 
the punishments inflicted, secure the peace and good order of society. 

To a father who had petitioned in behalf of his son, the Governor 
closed a kindly letter of sympathy by saying : 

It is a hard thing to deny the petition of a father and mother for the release 
of their son from imprisonment ; yet, the embarrassments of granting it are so 
great, that I cannot give a favorable answer. The crime for which your un- 
happy son is now suffering was his second offense. His first and light punish- 
ment failed to produce reformation. It would be contrary to the settled policy 
hitherto pursued, were I to interpose to mitigate the punishment prescribed 
by law upon a second conviction. It is possible that your son may be saved 
from his errors and become a useful member of society. I trust it will be 
so. But his pardon would be inconsistent with the interests of society, and I 
should very much fear that it would operate unfavorably for his permanent ref- 
ormation. 

In another case he said : 

Sympathy for the prisoner's suffering family is the only influential consid- 
eration presented in this case. Their affliction is a moving circumstance. But 
the consequences of crime, in most instances, fall heavily upon the innocent fam- 
ilies of the offenders. There would be few tenants of the prisons if pardons 
could be granted in all cases where the sympathy of the Executive is excited. 

Offenses which endanger the general safety of life or property need 
to be strictly dealt with. A professional house-breaker's counsel pre- 
sented ingenious arguments and elaborate petitions in his behalf. The 
Governor's adverse decision said : 



1839.] "DISABILITIES." 

The crime of burglary increases with fearful rapidity. It is a crim 
justly spreads alarm and consternation in the community; fur it is most 
quently committed in the night, when persons and property are least efficiently 
protected. The welfare and security of society permit few to be pardoned who 

have committed this great crime. 

And in another case he desired his friends to remember thai — 

Every pardon tends to impair the efficiency of our criminal code, by shaking 
the public confidence in the certainty of the punishment it prescribes. 

"Tom," a black man, came to New York with his owner, an Arkansas 
planter. Falling into bad company there, they persuaded him to steal his 
master's money. He did so and divided witli them, hut was detected ; 
most of the money was recovered, and Tom was sent to Sing Sin^-. 
Then the master, desirous, perhaps, of regaining the services of his 
chattel, applied in that capacity to the Governor for his pardon. The 
latter denied it, briefly remarking : 

Under similar circumstances the Governor certainly would not pardon ;i free 
white citizen of the State. He does not see that the case is made stronger or 
weaker by the fact that the prisoner is a slave, and that his master desires his 
release. 

A widow's son, Samuel Burns, though hardly more than a hoy, had 
been sentenced to undergo the full penalty of the law for a theft. 
Deciding it to be a case for Executive interference, Seward wro 

The prisoner is pardoned not because he was innocent, not because the pun- 
ishment adjudged was too severe for the offense, but solely because he was 
very tender age when he committed his offense, and it is hoped that hi- severe 
experience of the consequences of crime will operate as a powerful admonition. 
There will remain, notwithstanding this pardon, a stigma upon the prisoner's 
name, and civil disabilities consequent upon his conviction. If he shall pi 
himself not unworthy of the discriminating favor now extended to him. 
may be removed on some future occasion by more complete pardon. 

In regard to the " disabilities " adverted to, it was Seward's | 
to hold out the prospect of their removal as an additional stimulus 
reform and good behavior on the part of the prisoner after his reh 
Speaking of this in a letter to a committee, he said : 

Pardons granted to persons in prison are always limited. Thej 
judgment, but do not remove the civil disabilities consequent 
where the conviction was clearly unjust. The restoration to the rightsoi < 
ship is held out to the prisoner by way of encouragement, and is grante< 
after the expiration of a sufficient period after his imprisonment I 
ormation. 

There was one case that had a ludicrous side in its unexpected end- 



424 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

ing. A Frenchman and his wife who had just emigrated to this country 
were accused of theft, locked up, tried, convicted of grand larceny, 
and sent, the woman to the prison for female convicts at Sing Sing, the 
man to the prison at Auburn. On review of the evidence it turned out 
that the offense, on the woman's part at least, had some palliating cir- 
cumstances, and that she had intended nothing worse than to make 
reprisals on neighbors who had plundered her. Ignorance of the lan- 
guage had prevented the case from being fully and fairly presented in 
court. Governor Seward made out a pardon for the woman, and, taking 
it with him on one of his visits to Sing Sing, handed it to the warden, 
who forthwith released her, handed her the pardon, and she went on 
her way rejoicing. It happened that her name and her husband's 
(Francoise and Francois) differed only in a letter, and the engrossing 
clerk had by mistake written his for hers. When outside of the prison 
she looked at the document which had been put in her hands and found 
there her husband's name. Not doubting that he had been pardoned 
also, she hastened up to Auburn and presented it to the warden of the 
prison there. It was in every respect correct, and so Francois was re- 
leased also, and the pair started for Canada. The mistake was discov- 
ered when the Governor next visited Auburn ; but the worthy French 
couple never came back to have it rectified. 

All these incidents, however, seem trivial when contrasted with 
those which attend the slow progress of the murderer in the grasp 
of the law inch by inch toward the gallows. After his lawyers have 
exhausted every subtlety in court, there still remains the last resort of 
an appeal to the Governor to stay his execution, and remit or com- 
mute his punishment. One such case occurred before Seward had 
been a month in office, and another a few weeks later ; but in both 
the justice of the sentence was so clear that he declined to interfere. 
In April came the case of Conway, who was convicted of murder on 
his own confession, but the court and the prosecuting attorney becom- 
ing satisfied that he was insane, recommended a commutation of his 
sentence. Seward granted their request, but decided that the lunatic 
asylum, not the State-prison, was the place where he should be confined. 

A case, curious in its details, occurred in Jefferson County. A 
man named McCarthy had deliberately planned and accomplished the 
murder of his wife's father, concealed the body with adroit ingenuity, 
and invented and circulated stories to account for the mysterious 
disappearance. Detected at last, he was convicted and sentenced to 
be hanged. Then came a letter from the Catholic priest of the neigh- 
borhood, a warm-hearted, unsophisticated man, and who, without at all 
excusing the crime, asked that he might be permitted to visit and 
administer the last offices to the condemned man in his cell. The 
jailer, construing the law according to its strict letter, had refused, 



1839.] CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE OF REFUGE 

on the ground that no one could be permitt< d to hold con \ with 

the prisoner unless in the presence of the keeper, while the clergyman 
said that the rules of the Church required the confession to be a private 
one. The Governor granted the desired permission, savin 

From time immemorial the judge has closed the solemn sent< m th with 

the prayer, "And may the Lord have mercy on your soull " A custom as old 
and as uniform has sanctioned the visits of ministers of the Gospel, to prepare 
the prisoner for that mercy which the judge implores. Whal Christianity en- 
joins, our laws and customs both tolerate and encourage. It certainly is consist- 
ent with the spirit of toleration which pervades our free institutions thai the 
convict should enjoy the visits of ministers of his own faith. 

But now came a new phase in the ease. The clergyman having 
heard the doomed man's confession, wrote to urge a commutation of the 
sentence, because the prisoner had slated circumstances which, to him, 
seemed to very much mitigate his guilt. His zeal to save his parish- 
ioner's life even led him to overstep the rule of the Church, which for- 
bids betrayal of the secrets of the confessional. The Governor, how- 
ever, declined to be moved even by these, and replied : 

It is the law of the land that the prisoner's crime be punishable with death. 
It is not for me to abrogate or change this law. On the contrary. I have i 
under solemn obligations to take care that it is fulfilled. I hasten this reply, thai 
it may, if possible, remove any groundless hope the prisoner maj indulge. And 
I hope that he will prepare, with the aid of your pious ministra thai 

dread tribunal where, like him, we must all appear as suppliant- for mercy. 

After McCarthy had been hanged, some political opponents of the 
Governor, getting an imperfect version of the story, thoughl to find in it 
material for denunciation, and so called for the correspondence, i 
received it at once, and with it a note, saying that the Governor cheer- 
fully gave information relating to his official conduct when called for 
by a respectable number of his fellow' -citizens, whether their views 
curred with or differed from his own. It is hardly necessary t>> say thai 
they did not find it of any use for their purposes. 

Youthful delinquents in the House of Refug 
cial solicitude. In a letter to the superintendent, Seward wrc 

Ai 
I regret that you did not deem it important to answer my inquiries in r< 
to the situation and health of Frederick Becker. Unreasonable fears 
excited on the part of parents, and I am often able to relieve tl • ir 
by obtaining such information. Mrs. Becker is a poor and afflicted bul excellent 
woman. It requires a heart of stone to deny such a woman's p 
pardon of a child thirteen years oh!, and at the same time to refuse to inquire 
whether the child is well and cheerful. 

A little girl of ten years had been some months in tie !! 



426 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

Refuge, whose managers declined to deliver her to her parents. The 
mother, moved perhaps by the loss of her child as nothing else would 
have moved her, renounced her idle habits, took the pledge, and joined 
the church ; and the father afterward followed her example, becoming in- 
dustrious and respectable. Aided by the pastor of their church, they 
now petitioned the Governor for the little girl. But on addressing the 
managers he was informed that, in accordance with custom, they had 
apprenticed her ; the indentures were already made out and signed, 
and the master did not wish to give her up. The Governor replied : 

The parents, by their reformation and their perseverance, now some 
months, in a religious course of life, have removed the only ground upon which 
the laws could justify a denial of their parental care of a female child of such 
tender years. To doubt whether it is better to restore their child under such 
circumstances, than to leave her in the care of any stranger, would be to distrust 
nature. The suggestion of the managers is therefore accepted, and, in order to 
avoid all difficulty concerning the indenture, I herewith transmit a pardon of the 
little apprentice. Should the master refuse to surrender her, you will have the 
goodness to return the pardon to me, with information of his name and residence, 
that I may direct a writ of habeas corpus to be sued out for her release. 

The proposed monument to Dc Witt Clinton had not been sanc- 
tioned by the Legislature. Party feeling was raised against it ; proba- 
bly by the very zeal with which the Whigs claimed him as the pioneer 
and exemplar whom they were following in their canal policy. It 
was therefore considered a Whig project, although he was dead and 
buried years before the Whig party was born. In a letter to Edward C. 
Delavan, Seward wrote : 

The time has not yet arrived when the Legislature of New York will be ready 
to do full honor to her most gifted son and greatest benefactor. For the honor 
of the State I regret the failure. 

And now came a call from the " Alma Mater," whose pupil he had 
been twenty years before, and whose trustee he now was, ex-offieio — 
.Union College. It came in the form of a letter from the president, his 
old preceptor, and was acknowledged thus : 

Albany, July 9, 1839. 
I have this morning received your letter, which reminds me of my obligation 
to attend the commencement. I return you my thanks for the kindness with 
which it recalls recollections, always full of pleasure, tinged with melancholy, of 
my collegiate life. I am sure, my dear sir, you will believe me when I say that the 
circumstance which renders me indisposed to attend the commencement is that 
my official relations and duties may not permit the unrestrained freedom I have 
enjoyed in former visits. You are very kind to tender me a home in your deso- 
late house. Prof. Keed was kind enough to invite me to his house. I shall be 
well contented with any disposition of myself that you and he may make. 



1839.] MRS. CLINTON. .(._,; 

Honors and kindly welcome greeted him on comraenci ment day in 
the field of old-time toils and struggles. The Adelphic Society, which 
once came so near striking- his name from its roll, commissioned an 
artist to paint his portrait. The newspapers noted the fad that the 
"long procession of strangers, students, and officers of the colli 
was closed by Dr. Nott, in all the firmness and vigor of a green old 
age, supported by two of his former pupils and graduates of the col- 
lege, now ex-officio trustees. On his right was the Governor, and on 
his left the Minister of Public Instruction." 

He always recurred with pleasure to recollections of college-life, 
and loved to meet old college friends and associates, whether pi 
or students. At the time of his graduation at Schenectady, Union 
College was yet in its infancy ; the classes were small, ami the Faculty 
not large. Yet among them were many esteemed friends. Bis lett 
make frequent reference to his visits to Dr. Nott, his meetings wit h th< 
Potters, both since bishops, Drs. Reed, Yates, Jackson, Tellkampff, 
Macauley, and Wayland. Among his own classmates were the Rev. 
Dr. L. P. Hickok, Tayler Lewis, Horatio Avcrill, Chauncey Dewey, 
William Kent, Archibald L. Linn, John C. Wright, and Roberl Den- 
niston. 

He was of opinion that Dr. Nott had succeeded in making a college 
distinctively American; for, instead of seeking to make profound stu- 
dents, he sought to fit his pupils for the practical duties of the Ameri- 
can pulpit, court-room, counting-house, or legislative hall. The toler- 
ance of all Christian creeds and the union between Christian denomi- 
nations — implied by its name and exemplified in its Faculty — wei 
Seward thought, a recognition of the fact that it was educating boys 
to be citizens of a country whose fundamental principle was freedom 
of religion. 

Going up one morning to spend a couple of days at Saratoga, he 
met, at the railroad-office, the widow of Governor Clinton, with her 
daughter, an invalid, and they made the journey together. 

July 27, I 
One of the things that I found myself required to do was to visit this 
of the grave, the gay, the lively, the severe. I submitted with reluctance, and 
came here yesterday. It is more endurable than I thought. Lionizing i 
common here that an "Excellency" may pass comparatively unnoticed. It is 
a relief to forget titles of bills, pardons, appointments, and all the thou* 
troubles which annoy at Albany. The great ••liens" have 
this place. The President is expected in about a fortnight, and Mr. Clay at the 
same time. The latter will be at Auburn on Friday or Saturday. The ob- 
served of all here now is Mrs. De Witt Clinton. You would be much i 
in her. 

Toward the close of July he was preparing for a trip through the 



428 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

northern counties. Lieutenant-Governor Bradish had already gone to 
his home in Franklin County, and Seward wrote him : 

Albany, July 27, 1839. 
My dear Sir: You were unexpectedly expeditious in your departure. By 
way of paying "the respect due to your official station and properly required 
from mine," I called a coach, and, summoning the " Dictator," presented my- 
self, at eight last evening, at your door. The waiter announced your departure. 
Happy man that you are, to be able to luxuriate during the dog-days at Elm- 
wood! I thank you very much for your kindness in making a programme for 
my route. I hope now to take up my progression on Monday or Tuesday at 
farthest, and approach you with all the rapidity consistent with the character of 
a republican Chief Magistrate. Of course you, better than I, will know how 
long a time the journey will require. Mr. Clay writes me that he will be at 
Saratoga on the 8th of August. 

Henry Clay was making a summer "tour" through the State as 
well as the President. While the latter was traveling from east to 
west, the former was coming from west to east. He had visited Buf- 
falo, passed a few days with General Porter at Niagara, and was now 
receiving from the Whigs of the various towns through which he 
passed demonstrations like those which the Democrats were bestowing 
on Mr. Van Buren. A delegation from Auburn on horseback and in 
carriages met him at Cayuga Bridge, and escorted him to the village, 
where ensued the formal speeches of welcome, hand-shaking, and cheers 
for " Harry of the West." One of his sons accompanied him, as well 
as his faithful body-servant Charles. The abolitionists endeavored to 
persuade Charles to accept the blessings of freedom. But he decided 
that his most comfortable place was to " stick to his master," of whose 
reflected glory he received no inconsiderable share. Mr. Clay spent the 
night at Seward's residence at Auburn and wrote thence to him. A 
note from the latter to Mrs. Seward said : 

Albany, July 27, 1839. 

The mail has just brought me Mr. Clay's letter, with your postscript. I am 
happy that you had an opportunity to see him. I was two days at the com- 
mencement, but I cannot now write about it, for my work accuses me on all 
sides. I called on Thursday with the State officers on the President; and spent 
half an hour at a party given him by General Dix. He returned my call on 
Saturday. He declined, very politely, my invitation to dine. This letter was 
commenced at five this evening. It is now eleven o'clock; and I have written 
every minute I have been alone ; so you see I am not favored with too much 
leisure. 

On Tuesday morning about an hour before the stage was to 
start, a man entered who was announced as Mr. Caphart, bringing a 
requisition from Lieutenant-Governor Hopkins, of Virginia. Governor 
Seward glanced over it and saw that it was a demand for the surrender 



1839.] THE VIRGINIA REQUISITION. 

of three colored men, whom it charged with having " felonious ly stolen " 
a " certain negro slave named Isaac." Inquiring further as to the story 
he was informed that the three men were sailors on board u New v i 
schooner, and that, while she was lying in Norfolk harbor, they had 
secreted Isaac in the hold and brought him oil' to New York. 

" And where are the men ? " 

"They are in prison in New York, awaiting your decision on the 
requisition." 

Again looking at the requisition, he found attached to it a short 
affidavit of one Colley before a justice of the peace, giving- the nai 
of the parties concerned, but no details of the ease 

" And Avhere is the slave ? " 

"Oh! he was caught and taken back to his master, before the 
requisition was made." 

On the face of it, therefore, it was a demand to have three Mack 
men sent from New York, to be punished in Virginia because they hud 
tried, though ineffectually, to help another to escape from slavery. The 
case was novel, the papers curt, the proofs defective, and the 
it repugnant. So, instead of directing the usual papers to be issued in 
compliance with a requisition, Seward decided to look further into 
matter. Accordingly, he told Mr. Caphart and directed the prn 
secretary, Mr. Blatchford, to give him a written memorandum to tin 
effect that the papers were unsatisfactory and defective, that he should 
give the subject further consideration at Auburn, and furthermore that 
he deemed it his duty to give the three men an opportunity to 1m- heard 
before he decided. Mr. Caphart took the memorandum and his leave. 
A copy of the same note was sent bj T the secretary to the Sheriff of 
New York, to be delivered to the accused. 

His letters home briefly described-his journeying : 

Albany, July "0, 1889. 

I am setting out this morning for Auburn, by the way of Washington, Warren, 
Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Jefferson, and Oswego Counties. 1 have been 
desiring long to see that part of the State, and it has new become a duty. I 
travel, of course, in the public conveyances, unheralded and unattendi I, 
by the Adjutant-General. 

Caldwell, Lake Geobge, Friday, August 2, 18; 

Here I am, lamenting that you are not with me to make acquaintance 
the glorious scenes of which we both have heard bo much. My window 
looks out upon the head of Lake George. A beautiful green lawn 
down to the lake-shore. The lake presents a silver mirror, a mile in width, 
the forests to contemplate their own rich morning attire, as they do I 
the rising sun. The mirror is set in a circular mountain-frame. Cts 
the eye glances off to the north, is interspersed w iful and various isl- 

ands. It is, indeed, a scene to contemplate and admire for hours. How 
came here must of course be narrated. General King and I left Albany on 



430 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

Tuesday morning— the hottest day almost of the whole summer — in a post-coach, 
with nine other passengers. We passed Troy and Lansingbnrg ; and made no 
stop until we arrived at Pittstown. There the people were emulous in showing 
us the neat white house and still pretty shrubbery that mark the spot where once 
lived your ancestors. From Pittstown we proceeded through Cambridge and 
Salem to Granville, in Washington County. I was unwell all day, and was enjoy- 
ing a sound sleep, at ten o'clock, in the coach, when the loud cannonading an- 
nounced our welcome to Granville. A young lady who lived in the village, and 
who had been pointing out to us objects of interest on our journey, and knowing 
nothing of us, expressed her surprise at this unusual excitement among her neigh- 
bors; but finally concluded that these were the preliminary demonstrations for a 
ladies' fair which was to come off the next day. We drove up to the village and 
into a scene of wild and glad merriment. The cannon was loudly proclaiming, the 
church-bells responding ; the hotel was decorated with boughs inside and out, 
and finely illuminated withal ; and the boys, like our own urchins in Auburn, 
kept the night alarmed with fire-balls, shooting through the atmosphere in every 
direction. It was a joyous and unsophisticated welcome. I yielded to its in- 
fluences until twelve o'clock, and then went to a bed that had no sleep for one 
so weary and ill as I. 

The next morning we attended the ladies' fair, and, after an hour of leave- 
taking, came on to Whitehall. There we were two hours, with a reception as 
frigid as that the night before at Granville was warm. Nobody knew we had 
contemplated visiting their town, and we knew not a soul in it. First, we were 
stared at as strangers of a curious gait and bearing ; then our incog, yielded to 
the inquisitive interrogation of the people at the tavern ; and then we were fol- 
lowed and surveyed with curious and speculative eyes. Just as the boat was 
ready to leave, some gentlemen came and introduced themselves to us, desiring 
us to stay until to-morrow. We ought to have accepted the kind invitation to 
stay a day. But our time w r ould not permit delay, even for the purpose of re- 
ceiving honors. 

We embarked at one o'clock on Lake Champlain, and landed at four, in a 
furious storm, at Ticonderoga. Here was only a solitary tavern, and that was ex- 
hausted of its guests. The ground was wet and muddy, and I was too unwell to 
write at home or go abroad. The time wore away heavily until night ; but I slept, 
and rose yesterday invigorated and buoyant. I took a horse and rode over the 
old French forts, and the ground of the encampments of the hostile parties, who 
fretted their busy hours upon this scene some sixty and some ninety years ago. 
Then we took a beautiful little barge and spread our tiny canvas to the morn- 
ing breeze, and came here. 

Plattsbueg, Avgust Sd. 
We left Lake George yesterday morning, called for an hour at Burlington, 
passed Elkanah Watson's house illuminated from " donjon-keep to turret-stone," 
and arrived here at ten last evening. To-day we attend church ; to-morrow 
we visit the town ; on Tuesday we inspect the iron-works at Keeseville on the 
Ausable Biver. 

Avgust Wh. 
I find that Mr. Clay will pass up this lake to-morrow. I shall stay here till 
he comes, and give him my greeting to-morrow evening- 



1839.] A TOUR THROUGH THE NORTHERN' COUNTIES. |.;l 

General King and I have been the busiest men in the whole State sin. 
wrote, and have been intent upon prosecuting our journey. We left Plattsburg 
on Tuesday morning before day; arrived the next at Malone, where we met the 
Lieutenant-Governor; spent a day with him in traversing Franklin County: 
arrived here on Friday evening, and shall take our departure to-morrow morn- 
ing for Saokett's Harbor and Watertown, then by Oswego homeward. I meet 
everywhere unlooked-for and unsolicited kindness; but it never leaves me alone. 

At various points on the journey addresses of welcome were suitably 
answered, with allusions which showed that he was studying the charac- 
ter of the region through which he was passing. In his address al 
Ogdensburg he remarked : 

Late as it is, I accomplish a long-cherished desire in coming here to learn the 
resources, the interests, and the exigencies of this portion of the State, that I 
may be more able hereafter to contribute to its advancement. 

The "tour" occupied fifteen days, and on arriving at Auburn be 
found there a letter from Henry Clay. Referring to a hurried interview 
they had had on Lake Champlain, Seward expressed his regret that the 
engagements imperative upon each of them seemed to render it im- 
possible to have a longer friendly consultation. 

You are the guest of the Whig party of this Stale, and I am right glad that 
they give you so warm and appropriate a welcome. You will soon pa 
the greeting of the hundred thousand friends you find in the State, and will he 
able to judge then of the aspect of public affairs, and of your personal position 
in regard to them. Having passed through many points of your mute, 1 have 
had an opportunity to learn the tone of the public mind after your departure. I 
have great pleasure in saying that among our friends in Fssex. Clinton, St. Law- 
rence, Jefferson, Oswego, and Cayuga, the spirit of the Wliiu - party has been 
invigorated by your visit, and a feeling of more ardent and devoted kindness 
toward yourself has been widely extended. 

To Mr. Weed he wrote : 

AlTOI'lIN. .1 '' ■■/■■ ' 1 5, 

Well, here I am, with a wife once more well and cheerful, and boys growing 
so rapidly that I scarcely dare recognize them — kind greetings and enthusi 
friends. How I wish I could rest among them a little brief space ! 

A delightful excursion was that in the north. I will not detail its i 
rences; but Kino; will give you the particulars. From one end to the other 
there was no word of complaint, or of regret, or of want of confidi c 
at Oswego, concerning the ship-canal affair. That is wrong; and I know not 
how it is to be put right. 

Of the presidential question I know less than when 1 left Albany. 1 wit- 
nessed from the deck of the steamer Mr. Clay's entrance into Burlington. I 
am unaccustomed to such demonstrations. It was enthusiastic i mag- 

nificent. I believe, too, that it was chiefly or altogether felt to be made toward 
Mr. Clay as a candidate. 



432 LIFE ^ND LETTERS. [1839. 

I found the same thing and the same feeling in Essex and Clinton Counties. 
In Jefferson and St. Lawrence, however, I found that there had been what was 
supposed to be equal ardor ; but it was told me by actors in it that it was hom- 
age to Mr. Clay as a, not the, representative of Whig principles. In this county 
it is Scott, but I did not hear anything elsewhere to that effect. Harrison 
seemed to be strong in Jefferson and St. Lawrence. 

On the other hand, Mr. Clay told me with frankness, and in a confiding man- 
ner, that the demonstrations were of such a kind everywhere as to convince 
him that he was well with tbe people. I stated to him that all was right tow- 
ard him, except the feelings of the abolitionists, and the fears, as they truly 
exist, predicated upon the supposed hostility of that class. He concluded me 
from that ground, by saying that there was nothing in either — that many 
abolitionists had come to him confessing their abolitionism, but declaring their 
preference for and devotion to him. And then we were called off. 

I was at Elkanah Watson's (an old friend), at Port Kent, waiting for a boat 
down the lake. Clay came in the up-boat. He (at my instance) came to Wat- 
son's and I received him there, then went on board his boat with him to Bur- 
lington wharf, where I took leave of him and went on board the boat for Platts- 
burg. 

I thank you for the picture. It is well, but not so good as the article it 
illustrates. 

There is still extant a copy of this political caricature, one of the 
best of its kind. Its portraits were so good, and its humorous points 
so well taken, that both friends and foes had to join in the merriment 
it created. It was a lithograph, entitled " The Political Drill of the 
State Officers." It represented Thurlow Weed, as drummer, striding 
in advance, cigar in mouth, and vigorously beating a tune, to which 
all the others were trying to keep step. Behind him came the diminu- 
tive Governor, also smoking, vainly trying to follow the footsteps of 
the long-legged drummer, and unconsciously imitating the movements 
of his hands. The Adjutant-General followed, arrayed in most gor- 
geous and bewildering regimentals. Then came the Secretary of State 
and Comptroller, the former of whom evidently would not, while the lat- 
ter could not, keep step. The Treasurer had fallen out of line, and 
with a determined air sat down on his strong box to protect it ; while 
the Attorney - General, sitting under a tree, was diligently conning 
his first lesson in " Blackstone's Commentaries." 

Mr. Weed, finding the caricature at the lithographer's, had sent a 
copy to Seward with this characteristic note : 

I send you a picture. The shop at which I found it was the scene of capi- 
tal fun. The salesman proposed to furnish a key. "This," said he, "is the 
Attorney-General. This fellow is Weed, who was a drummer in the last war, 
and an excellent likeness." By this time, a third person, who was standing by, 
very quietly inquired whether / considered it a likeness. The man and his clerk 
stared. Your uncle, " confessing the soft impeachment," stipulated for a reason- 
able abatement of nose, and agreed that the thing was admirable. 



1839.] A CLEVER CARICATURE. 1; ; ; 

The rascals have got that jockey great-coat that Tommy Lee mad< 
But the " Adjutant " looks magnificently. The figure intended for Haighl 
striking likeness of Holley. I found the "Premier" in good-humor, and pre- 
sented him a copy, with which lie was delighted. Ee talked it all over with Dr. 
Xott, going to the Deaf and Dumb Institution. 

Years afterward the story of the origin of this caricature was told. 
One evening at the house of ex-Comptroller Flagg, the promising and 
popular young artist Freeman was making a call. The family circle 
were reading and laughing over a burlesque article in the Argus, pur- 
porting to be a description of a drill of the newly-appointed Si 
officers, in the vacant square in front of the gubernatorial residence. 
As Freeman sat listening, he took out his pencil and commenced sketch- 
ing on a sheet of paper the scene described. While thus engaged, ex-- 
Governor Marcy came in, looked over his shoulder, and, recognizing the 
likenesses, said sharply and indignantly: 

"That's libelous, sir ! Do you know, sir, that the man who makes 
such a picture can be prosecuted for libel ? " 

"Yes," said Freeman, looking up — "yes, and what shall be done 
with the scoundrel who wrote the article ? " 

The general laugh that greeted this reply showed Governor Marcy 
that he was known to be the author. Freeman's sketch was pronounced 
to be so excellent that it was taken the next day to be lithographed. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

1839. 



Visit to Western New York.— The Amistad.— The Virginia Controversy.— Col ' 

— Military Reviews. — School Libraries. — Moms Multicaulia Fever.— No Coal-Mines. 
Church and State.— Election of a Whig Legislature— Presidential Tours.— Partisanship 
in Office. 

A hurried trip to Chautauqua occupied the latter days of Au- 
gust. Just before starting, Seward wrote to Mr. Weed : 

Auburn, August 17, 1 
The Richmond Whig wrote me down as a candidate for Vice-President. 
Wetmore thereupon writes his gratification with this, but his protest also. To 
this I thought it wise to respond, because the response will be widely promulgated 
in the right quarter. I therefore wrote him emphatically that it was an absurd- 
ity, and that no circumstances, public or personal, could exist which would in- 
duce my consent to be talked of for such a purpose. 

I find the caricature better by daylight, it is capital, and I will preserve it. 
The conceit of the writer is well sustained. 
28 



43i LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

From Chautauqua he wrote home : 

Westfield, Sunday Evening. 

It is almost a week since I left you, and this is the first time I have been alone 
except upon a weary bed. I passed through Seneca Falls, but without stopping. 
At Waterloo I met several friends — at Geneva all whom I cared to see. I had 
a very good visit with our sister at Canandaigua. At Rochester, George Andrew's 
house was desolate. I did not enter it ; but Mrs. Whittlesey made me happy by 
plain, unostentatious, but winning kindness. Her husband was at Buffalo. At 
Batavia, Mrs. Cary was well, and cheerful, and affectionate, and so was her ex- 
cellent husband. There was a demonstration of political feeling that could not 
but be gratifying. At Lockport it was dull. At Niagara Falls I wanted you. 
From nine until midnight I was strolling upon Goat Island by the side of rapids, 
cascades, and cataracts, listening to thunders when the world was hushed, and 
viewing the silvered waves as they made stars of their own, emulous of the sky 
above. Rapids by moonlight seen through a grove are beautiful, and more 
beautiful and wonderful is the lunar rainbow, which seems to throw itself as a 
proscenium before the mighty stage. 

At Buffalo there was a salute, a review, a feu de joic, a dinner, a supper, 
Fred Whittlesey and other friends, a thousand visitors, and a procession of five 
hundred firemen with torch-lights. The procession escorted me to the boat, and 
the people uttered loud and hearty welcome. 

His reception at Westfield was not a formal parade ; but, word hav- 
ing gone out to the farmers, people began to come in singly and in 
families, on foot, on horseback, and in wagons. The long room of the 
Westfield House was filled during the evening ; speeches of welcome 
were made by R. P. Marvin, the member of Congress, Dean Edson, 
and others. In his reply the Governor said : 

You have been pleased to remind me that I came here three years ago a 
stranger, in a season of great excitement and unhappiness, to assume a trust in- 
volving the peace and prosperity of the citizens of this country. That task has 
been finished. An issue was made up upon the manner in which that delicate 
trust was discharged. The case was tried, and the judgment was rendered during 
my absence from among you. I cannot forget that the people of Chatauqua on 
that occasion vindicated me from reproach, and defended my good name as if 
it had been a property of their own. I cannot forget that I owe them a debt of 
lasting gratitude. I desire not to act the orator. I would forget during the 
time I remain among you that I am a public officer. I desire to remember only 
that I have been your neighbor, and am your obliged fellow-citizen. 

Westfield, August 25th. 
Well, Mr. Weed, this is what I did not expect from you ! I have hurried 
through the Seventh and Eighth Districts in less than a week, expecting to find 
letters from you at the end of the journey; and, lo! here I am without my re- 
port. I presume I might as well abdicate and resume my land agency, as you 
have usurped the government. The news from Tennessee and Indiana have 
made you bold. I think Ibrahim Pasha, the Emperor Nicholas, and you, will 
soon be at loggerheads for the division of the world. 



1839.] PRESIDENT VAN BUREN AT AUBURN. ; ; - 

The week having passed, Seward returned home through the south- 
ern tier of counties. At Bath, Steuben County, alluding to the accu- 
sation of exaggerated enthusiasm in behalf of public works, he re- 
marked : 

The Erie Canal, the Charaplain Canal, and all our other canals and railroads, 
were made under the influence of those who were called enthusiasts. We have 
yet to learn which one of them the people are willing to relinquish. Improve- 
ments and inventions have often been effected by those who believed that more 
could be accomplished than was found to be practicable. But no useful im- 
provement or invention was ever made by one whose prudence exceeded his en- 
terprise. . . . 

There is nothing mysterious in the matter of canals and railroads. It lias al- 
ways been known that burdens are more easily carried upon the water than upon 
the land. It has been but recently discovered, or at least the invention has been 
but recently applied to practical purposes, that burdens are more easily and 
therefore more cheaply transported upon iron rails on graded planes than over 
the unequal and rough surfaces of common roads. Canals and railroads are but 
improved roads adapted to the increased business of the community and the 
enterprise of the times. 

Reading the newspaper at Auburn one morning early in September, 
Seward saw there that much excitement had been created in New York 
by the report that several pilot-boats had seen a clipper-built schooner 
off Sandy Hook, which appeared to be full of negroes, and was sus- 
pected of being a pirate. A few days later it was announced that I he 
"suspicious-looking schooner " had been captured and brought into port 
by a United States brig, and that the negroes proved to be a cargo of 
slaves who had risen on the voyage, murdered captain and crew, and 
were trying to steer back to Africa. This was the Amistad, whose 
case was destined to occupy so large a share of public attention in 
years to come. 

But the absorbing topic of the hour in "Western New York- was the 
presidential progress. Mr. Van Buren reached Auburn on the 9th of 
September, accompanied by his son, Smith E. Van Buren, and 
Secretary of War, Mr. Poinsett. The people from all the surrounding 
country, to the number of several thousand, flocked into the streets to 
see the President, and the procession, a mile and a half long, in bis 
honor. He was duly welcomed, much as Mr. Clay had been, though 
with a demonstration more imposing and more numerously attended, a 
circumstance which the Whigs in their lampoons and pasquinades en- 
deavored to account for by the fact that the menagerie was also in 
town, having " a real giraffe from the White Nile," and drawing dis- 
advantageous comparisons as to the respective "height" of the two 
"attractions." Mr. Van Buren's courteous and dignified manner, and 
judiciously-chosen remarks, w r ould have tended to disarm partisan dis- 



436 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

like if that feeling was open to such influences. His own political 
friends were delighted with the visit. Seward called upon the Presi- 
dent and Secretary at the hotel, a compliment which they returned in 
the evening. 

During the few days which he now quietly spent at home he noted 
with gratification the signs which had begun to appear, of the return 
.of better times. A continuous line of railroads now extended to Al- 
bany, and Auburn was not only on the thoroughfare, but the termina- 
tion of it, and so the point of transfer from cars to stages. Its hotels 
were full to overflowing, and new buildings were in process of erec- 
tion. Business in shops and streets was showing more activity. Among 
the improvements that date from this summer was the introduction of 
a long passenger-car on the Auburn & Syracuse Railroad. It was de- 
scribed in the Auburn Journal as a " Stephenson car, built on the lat- 
tice principle." It had little diamond-shaped windows ; was partially 
subdivided into three compartments, a long aisle, however, running 
through the whole. This was the avant-coureur of the long cars 
which soon superseded the small English ones, and have now become 
the distinctive car of the United States. 

People at this time thought that the journey to Albany was made 
with marvelous speed and very little trouble ; and so it was, when con- 
trasted with their previous experiences of stage and canal-boat. Yet 
the traveler had a journey tedious enough. Rising long before day- 
light, he would take the cars at three o'clock in the morning, and pro- 
ceed at a speed rarely as great as twenty miles an hour, with numer- 
ous long pauses at the various stopping-places. At Syracuse he would 
find himself required, not only to change cars himself, but go to the 
baggage-car, find his trunk in the confused pile, have it changed also, 
and "chalked" accordingly. The same operation was repeated at 
Utica, and again at Schenectady, for the four railroads were distinct 
corporations, and such things as checks, through-tickets, and express- 
trains, were as yet unheard of. The journey occupied thirteen hours, 
passengers arriving in Albany in time to take the night-boat. It was 
hailed as a bright invention when one or two of these boats advertised 
that they would go " through without landing " to New York. 

The 12th of September found the Governor at his post in the Ex- 
ecutive chamber. The sudden changes of governmental policy in re- 
gard to banks and currency had weakened confidence, at home and 
abroad, in all American securities. Capital is timid, and one alarm 
leads to another. English capitalists were beginning to talk of what 
would happen if the frontier Canadian trouble should lead to Avar be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain. Writing to William Brown, 
of Brown Brothers & Co., Liverpool, Seward said : 



1839.] THE VIRGINIA CONTROVEB 1;; - 

I can easily appreciate the solicitude foreign capitalists fee] on thai subject, 
although no person here even dreams that our Government could be guill 
so gross a violation of faith as to confiscate, in time of war, money invested in 
our securities in times of peace. I have noticed a decline of confidence in 
American securities. Nothing can be more absurd; but what absurdity i 
not gain a temporary influence in the operations upon 'Change i 

In the same letter he referred to the postal reform, then under dis- 
cussion in Great Britain : 

I rejoice in the indications that a reduction of English postage is about to 
take place. The policy is an obvious one, both for the purpose of increase of 
revenue, and, what is more important, the increase of intelligence and the pros- 
perity of commerce. We shall come to the same measure ; but, I fear, not so 
rapidly as the English Government. 

Alarms of apprehended invasions are not without their b< o 
since they set thoughtful minds at work to devise means for mitigating 
the horrors of war, or for strengthening the national defenses. There 
were many such topics of correspondence at this time. V, Y 
Major-General Gaines, he said : 

I thank you for the interesting explanation of the bistory of your pi 
the defense of our ports. It is the result of our form of government that mili- 
tary preparations will always be delayed till danger is imminent. 

Among the pile of letters awaiting him on his table was a formal 
communication from the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, complaining 
that " although one full month had elapsed" he had "received no official 
intelligence" of the disposition made of the subject of the three black 
men "who did feloniously steal," etc, and calling his attention to the 
fact that the demand was founded upon "an offense peculiarly and 
deeply affecting the general interest of the good people of t his ( lommon- 
wealth, recognized as felony and severely punished by our laws ;" and 
further expressing the fear that, "if longer delay is permitted, the 
offenders may escape altogether." 

Seward, the next morning after his arrival in town, proceeded to 
answer the Virginia Executive, recapitulating in detail the circum- 
stances of Mr. Caphart's application to him, and of the disposition made 
of the accused by the Recorder of New York, and reiterating his opin- 
ion that the papers in the case were defective. But, he continued : 

It is by no means my wish to protract unnecessarily the correspondence 
upon the subject, or to avoid a decision upon the important principle it invob 
I need not inform you, sir, that there is no law of this State which recognizes 
slavery— no statute which admits that one man can be the property of another. 
or that one man can be stolen from another. On the other hand, our c< i 



438 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1S39. 

tution and laws interdict slavery in every form. Kor is it necessary to inform 
you that the common law does not recognize slavery, nor make the act of which 
the parties are accused in this case felonious or criminal. The offense charged 
in the affidavit and specified in the requisition is not a felony nor a crime within 
the meaning of the constitution, and, waiving all the defects in the affidavit, I 
cannot surrender the supposed fugitives, tot>e carried to Virginia for trial under 
the statute of that State. 

In about a fortnight came a long and indignant reply from the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Virginia, feeling it to be his " imperious duty 
promptly to protest," " entertaining a fixed opinion that your doctrines 
are at war with the language and spirit of the Federal Constitution, 
inconsistent with the true relations, rights, and duties of the States, and 
calculated to disturb the general harmony of the country." After the 
declamatory portion of his letter came the argumentative part, elaborate 
and ingenious, invoking Kent and Vattel and the " Letters Rogatory of 
Switzerland," to prove that ".the State of Virginia has an unquestion- 
able right to devise its own system of jurisprudence, to declare what 
shall constitute property within her borders, and finally to declare what 
acts shall be considered felonious or criminal, and to denounce upon 
those who commit them such punishment as her Legislature may pre- 
scribe." Finally, he rather pompously declared : " I do not mean to be 
drawn into a discussion of the abstract right of slavery, or to urge any 
arguments against the right or propriety of any nation or people to 
interfere with our domestic institutions. That is not with the people 
of Virginia a debatable question. L T pon that subject, I need only add, 
Virginia knows her rights, and will at all times maintain them." 

To this communication Seward replied : 

I am not aware, sir, that in the letter which I had the honor to address you I 
manifested a disposition to invite you to a discussion of the rightfulness, ahstraet 
or otherwise, of slavery. You will excuse me, therefore, for confining myself 
within the range required by my argument. 

Taking up the Lieutenant-Governor's elaborate reasoning to prove, 
from authorities on the law of nations, that the men should be surren- 
dered because they had committed a crime, he pointed out its fatal de- 
fect, namely, that neither Kent, Vattel, nor any other authority on in- 
ternational law, makes this offense a crime : 

On the contrary, however, I must insist, with perfect respect, that the gen- 
eral principle of civilized communities is in harmony with that which prevails 
in this State, that men are not the subjects of property, and of course that no 
such crime can exist as the "felonious stealing" of a human being considered 
as property. . . . While I am required hy the Constitution to deliver up any 
fugitives from justice, charged with having committed crime, I am also hound, 
as an executive magistrate, to respect the liberty and protect the rights of 



1839.] PORTAGE FALLS. 

citizens of tins State. . . . It seems my duty to decline to deliver the persons 
you demand, to be carried out of the protection of the Stale of which the} 
citizens. 

Meanwhile, the Recorder of New York had sent the Governor a 
statement of the case as it was presented to him, and of his action 
upon it. In this he said he had found that the slave was a ship-car- 
penter, employed at Norfolk in repairing- the schooner on board of 
which the three men were hands; that, after the schooner sailed, the 
slave was not to be found; that two agents of the owner hash 
to New York, and were waiting there for the schooner when she 
arrived ; that they went on board and told the captain their sus- 
picions, and that he, denying all knowledge about the slave, helped to 
make search for him ; and that Isaac, the slave, was found concealed 
among the live-oak timber on beard, and this was all they could tes- 
tify to prove that the three men had stolen the slave. The sla 
own story was that one of the colored men observed to him thai 
was foolish to remain in Virginia, as he could get good wages North, 
and that this suggestion induced him to run away and secrete himself 
on board the vessel. " Satisfied," said the Recorder, in conclusion, 
"that according to the testimony neither of the prisoners had com- 
mitted an offense even against the law of Virginia, and that the testi- 
mony was not such as to authorize the detention of the prison 
therefore discharged them." 

Mr. Ruggles, who was chosen Canal Commissioner in place of t }en- 
eral Van Rensselaer, had been this summer assigned by his colleagu< s 
to active duties on the Genesee Valley Canal and the western division 
of the Erie Canal. This was said by the Whigs to have been done 
in order to throw r upon him the burden of responsibilities which his 
colleagues were unwilling to encounter. However this may be, the 
" silk-stocking commissioner from New York," 1 as the opposition jour- 
nals sneeringly called him, put on his cowhide boots and 
and entered zealously and vigorously upon the duties of that post. The 
thorough manner in which those duties were performed at tested that 
he was as familiar with the practical working as with the philosophic 
principles of the system of internal improvement ; and he had the 
satisfaction of reporting to the Canal Board, the lust season, how ; 
could save over half a million dollars. 

The engineering at some points of the line of the < 
Canal was daring and difficult. Near Portage, a short distance i 
the upper falls of the Genesee River, there towered up a tall, precipi- 
tous cliff. Along its side it was proposed to hang the canal, sis hun- 
dred feet above the gorge below. But the rock proved I , and 
it was decided first to tunnel the cliff, and afterward to make an o 
cutting through it, to the required depth. A magnificent piece of 



440 LIf E AND LETTERS. [1839. 

scenery was to be spoiled by a magnificent piece of engineering. The 
latter would remain as its own monument ; and the thought occurred 
to Mr. Ruggles that the former might be preserved in a painting, 
which would be a memento of both. He sent for Thomas Cole, who 
already occupied the first rank among American landscape-artists. 
The task was one congenial to Cole's taste, and the picture which he 
made was brought to Albany, and presented to Seward, as an illus- 
tration of the great work proceeding under his auspices. 

It has hung for many years in his drawing-room at Auburn, reach- 
ing nearly from floor to ceiling. It is one of the most characteristic 
productions of Cole's pencil. You look up toward the distant fall be- 
tween huge, craggy cliffs, on the summit of the highest of which is 
perched the " Johnson Lodge," built round a pine-tree, for the occu- 
pancy of the contractor, the Canal Commissioner, and the artist, while 
pursuing their respective work. In the foreground are the remains of 
a gigantic beech-tree, riven by lightning, while behind and around 
stretches away the illimitable, autumn-tinted forest. A storm is ap- 
proaching over the distant mountain, and over the cluster of work- 
men's huts above the fall. The visitor to Portage now will look in 
vain for cliffs, forest, or lodge. The completeness of the change which 
the canal has wrought attests the colossal character of the work. 

Autumn had long been the season established by law and custom 
for militia inspections and parades. The projected or postponed re- 
views of different bodies of State troops were now in order. The citi- 
zen soldiery and their officers had, not unreasonably, counted largely 
upon the countenance and favor they would receive from an Ex- 
ecutive whose record showed him to possess a high regard for the 
value of such organizations, and to have aided in promoting the effi- 
ciency of the system, both as a legislator and as a military commander. 
The latter experience was a fortunate one, as it enabled him to go 
through his ceremonial duties as commander-in-chief without any of 
those gaueJierles which the wisest and most dignified civilian is liable to 
exhibit when he undertakes to " set a squadron in the field." Having 
passed through the various subordinate grades, his promotion to be com- 
mander-in-chief was the next regular step from the major-generalship 
he had held a few years before. Complying, therefore, with the wishes 
of the troops, he wore the uniform of his rank and went through the 
prescribed routine, though it had lost for him all the attractions of nov- 
elty. 

Albany, September \Zth. 

The autumnal aspect of our grounds is vastly less bright aud cheerful than 

their summer verdure. It is cheerless here, and the place needs a mistress, or a 

master less absorbed in State affairs than I. "Well! the Troy review has passed. 

A\ ith the aid of kind friends I had collected a full equipment, and a charger with 



1839.] MILITIA REVIEWS. j [ [ 

glossy mane and curved neck was at my command. I rode to Troy in a barouche. 
My staff, numbering ten or twelve well-looking young men, were mounted. \\ e 
were received at Troy with a salute and a very pretty escort. After 
half an hour at the hotel, I repaired to Mrs. Boardman's and waited there until 
called to the field. The day wasa long one, but everything passed off well ; and, 
as far as I know, satisfactorily. After dinner I called with my stall' at Mr. 
George "Warren's and at Mr. Patterson's. We rode home in the evening, fatigued, 
you may well imagine. 

Tuesday, the 24th, is assigned for the review in New York. Some of our 
friends here are vexed by my having engaged to go there for a "demonstration," 
as it will, they say, be understood. Weed goes to New York to-nighl : and, as 
Chancellor Kent said, "he'll know whether it is wise to go." 

Astor House, New Yobk, M ■ 2Zd. 

I came into the city quietly and unostentatiously enough, I think — unev 
by all but one or two friends — breakfasted and dined here, and spent the day 
chiefly abroad. Have as yet seen very few of the citizens but Blatchford and 
Bowen. I am indeed very pleasantly situated with the latter, and learned to know 
him more and more favorably than ever before. 

The two colonels are busy in arrangements for the review, and the Adjutant- 
General will bring off the whole affair very well, I trust. The skies seem auspi- 
cious. 

On Tuesday the review took place at the Battery. Major-Genera] 
Sanford's division of artillery passed in review before the Gov* rnor. 
The day closed with a dinner at Niblo's, given by the officers to their 
commander-in-chief. Among the guests were Major-General Macomb, 
then in chief command of the United States Army ; and Adjutant- 
General Jones, of the War Department at Washington. 

A still greater review took place on the 4th of October in 
York, when the entire infantry force of the city, under command of 
Major-General Doughty of the Thirty-first Division, Major-General 
Lloyd of the Thirty-second, Major-General Jones of the Third, and 
Major-General Stryker of the Twenty-eighth, paraded and were re- 
viewed by the commander-in-chief. A fortnight later, the officers of 
the flank companies of the four divisions of infantry invited him to a 
public dinner. In declining tins invitation he said : 

The recent reviews have enabled me to obtain a better knov 
actual condition of that military force upon which the authorities of the city 
must rely when the civil police shall be found insufficient I > maintain public 
tranquillity, and which must always constitute an important arm of public de- 
fense against invasion. ... It is of vital importance to tbo existence of repub- 
lican government. 

Another journey to New York was made on the 1 
for the purpose of visiting the public schools of that city. Received 
and accompanied by some of the trustees, he carefully studied the 



442 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

workings of the system, with a view to the statements and recommenda- 
tions of his next annual message. The project of a library for each of 
the eleven thousand district-schools of the State was then a subject to 
which he was giving attention and hearty encouragement. 

The Legislature in 1838 had appropriated fifty-five thousand dollars 
to be distributed among the different districts and employed in the pur- 
chase of books. Various publishers were compiling and issuing copies 
of such works as they deemed suitable for the purpose ; and the rivalry 
between them permitted the books to be obtained at very cheap rates. 
Opinions of State officers and savants were, of course, solicited ; and 
they, desirous to perform the duty conscientiously, compared notes in 
regard to the juvenile volumes. To the Harpers, who had published 
the most complete of these collections, Seward wrote : 

The works you selected are admirably adapted to the purpose for which they 
were designed. The enterprise produces a competition which cannot but prove 
beneficial to the community. 

The little red wooden case containing this series of fifty small vol- 
umes, costing twenty dollars, was sent up to Albany for examination, 
and stood upon his office-table. It is doubtful if any school library 
has ever been submitted to such careful reading and criticism, by such 
matured intellects. The State printer quoted from the interesting 
abridgment of the "Life and Works of Dr. Franklin ;" and Gulian 
C. Verplanck said that he was so fascinated with the description of 
the Chinese Empire that he had been all day reading it, up to the hour 
when he had been invited to " chin-chin " the Governor and " eat rice, 
under the light of his celestial countenance." 

Nor was it merely the children whose education was thought wor- 
thy of care by the State. A letter to the Rev. John Luckey, chap- 
lain of the State-prison at Sing Sing, after thanking him for sugges- 
tions, said : 

It is my purpose to call the attention of the Legislature to the expediency 
of making some legislative provision for the instruction of convicts in the 
prison, and I find myself sustained and enlightened on the subject by your 
communication. In reply to Mr. 'Wiltsie's suggestion that, if he could be au- 
thorized to do so, he would procure sixty or eighty spelling-books, I very 
cheerfully give my advice tbat it sball be done. 

A letter of the same date to B. F. Thompson, author of " History 
of Long Island," thanking him for his volume, remarked that he had 
read with attention many portions of it in the region whose history it 
relates, a remark that illustrates a habit which he had, perhaps un- 
consciously, adopted, and which continued through life — that of read- 
ing only books relating to subjects he was studying at the time. The 



1839.] INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. j ;.; 

few intervals he could spare for reading were thus most advantageous- 
ly occupied; and so in the course of years, as successive subjects 
came before him for examination, his library increased, book by I 
till it amounted to several thousand volumes, no one of which was 
bought because he might need it in future, but every one because 1 
did need it at the time. 

One Sunday morning while visiting New York, he went with s 
of his staff to find an Episcopal church. They entered one on or near 
Broadway, to which friends had frequently invited him. It happened 
that the church was pretty full, and they looked in vain for s< 
Proceeding down the main aisle, they found every pew either idled or 
presenting the owner's back, in evident objection to the intrusion of 
strangers. Walking slowly and gravely on, closely followed by his 
aides-de-camp, the Governor presently found himself at the chancel, 
and, perceiving an open door in the rear wall, he walked out into the 
church-yard ; then, holding a hurried council of war among the tomb- 
stones, it was decided to return to the hotel. By this time wardens 
and vestrymen, who had been startled from their propriety by the sud- 
den appearance, and as sudden disappearance, of the Chief Magistrate 
of the State, came out to apologize, saying that if pew-owners had 
known who it was, etc. But Seward declined to enter again, saying 
that he had no desire to visit a church which had a seat for a Govern- 
or, and did not have one for a stranger. 

Inventors had then, as now, the practice of bringing their pro- 
jected machines to the notice of men in public office, with the vague 
hope of some assistance. In reference to this class of applications, he 
wrote to Prof. Renwick, of Columbia Colle 

Albaky, Odol 
Among the duties brought upon me by my public relation is that of hearing 
the explanation of persons engaged in the invention of improvements in n 
anisra. Although it is not so written in the constitution, 1 am expected to I 
patiently all inventors, encourage the few whose labors seem likely to result 
beneficially for themselves and the public, and discourage that far greater num- 
ber whose plans are unphilosophical or absurd. I am without the requisit 
entitle knowledge and without the leisure necessary for such investigations. 
Your distinguished reputation induces me to inquire whether I may tab 
liberty to refer to you some of these numerous projects for your opinion t ; 
on? I should undoubtedly trouble you, but among them all you might ha] 
to find some worthy of a careful examination and discriminating favor. 

One of those seasons of excitement and enthusiasm on agricultural 
subjects which are, not inaptly, called " fevers," pervaded several oi 
the States this year. This was the " Moras multicaulis" fever. The 
leaves of that species of mulberry being the favorite food oi the silk- 
worm, and it having been discovered that the tree would thrive even 



444 LI FE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

in northern soils, it was believed that the production of silk might be 
made a profitable branch of industry. Auctions were held, at which 
thousands of young mulberry-trees were sold at from twenty to fifty 
cents apiece. Farmers planted great fields with them. Families estab- 
lished colonies of silkworms in their kitchens and bedrooms. Machines 
for reeling and weaving silk were introduced in factories and industrial 
institutions. In Kentucky and some other States legislative action 
was taken for the encouragement of the culture of the mulberry and 
the manufacture of raw silk. 

Savants and philosophers are proverbially careless of matters of 
detail in ordinary life and business. The Governor's methodical habits 
occasionally saved the scientific gentlemen of the geological survey 
from censures which, though unmerited, would probably have been 
made. His calls upon them for precise accounts and regular reports 
were, at first, thought unreasonable, but they soon came to see the 
wisdom of such action. 

Even if the geological survey had accomplished nothing else, it 
would have rendered an invaluable service by its demonstration that 
the position and character of strata preclude all hope of discovering 
coal north of the limit of the Pennsylvania coal-measures ; and that 
projects for coal-mining, therefore, were costly chimeras, to be avoided. 

On the 22d of October Seward wrote his first Thanksgiving procla- 
mation, designating Thursday, November 28th, as the day for that time- 
honored festival. Its recital of the subjects of thanksgiving embraced 
political as well as material public benefits : 

He hath sent us abundant harvests to reward the labors of the husbandman 
and supply the wants of the poor ; hath averted from us the calamities of war 
and pestilence ; hath suffered us to maintain and more firmly establish republi- 
can institutions, securing a larger measure of civil and religious liberty, social 
tranquillity, and domestic bappiness, than has ever before been enjoyed by any 
people ; bath crowned with good success the means which have been employed 
by the State, by associations, and by individuals, for the development of the 
abounding resources of our country, the relief of the unfortunate, the reforma- 
tion of the vicious, tbe improvement of education, the cultivation of science, the 
perfection of tbe arts, and the maintenance of the Christian religion. 

As to the ever-recurring problem of the relations of Church and 
state, his opinions were unchanged through life. In a letter of Octo- 
ber 28th he said : 

No truth was ever more clear than that the connection between religious 
and civil institutions is calculated to degrade and corrupt both. ... I be- 
lieve tbat no democratic government can stand but by the support of Chris- 
tianity. I believe, also, that it is an essential principle of democracy that there 
should be unlimited freedom of conscience. 



1839.] A WHIG SENATE. 



11; 



A fresh shock to financial confidence and an increase of comm< 
embarrassment was caused by the suspension of specie payment by the 
United States Bank, now a local institution of Pennsylvania ; although 
when Mr. Biddle had resigned its presidency in .March, 
had been stated to be eminently prosperous. The banks at the South 
and West followed its example. Speaking of these affairs, in a I 
to William Brown, of Liverpool, Seward said : 

You will have learned, before this will reach you, of the Buspension of our 
Southern banks. The New York hanks, and other institutions in this v 
will, I have no doubt, remain firm. If so, they will he- al I 
ponded banks at an early day in resuming specie payments. Our general bank- 
ing law requires amendments, but I entertain great confidence that with such 
amendments it will prove useful. We are new in the midsl of our annual elec- 
tion in this State. You will have the result by the same vessel that carries 
out this letter. 

The election, though less vigorously contested than that of the year 
before, yet was important, since upon it would depend the political 
character of the Legislature at the next session. As usual, a m-u As- 
sembly was to be chosen, and a Senator from each of the eight dis- 
tricts. 

In the Third District three were to be chosen, as there had been a 
death and a resignation during the year. The district, which contai 
Albany, Troy, Hudson, and Schenectady, was a doubtful one, and the 
election there excited a special interest. In the Seventh 1 )istrict, < Ihief- 
Justice Spencer was nominated by the Whigs, but declined. The Con- 
servatives kept up the organization which had rendered such effective 
aid to the Whigs the year before. They held a convent ion at > 
on the 3d of October, warmly opposing the financial policy of the < ren- 
eral Administration. 

The election-days came, and when they were over it was an- 
nounced that the Whigs had carried both branches of the Legisla- 
ture. The Senate would no longer be an obstacle to their control of 
the government. The three Whig candidates in the Third District 
were elected, Mitchell Sanford, Friend Humphrey, and General Rool — 
the latter by a majority of only four or five votes. The Whig nominees 
in the Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Districts, Jai i G. B 
kins, A. B.Dickinson, Mark II. Sibley, and Abram 1 >ixon w< 
ful, so that the Democrats had but three of the ten. 

Mr. Van Buren's tour had been made in vain so fai 
was concerned. Presidential "tours" often lead t^> political dis 
A President is always solicited by his friends in different loca 
travel in their region, and therein- add to the party prestige a:..! pi 
He knows that the heads of other governments gain in popular 



440 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

favor by public progresses ; and he knows that he himself before his 
election has gained supporters during such progresses by his courtesy, 
tact, or eloquence. But there is one element in the calculation which 
is usually overlooked. The President of the United States differs from 
other rulers, in the fact that he cannot present himself before the people 
without being expected to appear at once in two different characters 
— the one that of a leader of a political party, the other that of Chief 
Magistrate of the whole people. He cannot act both parts with success 
on public platforms before popular assemblies. If he maintains the 
dignity and reserve of his oiheial station, he appears cold and chilling 
to his political friends. If he shares in the warmth of their party en- 
thusiasm, he seems to have forgotten the proprieties of his high trust. 
Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Clay had both traveled through the State this 
summer, and were received with like demonstrations. So far as the 
impartial observer could perceive, they had both conducted themselves 
with propriety, had made speeches equally judicious and wise, and 
had been greeted with public enthusiasm in which, of the two, the 
President had the larger share. Nevertheless, the fact remained, and 
was confirmed by the election, that the party of Mr. Clay was strength- 
ened by his visit, while that of Mr. Van Buren was weakened by his. 

Among the unsuccessful Whig candidates for Senators was Philip 
Hone, who was the first to urge the adoption of the name of " Whig " 
by the opposition party in New York. The Whigs of Albany cele- 
brated their triumph in the State with bonfires, processions, and 
music. They were to hold a festive gathering at one of the hotels, and 
invited the Governor to participate. His reply defined the course that 
he pursued in regard to such matters : 

Albant, Xovemlty 1th. 

Since my election to the office I have the honor to hold, I have been 
invited, on several occasions, to meet assemblies of my fellow-citizens with 
whose political opinions my own coincided. I have in all instances declined 
such invitations, for reasons which I will state with frankness. I have always 
believed that the Chief Magistrate of the State ought to exercise his trust for 
the welfare and happiness of the whole people, and that ho could not, without 
giving to a portion of his constituents cause of jnst offense, mingle in the par- 
tisan controversies of the times. I think those by whose suffrage I occupy that 
high trust would not willingly see me depart from the rule I have pursued. 

Every year's experience strengthened his conviction of the propriety 
of this rule. 



1839.] THE HARRISBURG CONVENTION, j i ; 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

1839. 

The Harrisburg Convention.— General Harrison nominated.— Congress disorganized.— R. 
M. T. Hunter.— The Patroon.— The Helderberg War.— Story of a Youthful Tn, 
— David Berdan. — Scotchmen. — Gulian C. Verplanek. — Frankenstein. 

In the various congressional districts of the State the Whigs were 
now holding their local conventions to appoint delegates to the National 
Convention to meet at Harrisburg, on December 4th, to nominal 
presidential candidate. Acknowledging a letter from Speaker Penrose 
of Pennsylvania, Seward wrote : 

It would afford me as much pleasure. to communicate freely my views and 
feelings on the subject of the presidential election as it docs to read your own; 
circumstances, however, which you can easily conceive, have rendered it . 
necessary and expedient, in regard to the public welfare in this State, that 1 
should leave the discussion of the subject to others. 

Popular sentiment among the Whigs of New York was divided 
between Mr. Clay, General Harrison, and General Scott. Mr. Clay's 
talent, eloquence, and personal fascination of manner. I a mul- 

titude of devoted supporters. General Harrison's strength lay in the 
fact that he was the most unobjectionable and therefore the must suit- 
able candidate. Mr. Webster, though reasonably assured of the - 
port of nearly all of the New England delegates, had little strength 
at the South and West, and had written from London, while ma!. 
a summer tour in Europe, that he would not be a candidate. Mr. Clay 
was the favorite candidate of the masses of the party ; but leaders 
doubted his availability as a candidate in New England and the Middle 
States. An antislavery feeling urged the selection of some candidate 
not a slaveholder. Furthermore, there was a lesson taughl by the 
Democratic success with General Jackson, which all parties had aci 
ed, and treasured up for future guidance. This was, that a general 
who had won victories for his country, and, by his calling, had I 
held aloof from its political controversies, was more likely to ar 
popular enthusiasm as a candidate than any statesman of far greater 
capacity and fitness for the office. There were two generals beta 
whom the Whigs might choose — each of high military fame, and both 
understood to hold Whig principles — General Harrison and General 
Scott. 

When the New York delegates left for Barrisburg, it was under- 
stood that part of them would adhere to Clay throughout, and thai 
the other part would go either for Harrison, Scott, or whoever sb 
prove, on comparing views, to be the most available candidate to 



448 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

feat Van Buren's reelection. When the New York newspapers were 
received in Albany, containing accounts of the assembling of the con- 
vention and its preliminary proceedings, it appeared as if Mr. Clay had 
almost all the Southern delegates, and a decided and outspoken party 
among the Northern ones. He had nearly if not quite a majority of 
the convention. The other delegates were divided. Then it was an- 
nounced that the several State delegations were meeting separately 
and comparing notes, through committees, and that the friends of 
Scott had finally agreed to support Harrison. The next day the steam- 
boat brought the news that Harrison had been nominated. Then came 
the intelligence that Clay's friends were to be appeased by the nomi- 
nation of a Clay man for Vice-President. He was to be a Virginian 
also, to conciliate Southern support for the ticket. The person select- 
ed with such care to fill these conditions was John Tyler, who had been 
a Southern candidate for Vice-President in 1836. 

The usual meetings of ratification were held in the various cities. 
The Whig newspapers placed the names of Harrison and Tyler at the 
head of their columns ; the party leaders avowed cordial support. Mr. 
Clay's friends unhesitatingly pledged his concurrence. Nevertheless, 
the first feeling among the Whig masses was one of depression rather 
than exultation, arising, doubtless, from the disappointment of cher- 
ished hopes in regard to Mr. Clay. The Democrats were correspond- 
ingly elated, arguing that the Whigs had set aside their chief states- 
man, and taken in his stead a candidate whom Van Buren had beaten 
once, and could again. They dwelt upon the fact also that Harrison 
would have no strength in the South, for four States, Tennessee, South 
Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas, did not even send delegates to Har- 
risburg. 

The newspapers were now filled with details of what they called 
the " organization and proceedings of the House of Representa- 
tives," the substance of which was, that the House had not organ- 
ized, and was not proceeding at all. The two parties were so nearly 
balanced that it was doubtful which would elect the Speaker. Six 
seats claimed by Whigs — five from New Jersey and one from Penn- 
sylvania — were contested by Democrats. When the members had 
gathered in the hall on Monday morning, December 2d, and the Clerk 
of the former Congress had, in accordance with usage, commenced to 
call the roll, he stopped when he reached New Jersey, and, saying 
that five of the seats from that State were contested, asked that he 
might make a statement. Immediately there arose a long, rambling, 
and sometimes violent debate, which lasted four days. On Thursday 
John Quincy Adams rose and reproved the Clerk for obstructing busi- 
ness. For a few moments the House was hushed, to hear the vener- 
able ex-President's opinions. A member moved that he should take 



1830.] TROUBLE OX THE VAN" RENSSELAER MANOR. |l ; , 

the chair, put the question, and declared it carried. Mr. Adams I 
the chair, and thenceforward acted as presiding officer. He deci 
that the names of the New Jersey members who had • ■ j of 

election should be called. Appeal was taken from this decision, and 
the debate was resumed with more; method and order, though still 
with acrimony. Ultimately his decision was reversed. Meanwhile 
legislation was suspended. The Senate mel and adjourned from d.:\ 
to day, and the President's message stood in type at the Glofo offi e. 

Finally, at the close of two or three weeks, the New Jersey con- 
tested seats were referred to a committee, and R. M. T. Hunt< . 
Virginia, was elected Speaker. Hunter was understood to be a Cal- 
houn man, opposed to the sub-Treasury, and had voted with the Whigs 
on the New Jersey case. He was elected by a combination of the 
Whigs with a portion of the Democrats. The President's message 
was received on the day before Christmas. It was largely devoted to 
financial questions, adhering to and enforcing by new arguments the 
policy previously adopted in regard to banks and the sub-Treasury. 

The year which had opened with the " wars and rumors of wars" 
of the "Patriots" in Canada, was not to close without a call to arms 
still nearer home. The ancient manor of Rensselaerwyck, which dated 
back to the time of the early Dutch settlers, had been handed down 
from father to son in the Van Rensselaer family, through a long line 
of " Patroons." While modern customs and innovations had gradually 
changed the aspect of the whole country, society, and government, 
the Patroon and his tenants were still continuing the old usages of 
feudal tenure, of perpetual leases, of rent payable in fowls and bushels 
of wheat, in personal service, and in quarter sales. The manor com- 
prised a broad region of Albany and Rensselaer Counties, "extending 
northward up along both sides of Hudson Uiver, from Barren [sland to 
Kahoos, and east and west each side of the river backward into the 
woods, twenty-four English miles." 

It had now become well settled, cultivated, and improved. The 
tenants had gradually come to think that their lone,- occupancy 
the lands, and their improvements, had vested at hast a part 
the ownership in themselves, and thai the rents paid during so long a 
series of years more than compensated for the wild land which 
the first Van Rensselaers had sold to the original tenants. 
theory had been vastly strengthened by the n 
troon," General Van Rensselaer, to make collections of his 
When he died in the early part of this year, the manor ha 
vided between his sons, Stephen taking the part in Albany I 
the west side of the river, and William that on the 
Rensselaer County. A third brother, Courtlandt, t '. tl 
in New York City. It was in Albany County that the troul 
29 



450 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

the tenants commenced, the young Patroon's lawyers having advised 
him that he might enforce his legal right to collect arrears. When 
this claim was made in behalf of the heir, the tenants very generally 
resolved to resist it as illegal and unjust. Legal measures were taken 
to compel payment ; but, when the sheriff went out upon the farms, 
he was met by gatherings of angry men, with threats and denuncia- 
tions. Alarms were given through the neighborhood, horns sounded, 
tar-barrels fired, and the obnoxious writs seized and thrown into the 
flames, while shouts of " Down with the rent ! " were heard from the 
gathering crowd of rural rioters, who with brandished sticks and arms, 
and threats of personal violence, compelled the official to turn his 
horses' heads toward home. Deputies sent on similar errands to vari- 
ous localities had the same experience. 

There still remained the resource of the posse comitatus. The sheriff 
summoned six or seven hundred citizens to appear at his office on Mon- 
day morning, at ten o'clock. Great was the excitement and much the 
merriment in the crowd that gathered round the office, either in obe- 
dience to his call, or from curiosity to hear the results. The merriment 
increased when Sheriff Archer came out on the sidewalk, and com- 
menced to call the roll, which showed that he was no respecter of per- 
sons, for among the names were those of ex-Governor Marcy, Recorder 
McKoun, John Van Buren, the presidents and cashiers of the banks, 
the Patroon's lawyers, and the Patroon himself. 

The posse proceeded on horseback, on foot, and in carriages, with 
the sheriff in command, twelve miles from the town, till they reached a 
hamlet at the foot of the Helderberg. But here the posse, summoned 
according to law, met another posse, not summoned at all, and defiant 
of any law whatever. The unlawful gathering outnumbered the lawful 
one, for it mustered fifteen or eighteen hundred men, and furthermore 
it had clubs, while the sheriff's posse had none. The sheriff became 
satisfied that his whole force was " entirely inadequate to overcome the 
resistance," an opinion in which his whole force unanimously concurred. 
So they retreated to Albany, in as good order as they went out of it. 

Only one alternative remained to vindicate the majesty of the 
offended law. That was to apply to the Governor, " according to the 
statute in such case made and provided," for a military force to enable 
the sheriff to execute the process. Governor Seward heard the story 
and requested that it should be put in writing, sworn to, and corrob- 
orated by the proper affidavits. This was done, and the Governor 
summoned the Attorney-General, the Secretary of State, the Adjutant- 
General, and some discreet and respectable citizens of Albany, to a con- 
ference. At this consultation, it was decided not to appeal to the 
" last argument of kings," until the legal resorts of republics had been 
exhausted ; and the Governor accordingly instructed the sheriff to 



1839.] THE " IIELDERBEUG WAR." j -, j 

obtain warrants and attachments, in due form of law, againsl 
resisters, and to go this time with an armed posst to execute the ; 
cess. The sheriff summoned armed men to the number of one hundred 
and twenty, and on the following Monday they started in wagons for 
the Helderberg, or, as it was pronounced in those days in thai region, 
" the Helderbarrack." 

Meanwhile, the Governor, to be prepared to furnish railitarj 
if it should be actually required, gave notice to Major-General Sanford 
in New York to hold in readiness nine hundred men of the Firsl 
Division of Artillery, and to Major-General Doughty to have in readi- 
ness six hundred men of the infantry division, and to Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Averill, of Montgomery County, to be ready to inarch five hun- 
dred of his brigade. 

Hardly had the sheriff and hisjt?cm< started, when a rain-storm com- 
menced, which soon rendered the roads impassable. 

Toward night the rain increased ; the wind blew tempestuously. The 
city was full of rumors of disasters to the expedition, thai they were 
hemmed in, that they were without food or shelter, etc. The < rovernor, 
after having dispatched Stephen Myers with two wagon-loads of I 
and meat, waited till late at night, with the Adjutant-General, for the 
"express" that was to bring news from the sheriff. At two (/dork a 
tap at the door announced the messenger's arrival. 

He brought a written report from the sheriff, that, although hi 
met no active resistance as yet, a large force of a thousand or more 
was assembling, " with cannon," for the avowed purpose of opposing 
him ; and, meanwhile, the effective measure had been taken of clo 
all places that could give accommodation to his posse, and that they 
needed an immediate supply of tents, provisions', and blankets. 

It was evident that the hour had come for Executive art ion. The 
private secretary was sent to summon the Secretary of State, Comp- 
troller, and Adjutant-General, to a midnight council of war in 
Governor's office. The aides-de-camp were dispatched with orders 
the troops to move. The council remained in session ail night ; and 
the dawn of day found them there, round the table strewed with pa] 
and with candles still burning ; but the nighl had n idly 

spent. 

The staff found themselves in active service : the Adjutant-* reneral 
proved his West Point education of value in enabling him to accomplisl 
that greatest proof of military skill, the massing of an effective body 
of troops at the shortest possible notice. Colonel Amory was already 
in New York to attend the movement of troops from that quarte 
Colonel Benedict was ^ni " to the front " with orders thai the an 
poxse should be organized into a military force, and information that 
reinforcements would be promptly supplied them. Meanwhile, the 



452 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

commissariat was supplied by wagon-loads of bread and meat, blankets, 
and tents. 

Major William Bloodgood was assigned to the command of a battal- 
ion consisting of the Burgesses Corps, the Van Rensselaer Guards, the 
Union Guards, and the Republican Artillery, of Albany ; besides three 
Troy companies, the Citizens Corps, the Independent Artillery, and the 
City Guards. The various bodies of troops were ordered to move at once. 

In the morning a proclamation was issued by the Governor, enjoin- 
ing upon the people of the country " to aid and assist the officers of 
justice in performing their duty," and appealing " to all who have 
taken part in these unlawful proceedings to reflect upon their nature 
and consequences, and to remember that resistance to the officers of 
justice is a high misdemeanor ; that, when such resistance becomes 
concerted or organized, it is insurrection, and that, if death ensue, the 
penalties of treason and murder are incurred ; that the only lawful 
means to obtain relief from any injuries or grievances of which they 
complain, are by application to the courts of justice and the Legisla- 
ture;" and saying: "I assure them that they shall receive every facility 
which the Executive department can afford, in bringing their complaints 
before the Legislature. I enjoin upon them, therefore, to desist from 
their opposition, and to conduct and demean themselves as orderly, 
peaceable, and well-disposed citizens — justly estimating the invaluable 
privileges they enjoy, and knowing that the only security for the pres- 
ervation of their rights consists in the complete ascendency of the 
laws." 

The privy seal was affixed to the proclamation, it was published in 
all the newspapers, and copies were struck off in handbill form, to be 
scattered broadcast in the insurrectionary region. The militia troops 
moved with a celerity worthy of veterans. It was on Tuesday morn- 
ing that their orders were issued, and before noon the Troy companies 
passed through Albany on their way to the front, and were furnished 
with two field-pieces from the arsenal. By Wednesday evening, the 
brigade from Montgomery County arrived by rail, ready to be for- 
warded to the field. Rapidity of movement achieved success in the 
" Helderberg War," as it so often has in greater campaigns. 

While the Governor was sitting at breakfast on Thursday morning, 
a bearer of military dispatches dashed up to his door on a panting 
horse, and handed him a packet from Major Bloodgood, dated at the 
headquarters of the expeditionary force at Rensselaerville. It stated 
that he had met a large assemblage of people at Reidsville, but halting 
on the hill, and forming his force in solid column, he had marched into 
the midst of them, and told the sheriff to do his duty ; that the sheriff 
had taken one prisoner who had been sent to the rear (greatly to his 
relief, as he had begged for quarter, under the impression that he was 



1339.] RETURN OF THE TRO< 

to be instantly shot). The major stated that the appea the 

troops, and the knowledge of the reinforcements so promptly hurn 
forward, had made such an impression upon the inhabitants thai I 
was no longer danger to his command ; that the troops would continue 
with the sheriff, and enable him to execute his process, as the) pa 
through the country. Meanwhile, there came to the Executive man- 
sion a letter from Azor Taber and Henry G. Wheaton, saying that 
leading citizens of the towns where the disturbance existed bad come 
in to ask those gentlemen to make representations in their behalf to 
the Governor. They were desirous to avail themselves of the occasion 
presented by his proclamation to end the difficulties. They requested 
Messrs. Taber and Wheaton to assure the Governor that all resistance 
to the sheriff should be withdrawn, and that th< 
should quietly disperse. 

Dispatches continued to come during Thursday and Friday, 
finally they announced that the sheriff had now accomplished the ser- 
vice of all his process ; that disturbance no long< I; that every 
purpose in view in calling out the military force had been effected. 
The major complimented his men, saying that he had never seen regular 
troops more manfully endure fatigue, exposure, and hardships. < >rders 
were at once issued by the Governor for their recall, and sent to Rens- 
selaerville. General Averill's command on reaching Albany were re- 
viewed by the Governor, informed there would be no occasion for their 
services, and ordered back to St. Johnsville for discharge from servh e. 

Sunday morning there was a heavy snow-storm. In the midst of 
it, and while the bells were ringing for church, the sound of drums 
was heard approaching on the hill beyond the Capitol. It was the 
returning force who, wrapped in their blankets, had marched twelve 
miles since daybreak, plodding through the drifting snow, and bring- 
ing their three prisoners in a wagon. The Governor sprang into bis 
sleigh and drove up State Street, met, received, and welcomed tin- 
troops, under the shelter of the Schenectady Railroad Depot, and 
thanked them for their good conduct and patriotism. They cheered 
him in return and inarched to their respective armories : and so nded 
the first campaign of "the Helderbarrack." 

Quiet having been temporarily restored, the Patroon made a 
ment to the public through the press, recapitulating the history ol the 
grant and of the controversy. He stated what the tenants claimed to 
bo their grievances, and what they proposed by way of redr< ss ; gne 
ances which, he contended, were unreal, and claims which he considere< 
unfounded. He narrated how, after the death of his father, 
was proved, and the usual call upon persons indebted to make pay- 
ments was published by advertisement and handbills. £ 
representatives of the tenants had, in May. asked an interview with 



454 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

him ; had stated their grievances to be the increase of rent caused by 
the increased value of the wheat, fowls, and personal service, in which 
it was paid ; the reservation of streams, mill privileges, mines and 
minerals, timber, and rights of way, and the " quarter sales " which 
rendered transfer of property difficult, and profitable sale of it impos- 
sible. They asked that new leases should be given them instead of the 
old ; that payment should be in fixed sums of money instead of pay- 
ments in kind ; that they should have the privilege of buying the fee- 
simple of their lands for such sum as the rent represented the interest 
of ; arrears, they thought, should be remitted in whole or in part. To 
this the Patroon had replied that he could not acknowledge their 
grievances ; that their claims for redress were inadmissible ; that their 
agreements had been voluntarily entered into, and had continued with- 
out change of terms ; that he was willing to accept money instead of 
wheat ; that he was willing to sell the lands, and to arrange about 
arrears on such terms as should be suitable for each individual case. 
This reply had brought a rejoinder from the tenants, dated on the 4th of 
July, intimating their purpose to resist; and as they had continued to 
act in this hostile spirit, the troubles had finally culminated in the Ex- 
ecutive call for troops to enforce the laws. 

The approach of the holiday season brought, as usual, invitations to 
festive gatherings. It will suffice here to quote an extract from one of 
Seward's letters — the one to the St. Andrew's Society : 

When the history of this age shall be written, it must award to the people of 
Scotland the merit of patient and contented industry, incorruptible integrity, 
loyalty combined with indomitable love for civil and religious liberty, and dis- 
tinguished success in intellectual philosophy, which is the most abstruse and 
difficult of all sciences, and in those works of the imagination which relieve the 
cares and cheer the way of human life. To the character of such a people I pay 
now and always involuntary respect and homage. 

" I think, Governor," said a delighted Scottish friend, on reading 
this letter, "that whatever they may say aboot your notion o' Irish 
love o' truth, they canna deny that you're vara right aboot Scotch love 
o' metapheesics." 

The St. Nicholas Society urgently invited him to attend the annual 
festival in New York this year ; but his engagements at Albany obliged 
him to decline. It was at this meeting that his old friend Gulian C. 
Verplanck, whose rare humor and scholarly erudition admirably fitted 
him for the place, was installed as president. His inaugural address 
was in the style of that of the President of the United States, gravely 
summing up the state of its foreign relations, to wit, those with the St. 
George's, the St. Andrew's, the St. Patrick's, and St. David's Societies, 
in regard to all of whom he promised to maintain a " firm yet concilia- 



1839.] A YOUTHFUL FRIENDSHIP. 1; ,- 

tory policy," especially in regard to invitations to supper. Financial 
affairs were treated from a similarly high standpoint, and a compai 
was drawn between the treasury of the St. Nicholas Societj — entirely 
free from debt — and that of the United State.-, whose outstanding i 
rendered its position so much less advantageous. The travesty was 
pronounced, by the Whig papers at least, to be superior to the genuine 
message of Van Buren. The same evening he remarked: "On this 
spot where our festive board is spread, in 1G90, stood the humble, r 
embowered cottage of the good Dutch dominie, Everardus Bogardus, 
and here was born the loved child of his old age, his sole heh 
Anneke, who, under her matron name of Anneke Jans, became the 
faithful mother not only of a numerous and worthy race, but of thai 
famous and still continued litigation with Trinity Church, so magnificent 
in its amount, so rich in its black-letter learning, and so gloriously pro- 
tracted in its duration." 

Lewis Gaylord Clark was the editor of the Khicki rbocfo r. \\< 
written in October to Seward to ask permission to publish in thai 
magazine a manuscript in his possession. It was an address delivered 
by Seward ten years before, on the erection of a monument in the 
college-grounds at Schenectady, to the memory of David Berdan. 
Young Berdan and Seward were in college together, and studied law 
in the same office. This address had been the closing scene of on 
those episodes of youthful friendship and affection, the memory 
which is cherished through life with mingled feelings of pleasure and 
sadness. The two were close a - and warm friends, with tas 

in common. They were the depositories of each other's secrets as the} 
strolled through the college-grounds, sat side by side in the hall of 
the Adelphic, or plodded together through Kent and Story in John 
Anthon's law-office in New York. Long and closely-written letl 
passed between them when separated, and a favorite imagination with 
both was that of friendly companionship through life. 

The address told how their acquaintance commenced in 1817, and 
described Berdan as a youth then in his fifteenth year, with down 
air, unassuming deportment, and retiring manners. Jbs temper 
cheerful, his conversation animated and enthusiastic, and his disposition 
gentle and confiding. It went on to say that he ga^ e evidenc oi in- 
tellectual powers highly improved by study and reflection : thai 
wrote and spoke with ease and elegance; yet that coll. 
never excited his emulation, nor did visions of public promh 
taste inclined him to literary pursuits, and his pleasures were in 
study of books and Nature. He was generous, warm-lie: I in- 

dependent. When, at the conclusion of their law studies, the 
friends were separated, Seward went to tie west to comraen 
practice, and Berdan determined to prepare bin 



±56 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1839. 

pursuits. A letter to Seward urged him to join in a pedestrian 
tour : 

I am impatient personally to communicate to you a project which I have 
conceived. Do not believe I am jesting. I tell you seriously that I hope ere 
long to walk through part of France, Switzerland, England, perhaps Scotland, 
and withal to touch at Gibraltar. The plan is all matured. There will be three 
of us. We go in the plainest dress, partake of the plainest food. I now think 
that I shall realize the dream of my earlier years, and indulge myself with a 
view of those places of which I have read so much, and upon which I have 
dwelt so deeply. Shall I indeed see Rome — the mistress of the world ? and who 
knows but when there I shall see the face of Lord Byron ? Think seriously of 
going with us, and that in less than two months. 

Before setting out on this foreign tour, Berdan traversed, on foot, 
portions of the Northern, Middle, and Southern States, paying the hom- 
age of enthusiastic devotion to Nature among the islands of Lake George 
and on the banks of the Niagara. " I saw him for the last time on this 
romantic excursion. We parted on the shore of the Cayuga Lake." 
The memoir went on to describe how the crowning of his wishes came 
at last, and he embarked for Gibraltar; landed there and traversed 
Spain and France, " not like other tourists, with the speed of the post, 
but rather after the manner of Goldsmith, conversing with the people 
in their own language, and lingering wherever monument or legend 
furnished any tradition worthy to be recorded ; " how he sought mate- 
rials for history or romance, and wrote at Cadiz, while Irving was col- 
lecting, at Madrid, facts for his life of Columbus ; how he passed the 
winter in Paris, "struggling with that insidious disease which seems to 
delight in producing premature development of the intellectual powers, 
that it may signalize its slow but certain triumph ;" how the returning 
spring brought as usual hopes of recovery, destined as usual to sad dis- 
appointment ; " how he embarked on the Cameo for Boston, in exuber- 
ant spirits but with an emaciated constitution, his rich and varied con- 
versation, his modest demeanor, and the evident frailty of his hold on 
life," moving the feelings of the passengers ; and how on the twentieth 
day of the voyage he was found in his chair, expiring from an effusion 
of blood, the book which he had been reading fallen from his hand. The 
crew were called together, the burial-service read, and his remains com- 
mitted to the deep. And so ended the dream of life, literature, ambi- 
tion, and friendship. 

During life, Seward's favorite form of recreation was travel. Activity 
and motion seemed to accord with his temperament, and were the more 
grateful, perhaps, because his official or professional duties generally 
made his life a sedentary one. An hour's ride, a day's excursion, or a 
month's journey, that others would find dull or tedious, always seemed 
to have an animating and even exhilarating effect upon him. The 



1839.] FRANKENSTEIN. j — 

change of scene, the relief from care, the altered current oi thought, and 
the opportunity for philosophic study of places and men, rendered travel 
and projects of travel always attractive 

Occasionally, one of his excursions from Albany would be to visit his 
old friends, the Shakers, at Niskayuna. Here he was always 
of a hospitable welcome. Justus Harwood, Frederick Wick< r, Aunt 
Clarissa, and other leading personages, came to greet him. There 
was general hand-shaking at "the store," and with all the members of 
the family; and a bountifully-spread table, with the neatest of white 
cloths, standing on a floor that was polished till it shone, offered him 
every rural luxury. 

A young sculptor, erect and fine-looking, with dark, curling hair, 
came this month from Philadelphia at the request of some of the Gov- 
ernor's friends to make a bust of him. Of German descent, but Ameri- 
can education, modest disposition, but already showing high proi 
both as a painter and a sculptor, Frankenstein soon became a favorite 
with all the household. The Governor invited him to stay at li 
and he remained while his work was in progress. It was not easy t-> 
obtain sittings even under these circumstances, for there was no hour 
of the day that could be spared. However, Frankensti in set up clay 
in one corner of the office and modeled the features while the ( ro\ ernor 
was writing or conversing with his visitors. So the "counterfeit pre- 
sentment" steadily grew without effort or thought on the part of the 
subject of it. This unusual method of proceeding had one advani 
since it enabled the artist to catch every expression. 

Frankenstein remained some months. He made a fine bust of John 
C. Spencer and one of Mrs. Seward, and painted a portrait of the Gov- 
ernor for Colonel Amory. One of his paintings, the head of a child, 
was pronounced an admirable work of art. His fondness for poi 
and music, and other congenial tastes, had made him and Willis < 
lord Clark warm friends. 

The closing days of December were devoted to the preparati 
the annual message, or at least so much of them as could be spared 
from the flood of visitors now pouring in, in - it was in num- 

bers and persistence by the knowledge that there was uow to I 
Senate which would confirm the Governor's appointments. Frequently 
the only hours for work were those usually allotted to si 
midnight and breakfast-time. Two great green sofas which si 
the hall near his office would be drawn together to make an impro^ i 
bed, on which the Governor took a short respite from his labors, by an 
hour or two of sleep. This would suffice for the night, the lai 
having been left burning and the servant having orders to call him at 
three o'clock. 



458 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

1840. 

The Whigs in Power. — Appointments. — Virginia's Threats. — Antislavery Laws. — The 
Schools in New York. — The Old Writing-Chair. — The First Daguerreotypes. — Social 
Life. — John A. King. — Stephens. — St. Patrick and St. George. — Natives and Foreigners. 
— The " Higher Law." 

New-Year's-day, 1840, opened, like its predecessor of 1839, with a 
midnight serenade and a bountiful collation ready for all comers, spread 
in the hall of the Executive mansion. The old Dutch customs of New- 
Year hospitality, visits, and good-wishes, were nowhere more carefully 
observed than at the State capital. Immediately after sunrise children 
began to perambulate the streets, to ring or knock at each door, wish 
the inmates a " Happy New- Year," and receive in return a New-Year's 
cake stamped with "pictures." Many thrifty housewives had a basket 
of these standing in the hall, to supply the juvenile demands. Before 
noon every lady was expected to be in her parlor to receive the gentle- 
men, who, making the rounds of their acquaintance, were calling in 
rapid succession during the day ; the call consisting usually of a hasty 
interchange of New-Year's greetings and good-wishes, the visitors hav- 
ing no time to sit down. A table loaded with refreshments often stood 
in the back-parlor. Every visitor was invited and expected to take at 
least a glass of wine, and a New- Year's cake. Before his peregrinations 
were over, if the former had not filled his head, the latter had filled his 
pockets, or had so accumulated in his sleigh that he could have the 
pleasure of sending a bagful to the Orphan Asylum, or of bestowing 
them in largess upon the street-urchins who were ever ready for more. 
Though shops and stores were closed for the holiday, the streets pre- 
sented a scene of unusual activity and animation, for the walks were 
thronged with pedestrians, while the jingle of the bells of the sleighs, 
and the laughter of their occupants, added to the gayety of the hour. 
At the Governor's house the throng was great, though orderly, and less 
boisterous than the year before. AH passed off with systematic ar- 
rangement. Barrels of New-Year's cakes stood at the door, to be 
handed out to the children. The great hall and all the parlors were 
thrown open to accommodate the crowd, whose movements were facili- 
tated by an improvised place of egress, steps having been added to the 
large window that reached to the floor of the dining-room. The Gov- 
ernor, surrounded by his staff, received his guests in the drawing-room. 
The refreshment-tables were resupplied as fast as cleared ; and when 
the Common Council, the Burgesses Corps, or other military association, 
came in a body, they were ushered to another hall in the story above, 
where cold turkey and champagne awaited them. Fortunately, the Leg- 



1840.J THE EFFECT OF CANALS AND RAILWAYS |;, : , 

islaturo was not to meet until the ensuing Tuesday ; so th< i 
breathing-space for the tired Executive household. 

When the Legislature met, on Tuesday morning, the Whi 
elected Speaker Patterson, in the Assembly ; while in the Senal 
they had the satisfaction of seeing themselves at last in a majority. 
One of the first things to be done was to settle the respective i 
of the Senators elected from the Third District. Thr< e slips of paper 
were placed in a box, and offered to each of them, in turn, by a p 
A suppressed laugh went round the Chamber, at the caprice of For- 
tune, when it was found that Mr. Sanford, who had been elected by 
several thousand majority, drew the short term of a year; while Gen- 
eral Root, who had barely got in by a majority of four or five \ 
rose and announced, "Mr. President, I have the full term, four yeai ' 

The Governor's message was long and elaborate. It detailed the 
history of the Virginia controversy and the Rensselaerwyck Manor 
difficulties. The larger portion of the document, however, was de- 
voted to the subject of internal improvement, narrating the history ol 
the sj'stem of canals and railroads so far as prosecuted, since the time 
when Washington, standing at Fort Stanwix, in 1783, foresaw the ci 
bility of New York for inland navigation and its immense importam 
and when Jefferson pronounced "roads, canals, and rivers, to be greal 
foundations of national prosperity and union." The message summed 
up the policy of the State in this regard. 

As to the results already accomplished, he remark' ! : 

Buffalo and Oswego, Binghamton and Elmira, which Nature seemed t>> 
have excluded from commerce with New York, now enjoy greater faciliti 
access than Utica did before the canals were made; ami Chicago, a thou 
miles distant, exchanges her product inns for the merchandise of the same city at 
less expense and with less delay than Oswego could have done at the 
period. The wheat of Chautauqua County, on the border of the Stat.', displaces 
that staple on the shores of the Hudson; and Orange and Dutchess cheerfully 
relinquish its culture for the moro profitable agriculture required to furnish the 
daily supplies of a great city. Lumber from Tompkins and Chemung, and ship- 
timher from Grand Island, supply the wants of the city of New York. I 
from the banks of the Ausable is exchanged for the salt of Onondaga. 
gypsum of Madison and Cayuga fertilizes the fields of Pennsylvania, and 
coal of that State is moving to supply the place of the forests of t ' 
roads have immeasurably increased the facilities of intercourse, and ex] 
the transmission of intelligence. Political influence and power arc distributed, 
and our State, from an inferior position, has risen rapidly to ui 
cendency in the Union. 

The legal reforms suggested in the message of the prr ■■ ' 
were again urged — among them, the reorganization of the Court of 
Chancery ; the doing away with unnecessary, prolix, dilatory, and eva- 
sive pleadings ; the reduction of costs ; the removal of county patrons 



460 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

from the control of judges ; and the abolition of the imprisonment 
of non-resident debtors, a class who had not shared in the benefits 
of former laws abrogating imprisonment for debt. The needs of the va- 
rious benevolent institutions were then set forth, and the project of 
school-district libraries announced as having been carried into successful 
operation. The Governor further suggested that " provision be made 
by law for the instruction of convicts in the State-prisons, and for 
supplying them with such books as shall conduce to their reformation." 
In the same connection he recommended the improvement of the con- 
dition of county jails, and the establishment of a House of Refuge in 
the western part of the State. But the paragraph of the message 
which was destined to excite most attention, and which was a theme 
for years of acrimonious discussion, was one of the various suggestions 
about education : 

The advantages of education ought to be secured to many, especially in 
our large cities, whom orphanage, the depravity of parents, or other forms of 
accident or misfortune, seem to have doomed to hopeless poverty and igno- 
rance. . . . The children of foreigners found in great numbers in our popu- 
lous cities and towns, and in the vicinity of our public works, are too often 
deprived of the advantages of our system of public education, in consequence of 
prejudices arising from differences of language and religion. It ought never to 
be forgotten that the public welfare is as deeply concerned in their education as 
in that of our own children. I do not hesitate, therefore, to recommend the 
establishment of schools in which they may be instructed by teachers speaking 
the same language with themselves, and professing the same faith. 

This suggestion was not the result of carelessness or inadvertence, 
though some well-meaning friends afterward sought to excuse it as 
such. It was the result of reflection and consultation, since the Staten 
Island celebration. The school-returns from New York during the pre- 
vious year had shown that there were twenty-five thousand children in 
that city who did not attend school, but were growing up in vice and 
crime in the streets. Whatever the cause might be, whether neglect, or 
prejudice, or bigotry, on the part of their parents, there was the fact, 
and the Governor sought to find a remedy. He invited to confer with 
him on the subject two divines, each eminent for religious zeal and in- 
tellectual power. These were the Rev. Dr. Luckey, of the Methodist 
Church, and the Rev. Dr. Nott, the Presbyterian President of Union Col- 
lege. They visited Albany, discussed the subject from their respective 
standpoints, were solicitous to aid the Governor in finding a solution, 
and agreed that any form of education was better than none ; that the 
benefits of the common-school system should be impartially and fairly 
shared by all. The draft of that part of the message, while its funda- 
mental idea remained the same, was more than once changed in phraseol- 
ogy, and that which was finally adopted not only received the sanction 



1840.] THE OLD WRITING-CHAIR. ;,; 1 

of the two clergymen, but was thought by them to be a Eortunat* 
toward the end so much to be desired, of getting the vagranl children 
of New York within the walls and under the influences of school hou 
A visitor who came one evening to the Governor's retired study in the 

wing of his house to ask for office, related afterward that he retired 
abashed at finding there the stately form, venerable white head, and 
benignant face of the college president, and the active, black-clothed 
figure, keen gaze, and quick, practical utterance of the Methodisl dr 
both engaged in discussing themes, not of politics, but of philanthropy. 

At this season, except while receiving visitors, Seward usually sat 
in his writing-chair, pen in hand. Those two occupations consumed 
the whole of his waking hours ; there were no idle moments, no recrea- 
tions, no hours for reading. The amount of work accomplished by this 
persistence was simply prodigious, as the manuscript drafts, still pre- 
served, attest. Every communication, important or trivial, was an- 
swered, and the answer was not a mere form, but drafted by his own 
hand. There stood in the Executive chamber a high-backed, old- 
fashioned chair, on one of whose arms was fastened a small writing- 
table, and the tradition was that this had been made for and used by 
De Witt Clinton. Stiff and ungainly as was its shape, it was not with- 
out its convenience; and an intelligent cabinet-maker, Ending that 
Governor Seward used it, devised and constructed for him another of 
improved and modern pattern. This, besides having an easier seat, 
had the desk movable by pivot and screw, so as to lie adjusted at any 
angle. It had also drawers for papers, with compartments for p 
inkstand, wafers, and the ashes of the inevitable cigar, as well as mov- 
able slide and brass sconces for candles. It was an office-chair, as the 
inventor said, that was an office itself. Seward became so hi 
to its use that he had others made, subsequently, for his law-office and 
library at Auburn, and adopted it as his favorite seat for work through- 
out his whole life. 

His handwriting in his youth was remarkably clear, round, and firm, 
every letter being carefully formed. In the early yen law- 

practice, clients said his conveyances were "plain as print." It was 
not a hand, however, that could be written with gnat rapidity, ami, 
when it became necessary to draft letters and papers hastily, his writ- 
ing grew more and more illegible. Yet it always retained an appea 
ance of neatness ; the first letter in each word and tin' firsl word in 
each paragraph would be clear and distinct, while the '> one! 

ran off in a hasty scrawl. 

During the turmoil" of his official life at Albany, his equanimity 
was proverbial. His calmness and courtesy wen- never disturbed by 
trifles. He had patience with unreasonable people, and tolerance even 
for those who were unjust and unkind toward himself. 



462 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

The Whigs were now supreme, having control of all three branches 
of the State government. But power brings responsibility, and re- 
sponsibility brings caution. Though ready and eager to carry out the 
policy they had so long at heart, they proceeded with more care, and 
less haste, than when they were held in check. Measures for enlarging 
and prosecuting the work on the canals, aiding the railways, and for 
carrying out the various reforms recommended in the Governor's mes- 
sage, were drawn up, considered, and consulted upon. 

About one of their purposes there was little hesitation. That 
was, to avail themselves of their right to the places from which Demo- 
cratic strategy had so long excluded them. Nominations were promptly 
sent into the Senate by the Governor, and as promptly confirmed by 
that body. The legislative caucus was held, and it was resolved at 
once to elect Mr. Tallmadge to the United States Senate, and to oust 
the State Printer from his position. On the bill for the latter purpose, 
a long and rambling debate took place. Messrs. Paige, Young, Hunter, 
Livingston, Sibley, and Root, took part. 

The act passed the Senate by a vote of more than two to one, and 
the Assembly by a large majority. The Governor hastened to affix his 
signature to a law which took prestige and power from the most pow- 
erful opponent of the Whigs, and gave them to Thurlow Weed, who 
through his Journal led the Whig press. On the 14th of January the 
two Houses, by a party vote, reelected N. P. Tallmadge United States 
Senator, the Democrats making no nomination, but scattering their 
votes. 

Hardly had the message appeared, when there began to be mutter- 
ings of discontent at the recommendations about common schools. 
Sectarian hostility was excited ; prejudices against foreigners appealed 
to ; and the Governor was unsparingly denounced, not only by political 
opponents, but by members of his own party. The j^ress reviled, and 
even the pulpit thundered at him. Handbills were printed and posted, 
holding him up to scorn, in the blackest of type and the largest of 
exclamation-points. As usually happens in such cases, the language 
he had really used was lost sight of in the debate, and garbled versions 
of it were quoted to prove his pernicious doctrines. He was accused 
of a design to subvert the school-system, to undermine the Protestant 
religion, to overthrow republican institutions. He was said to have 
urged the giving of the school-money to the Catholic Church, to have 
proposed the turning over of Protestant children to the priests. He 
was " sapping the foundations of liberty." He was a " betrayer of the 
innocent to the wiles of the Scarlet Lady." He was " in league with 
the Pope." He was " himself a Jesuit." He was "plotting the ruin of 
the State." The storm waxed in fury, and was long protracted. The 
outcry was eagerly fomented by the opposing party, which was 



1840.] THE SCHOOL QUESTION. |, ;; ; 

only too glad of a pretext for stirring up discord in the Whig camp. 
Hundreds of well-disposed religious people, who neither knew nor cared 
about political matters, were roused to excitement by the fear that the 
work of the Pilgrim Fathers was all to be undone. So the question 
entered into the political arena, and became on the 

hour. 

But there were also portents in the sky of another storm, longer in 
gathering, and destined to be of longer duration. In submitting to the 
Legislature his reply to the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, refu 
to deliver up the three colored men charged with aiding the escape of a 
slave, Seward had expressed his surprise that it should be regarde 
a new and startling doctrine that he should decline to surrender citizens 
of New York to be tried and punished for what was not a crime, either 
by the laws of New York, the common law, or the law of nations. 
And he added : 

Nor can I withhold the expression of my sincere regret thai a construction 
of the Constitution manifestly necessary to maintain the sovereignty of this State, 
and the personal rights of her citizens, should be regarded by the Executive of 
Virginia as justifying, in any contingency, a menace of secession from the Union. 

This brought an outburst of indignation not only from Virginia, but 
from other slaveholding States. First came Virginia's rejoinder. [ 
was over the signature of Governor Gilmer, who had now succeeded 
Lieutenant-Governor Hopkins, and who took up the controversy where 
his predecessor left off. He conducted i! with more dignity of tone 
and more ability of argument. With his letter he transmitted the 
resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia declaring it to be her 
"solemn duty to adopt the most decisive and elhcient m< i 
protection of the property of her citizens, and the maintenance of ri 
which she cannot and will not, under any circumstances, sum 
abandon," and authorizing the Governor to open correspondence with 
the Governors of other slaveholding States, requesting their i 
tion. Then came the cooperation thus asked — formidable resoluti 
passed by various Southern States, and forwarded by their Gov< rn 
Many were couched in language far more int lent 

than that of aggrieved Virginia herself. They undertook to 
not merely New York, but all States and persons in general who v. 
"intermeddling" with their "domestic institutions." Two will s< 
as specimens. Missouri resolved that interference with slavi ry " 
in direct contravention of the Constitution, derogatory from 
nity of the slaveholding States, grossly insulting to their rnty, 

and ultimately tending to destroy the Union." South I !arolina 
that she would "make common cause with any 
eracy in devising and adopting such measures as will maintain, at any 



464: LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

hazard, those rights and that property which the obligations of the 
compact of the Union — canceled as they then will be to us — have 
failed to enforce." Finally, the newspapers of the South, and those of 
the North in their interest, joined in a unanimous denunciation of the 
New York Governor, who was " basely allowing " Peter Johnson, Ed- 
ward Smith, and Isaac Gansey, to be at large in the streets. 

The pouring out of all these vials of wrath upon his head had little 
effect upon the apparently imperturbable person who occupied the 
Executive chair at Albany. He read each of the diatribes, and laid it 
aside, not without a smile, when he found himself gazetted as "a big- 
oted New England fanatic," at the same moment that he was undergo- 
ing such fierce fusillade from another quarter for his alleged desertion 
of Puritan principles. The official communications he received and 
acknowledged with courtesy, and submitted each of them to the Le- 
gislature, with the usual formal message. In submitting that of Gov- 
ernor Gilmer, he said : 

The proceedings of the General Assembly of Virginia manifest a desire to 
obtain the sense of the Legislature on the subject. . . . Altogether willing that 
the opinion of the Executive and of the General Assembly of Virginia may be 
considered under the most favorable auspices, and that my own may be subjected 
to the most rigid examination, I transmit herewith a report of a committee of 
the General Assembly of Virginia, in which the subject is ably discussed. 

The Legislature adopted Seward's suggestion, gave the communica- 
tion from Virginia a careful and courteous examination in committee, 
and, concurring in his view, that the subject was one for Executive, not 
for legislative action, declined to comply with the request of Virginia. 
The Judiciary Committee, through its chairman, Mr. Simmons, so re- 
ported, adding that they believed the position taken by the Governor 
to be " sound and judicious." 

Having now been invited, by sister States, to consider the slavery 
question in its bearing upon the rights of citizens, and of 'State sover- 
eignty, the Legislature proceeded to give that subject attention, in a 
manner that showed a more scrupulous regard for the invitation than 
for the threats by which it had been accompanied. But no such invi- 
tation had been needed. The national House of Representatives had 
stirred popular indignation by its tyrannical rule that no petition 
against slavery should be received or entertained. The Governor's 
views were well known, and the sentiments of other leading members 
of the party did not differ materially from his own. The Whigs had 
control of both Houses, and there was already felt a ground-swell of 
popular opinion which showed that such action as they contemplated 
would be sustained. Informal conferences were held with the Gov- 
ernor, to decide upon the measures suitable for New York to adopt. 
With his aid, they were drawn up, and in a few days the members 



1840.] ANTISLAVERY LAWS. 

respectively charged with their introduction brought them in su 
before the Assembly. First, John A. King, son of Rufus King, who 
battled for New York against the Missouri Compromise, rose in his place-, 
to introduce resolutions protesting against the denial, by Con 
the right of petition. 

Victory Birdseye, as the head of a select committee, oexl brought 
in a bill to "more effectually protect the free citizens of this State from 
being kidnapped or reduced to slavery," and authorizing the < rovernor 
to send to recover those so kidnapped. Horace Healey, of Gen 
then brought in a bill repealing the law allowing slaves brought into 
this State to be held as such during nine months. Henry W. Taylor, 
of Ontario, brought in a bill from the Judiciary Committee securing a 
trial by jury to any person claimed as a fugitive slave. .Measures . 
also prepared to prohibit the officers of the State from participating, 
and its jails from being used, in the business of recapturing fugitive 
slaves. There was but little debate, but there was prompl action, and 
the antislavery laws were soon inscribed upon the statute-book. Mean- 
while, high debate was proceeding in the Hall of Representatives at 
Washington, John Quincy Adams leading the defense <>!' the " righl of 
petition," and Mr. Calhoun's supporters applying, with more or less suc- 
cess, the doctrine of the " Atherton gag." Another event, appealing 
strongly to popular feeling, was the employment of blood-hounds in 
Florida War to ferret out and bring down the Seminoles and the fugitive 
slaves whom they were harboring in their swamps, it was a favorite 
theme for opposition speakers and their press. One of the most elec- 
tive caricatures of the time represented a regiment of blood-hounds drawn 
up in line, and presenting arms to President Van Buren, who, while 
reviewing the line, was blandly assuring them that he had no doubt this 
"experiment" would prove quite as successful as the others! The 
blood-hounds were soon discovered by the Administration to be a mis- 
take, and onieis were issued discontinuing their use. 

Among the numerous petitions in regard to these subjects 
at this session, a noticeable one was presented by Senator Humphrey, 
of Albany, asking the extension of the right <<i' suffrage to colored peo- 
ple, the list of signers being headed by Thurlow Weed. 

The winter had its usual round of parties. The Governor g 
series of dinners and suppers, inviting all the members of the Legisla- 
ture and other guests, to the number of forty on each occasion ; and 
Mrs. Seward had a few large evening parlies, besides S( v< ral I 
mal ones. Mrs. Spencer gave a number of soirkes, and the resident 
Albany had numerous and hospitable entertainment'.. Lieutenant-G 
ernor Bradish and his bride were honored guests on these occasions. 
There were many public men in Albany, this winter, whose ch 
and tastes made them pleasant additions to th ty of the cap- 

30 



4.QQ LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

ital. Among these were two who were afterward to occupy the guberna- 
torial chair, John A. King and General Dix. There were also Chief-Jus- 
tice Nelson, Speaker Patterson, Judge Bronson, Senators F. A.Tallmadge, 
Gulian C. Verplanck, Gabriel Furman, Daniel S. Dickinson, Alonzo C. 
Paige, Mark H. Sibley, John Maynard, Alvah Hunt ; and, among the 
Assemblymen, Henry G. Wheaton, Peter B. Porter, Robert Denniston, 
and others. 

Gulian C. Verplanck at this period was round, plump, short, and jolly 
as Santa Claus himself ; save that his refined face and manners showed 
him to be a student and man of letters. His hair was slightly gray. In 
society he was usually smiling, rubbing his hands, and talking with 
gusto about the topics of the day. He was a great humorist, and 
always loved a good joke. In religious matters he was a sturdy Epis- 
copalian. 

John A. King, a fine-looking young man, with dark hair and pale 
complexion, was animated in conversation, defending his opinions with 
cheerful vigor. 

John L. Stephens, already well known as an author and traveler, 
was frequently at Albany. He was a few years younger than Seward, 
and, though a Democrat in politics, he had so many congenial tastes 
that a cordial friendship sprang up between them. One point in com- 
mon Seward used laughingly to allude to, saying that, much as he 
abhorred all Democrats, yet his hostility was modified toward such as 
had red hair. 

Washington Irving occasionally, though rarely, visited Albany. A 
man of medium size, with full face and double chin, he was now wearing 
a wig, doubtless made in imitation of his own hair, which curled all over 
his head. He was genial, humorous, and modest, with easy and gentle 
manners, telling stories just as he would write them. Most authors 
are unlike their books ; but when with Irving, you might imagine 
that you were talking with Geoffrey Crayon himself. 

The parties of that day seemed brilliant and gay, though gas was 
not yet brought into use, and the drawing-rooms were lighted only with 
candles and oil. Dancing went merrily on, to the piano or the strains 
of " Johnny Cooke's Band," that furnished music to Albanians for 
nearly half a century. 

Mrs. Johnson, the stately, well-bred colored woman who came to 
prepare the dinners at the Executive mansion, remarked that she " had 
been out of office since Governor Clinton's death " until now, when she 
was reinstated in the position she held under him in the same house. 

How people in Albany ever kept warm in winter-time with only 
open fires, and without furnaces, double sashes, weather-strips, or any 
of the modern appliances for heating, will probably always remain a 
mystery to their descendants. 



1840.] THE FIRST DAGUERREOTYPES , - 

Another portrait of the Governor was now on the easel— Jocelyn of 
New York, being the artist. It was half-length, in a sitting posture, 
and proved an excellent likeness. 

One day this winter an ingenious engraver in Albany broughl to 
show to the Governor some curious pictures, about six inches square 
taken on metallic plates, resembling engravings, except that the pou 
plate reflected objects like a looking-glass. It was necessary to hold 
them at an angle from the eye, in order to see what the subjed was. 
There could be discerned an accurate though faint representation on 
one of a view of State Street looking up toward the Capitol, and on 
the other a view of the Museum, on the corner of North Market Street. 
But objects were reversed, and the signs read backward. These were 
the production, he said, of a new process devised by a Frenchman 
named Daguerre, and were the imprint of light itself, through a camera- 
obscura. Various were the comments which the new scientific discovery 
evoked. While some, among whom was the Governor, saw in it the 
beginning of a revolution in art, there were not lacking habitual croak- 
ers who insisted that it was all a fraud ; that it was simply the transfer 
of engravings to the plates ; and that, even if it was the effeel of light, 
the invention would never amount to anything, because it would be 
transient, and, as they justly observed, "You can't see much of any- 
thing in them now, except your own face." They were fortified in 
this opinion when, a few weeks later, the pictures grew indistinct and 
seemed fading out entirely. 

One of the first uses Seward made of the appointing power, now 
within his control, was to nominate Abraham Gridley, of Auburn, to 
be Clerk of the State-prison; and another was t<> nominate Trum- 
bull Cary, of Batavia, Chandler Starr, of New York, and John G. 
Forbes, of Syracuse, to be Bank Commissioners. 

. Charles Fenno Hoffman, of New York, the poet, was an old friend. 
He had established the Knickerbocker Magazine^ had been as 
ated with Charles King in the editorship of the >', w York A 
and was now engaged on his novel of " Greyslaer," which was foui 
upon the incidents of a tragedy of real life in Kentucky. Seward had 
been desirous to find a suitable place for him in the publi 
having the appointing power is otic thing, and being able t<> appoint 
whomsoever one wishes is another. lie wrote on the L9th 
ruary : 

My dear IIoffmax : 

It was an evil clay for Governor Leisler's luckless 
beearue ambitious of diplomacy. I wish it were in my pou i 
of a dozen of my esteemed friends who are desirous of th; I 
You must permit me to deal frankly with you: it is not in mj 
you to England, consistently with the present condition of the qi 



468 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

will engage to make the refusal satisfactory to you whenever I have the pleasure 
to look upon you, and we will all go in to elect General Harrison. When that 
is done, you may command my poor influence, great or small, for a place in a 
mission to any part of the Old World. With the highest appreciation of your 
talents, and a sincere pride in your reputation, I am, etc. 

A happy selection among the candidates for health-officer at Staten 
Island was that of Dr. A. Sidney Doane. His upright and faithful 
service gave such general satisfaction as to be long remembered, and 
the friendship which sprung up between him and Governor Seward 
lasted through life. Acknowledging his letter of thanks for the nomi- 
nation, Seward said : 

I am entitled to little of the gratitude it expresses. I became convinced 
that your qualifications, character, and habits, rendered you the more suitable 
candidate. Yet it was a difficult and embarrassing duty. I am sure that I most 
cheerfully abide all its consequences. 

A letter to another friend alluded to the embarrassments which, as 
may well be supposed, had arisen in endeavoring to distribute, among 
his many intimate and warm supporters at Auburn, the few places in 
his gift : 

Is it not hard that I must be compelled to select for advancement one from 
among so many generous, confiding, and faithful friends, and yet to be denied 
the privilege of explaining to each the circumstances as I understand them, which 
must control my decisions? Does it manifest an unpardonable infirmity that I 
shrink in anticipating the misapprehension that the disappointed must entertain? 
I confess to you that the appointment to the one office of surrogate, in Cayuga 
County, gives me more pain than all my other official duties; and yet I know 
that every feeling of kindness is entertained for me by the candidates. 

A more pleasant task was the compliance with the request of his 
friend and townsman, P. H. Myers, the author of " Ensenore," who 
asked permission to dedicate to him that poem, which was founded on 
a legend of Owasco Lake : 

If my name will, in your opinion, attract a single eye to your beautiful little 
poem, I give you the free use of it, and pray Heaven the poem may preserve the 
name. ... I have a good recollection of it, and have not the slightest fear of 
Executive responsibility in the matter. 

Two other requests for the use of his name were made about this 
time. The geologists having found an unnamed peak in the Adiron- 
dack Wilderness, five thousand feet high, Prof. Emmons proposed 
to call it Mount Seward, a similar one having been named Mount Marcy 
after his predecessor. It stands near the southern boundary of Frank- 
lin County, and overlooks what the Indians called " In-ca-pah-cho," or 
" Linden Water," now known by the less euphonious title of " Long 



1840.] THE APPOINTMENTS 

Lake." And when a new town was to be made of a pari of Sharon 
in Schoharie, and a part of Cherry Valley in ( >tsego ' !oun1 v, at thi 
quest of the local authorities, it was christened the town of Seward, by 
an act of the Legislature. 

To Christopher Morgan, who was now representing the Cayugi 
trict in Congress, he wrote : 

I am overworked, but not careworn. Things go well here. We ar< 
stronger every clay, and shall go through the appointments without ham 
in New York. In that city trouble musl come. Bui ii is trouble for me 

That I do not regard. 

The bank at Lyons was asking the appointmenl of a notary public. 
Different names being- proposed, the Governor wrote to John M. 
ley: 

I am satisfied, after all that has taken place, I ought to confer the appoint- 
ment upon Coles Bashford. 

That the selection was a proper one was proved by the fad that 
Coles Bashford, less than twenty years later, was Governor of > 
consin. 

The Whigs, on the whole, were fortunate, or wise, or both, this year, 
in the disposition of their newly-acquired patronage, for among th 
pointments of the Governor and Senate were many whose nam 
since acquired honorable prominence. Charles Hathaway wasappoii 
First Judge in Delaware County ; Nathan K. Hall, in Erie : Daniel B. 
Cady, in Columbia ; Donald Mclntyre, in Fulton ; Thomas C. Chittenden, 
in Jefferson ; Archibald L. Linn, in Schenectady. Among the new sur- 
rogates were Thomas C. Love, of Buffalo; Harvey Putnam, of Gen- 
esee; Dan H. Cole, of Albion ; David Rumsey, of Steuben ; William !'•. 
Wright, of Sullivan; David B. Ogden, of New York ; Moses I'. 
Albany; George H. Wood, of Auburn ; and Orson Benjamin, trio. 

A magnanimous and manly letter from an unsuccessful applicanl i 
a rarity ; yet, such there sometimes are. Replying to one, he w 

I was so much pleased and gratified with the honorable and ger 
manifested, that I handed it immediately to several members of the Set 
Those desired leave to show it to others, and so it went around among our friend- 
here, and did not return to me again until this morning. I n 
that I anticipated nothing less from you, and that, while it would al all I 
have given me great pleasure to oblige you, I now shall be more desirous than 
ever to do so. 

The appointments of the Governor were, as usual, tl 
unsparing criticism by political opponents. For the m si part 
were such as could stand fire. Two or three ^ r - 

James Kane, who had not an enemy, and whose mai iali- 



470 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

ties made him esteemed by all who knew him, belonged to a family 
who had once been great landed proprietors in Albany. Successive 
misfortunes had reduced him from affluence to poverty. The cheer- 
fulness with which he adapted himself to his altered circumstances 
was a theme of admiring comment. No one would have imagined 
that the white-haired, rosy-cheeked gentleman, dressed with scrupulous 
neatness, with long cloth cloak and huge umbrella, and beaming a be- 
nevolent smile through his gold spectacles, was so straitened for the 
necessaries of life as to live in a garret, and to be the sole purveyor of 
his frugal meals of bread-and-milk. "When the chiefs and warriors of 
the Oneida tribe of Indians petitioned that a new agent be appointed, 
Seward asked Mr. Weed to find him a suitable person for that office. 
Two hours later he appeared at the door, bringing with him James 
Kane, to whom the salary was as unexpected and welcome a piece of 
good fortune as if it had been a shower of gold. 

When a collector was to be appointed at Montezuma, the most 
important office between Albany and Rochester, being at the junction 
of the Cayuga & Seneca with the Erie Canal, there was an outcry be- 
cause the Governor had passed over all the "leading business-men" of 
Cayuga County, and appointed E. B. Cobb. It soon ceased, however, 
when it was discovered that Mr. Cobb had been in service under Com- 
modore McDonough, and lost an arm at the battle of Lake Champlain ; 
and that " the leading business-men of Cayuga County " were all will- 
ing to be his bondsmen. 

Early in the year Seward wrote to General Harrison in reference to 
the political situation in New York : 

I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter of the 16th, and I respect- 
fully return you my thanks for the interesting information it contains. 

While the Legislature remains in session the people will be chiefly interested 
in questions of local interest; but when that time shall have gone by you will 
have the pleasure of seeing demonstrations of feeling as ardent and generous as 
those in Ohio. . . . You will see accounts in our papers of the establishment of 
Tippecanoe clubs, the erection of log-cabins, etc. These, I can assure you, result 
from the spontaneous impulses of the people, without the suggestion of any 
central committee. 

One demonstration, however, it was deemed fitting and proper to 
make. Washington's birthday was chosen as a suitable occasion for a 
meeting of the Whig members of the Legislature at the Capitol, to 
indorse the nomination of Harrison and Tyler. Speaker Patterson of 
the Assembly presided ; the Clerk of the Senate, Mr. Andrews, acted 
as secretary; resolutions were adopted, and speeches made, promising 
the hearty support of New York to the Whig nominees. 

"Washington's birthday was commemorated by some of the Govern- 
or's friends who lived near his residence — G. V. S. Bleecker, J. P. Dick- 



1840.] FOKEIGX-BORN CITIZENS. ^1 

erman, John Dickson, Thomas James, and II. G. ( ). Rogers. They 
brought him on that day a marble medallion of Washingti ited 

by Carew, an Albany artist. This he gave the posl of honor in his 
collection. It hung over the parlor mantel as long as he lived in Al- 
bany. 

St. Patrick and St. George had the usual festivals in their honor on 
the 17th of March and the 18th of April. The Governoi svas invited 
to attend the celebration of the Irishmen of Albany. ( >n visiting their 
hall, he was received with one of those boisterous outbursts of en- 
thusiasm in which Irishmen excel. In acknowledging it, he allu 
half humorously to the charges of demagoguism made against him for 
speeches on similar occasions: 

I have been admonished that I must not speak of your country and your 
countrymen, lest I may be thought unduly desirous of your goi id opinion. 

Mr. President, I have followed a plain and simple rule thus far, and 1 think 1 
shall not abandon it now. It is to speak my honest opinions on all proper oc- 
casions, even when those opinions may he unpopular. Bowever it oiaj have 
been heretofore, we have now one Constitution to maintain, 
fend. You may exclude, from the calendar of your saints, ministers wl 
teachings I venerate ; and Imaynot revere all the Christian fathers acknowled 
by your Church; yet, whatever there is right in the erred, or pure and accept- 
able in the worship of either, has the same divine authority, and is imbued with 
the same precious hopes; and, as to all the points whereon we diffi r 
alike inhibited from judging each other. Why should the native American in- 
dulge prejudice against foreigners ? It is to hate such as his forefathers were. 
Why should a foreigner dislike native citizens ( It is to hate such as his children 
born here must be. 

Kindred sentiments wore expressed in his let tor to the English- 
men on St. George's day : 

England and America are so closely bound together, that I 
permanent alienation between them. Prejudices excited by mercenary trad. 
have sometimes occasioned irritation, and political question-; have heretofore 
brought us into fearful contention. Yet the citizens of both countries 
in the same ancestry, the same devotion to liberty, the same reverenci 
common law, the same language, and the same religion; while commerce and 
arts, operating with equal advantages to both part utinnally bringing 

us into more intimate relation-. Notwithstanding her indi 
derives from her relations with England greater advantages than those hei 
fore secured by her colonial dependence; and England finds our a 
more profitable than she could have realized had her sovereignty i un- 

broken. 

The public mind in every country is easily roused to dislit 
foreigners. In the State of Now York, just now, there was an especial 
sensitiveness growing out of the discussions in refer 



472 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

sage. Whig friends, either because they shared in the dislike, or were 
apprehensive of damage to the party, remonstrated strongly against 
his course. He remarked, in reply to one of them : 

To be misrepresented by one's opponents, and to be misunderstood by one's 
friends, is inevitable by those in public service. The sentiments I have expressed 
in relation to foreigners may be erroneous ; they are not insincere. For myself, 
so far from bating any of my fellow-citizens, I should shrink from myself if I did 
not recognize them all as worthy of my constant solicitude to promote their wel- 
fare, and entitled of right, by the Constitution and laws, and ~by the higher laics 
of God himself to equal rights, equal privileges, and equal political favor, as citi- 
zens of the State, with myself. 

Seward's belief in the " higher law " was not a new idea, hit upon in 
the heat of the Californian debate in 1850. On the contrary, it was 
a settled principle of his life. Although he used the very expression 
in this letter of 1840, it was at that time so unobjectionable that none 
were found to dispute its avowal. Ten years later it was denounced 
as " treason," and became the theme of a stormy controversy, whose 
echoes have not yet died away. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

1840. 



A Talk with the Onondagas. — Abraham Le Fort. — New Railways and Canals. — Registry 
Law. — The D'Hauteville Case. — Manorial Tenures. — Law Reform. — Bankrupt Law. — 
Silk Experiments.— The Staff Snuffbox.— Smoking. 

Turning now from foreigners and their descendants to the real 
native Americans, the Governor held a conference, in March, with the 
Onondaga Indians. The once powerful Six Nations had gradually 
dwindled away to a mere remnant of their former strength. The 
Oneidas, the Onondagas, and the Senecas, retained their old names, 
and kept up the semblance of their ancient nationality. But the others 
were, to a great extent, merged with them, or gone with tribes who 
had emigrated from the State. A just and generous policy toward the 
Indians had borne its fruits in the exemption which the State of New 
York had enjoyed for half a century from Indian troubles, and 
they had come to regard the white man's government as their pro- 
tector rather than their enemy. Abraham Le Fort came down to Al- 
bany, to hold a council with the Governor. He was the last of the 
chiefs of the Onondagas. He was a tall, fine-looking man, thirty- 
six or forty years old (the son of Apenoquah, who fell leading the 
Indians at the battle of Chippewa in 1815), was educated, and a Chris- 



1840.J A TALK WITH THE ONONDAGAS, 473 

tian. He was clad in the white man's dress, but his Bwarthy counte- 
nance and erect form gave unmistakable evidence of his race. Ri 
and fixing his eyes upon the Governor with a gaze al once grave mild 

and imploring, he began : 

Great Father, your children the Onondagas have sent me to you. and 
ask you to open your ears to me, and hear the talk which they I. . me 

to you. 

Father, your red children the Onondagas are in great trouble ; thej feel that 
you can scatter the dark clouds that are collecting and thickening around them. 

He then went on to detail the trouble, of the Onondagas — how they 
were alarmed by what had happened to tin' Oneidas — how 1 1 las 

had listened to bad men, and sold their lands — received their 
them, and spent it for strong-water— how many had gone beyond the 
great waters of the West — how they had become a poor, wretched, 
scattered, and wandering people — and now how some of them had come 
back, and with "the little white foxes" were trying to persuade the 
Onondagas to sell their homes, and go out to the West to be led back 
to habits of hunting and drunkenness. The Onondagas, on the other 
hand, had given up hunting and strong-water — had gotten oxen and 
horses, had cultivated their lands, and were fast getting into the \ 
of their white brothers. He closed his speech with this appeal : 

Father, you are young in years, we hope you are old in conn 
white brethren tell us, and we believe it. Your red children desire to know your 
mind. We wish to keep together, to possess the land which the Greal Spirit in 
goodness has given us, to stay by the bones of our fathers, and watch the 
here of those we loved ; to live by the side of those we know, whom we have 
tried, and who are our friends. We know our white brethren whi I as; 

we know not those in the far West. Our white fathers here have taken 1 
the hand, and have been wise to us in counsel lure. Who will be our fathers in 
the West? Will they be kind to us, or will they strike us down? v. 
desire to sell ; we do not desire to receive the principal for what we b 1 
we only want the interest annually. We could not keep the principal. ' 
white brethren understand this matter much better than your red child 
They have been honest with our nation, and always paid every year. Father, 
listen once more. The chiefs, and warriors, and women, of the Onondagas, 1 
had a long council — a talk of three days— and their request to their fath 
that he will shut his ears, shake his head, and turn Ins face away, from all talk 
to him about the sale of the lands of the ( mondagas. 

So touching an appeal to be saved from relapsing into barbarism, 

and to be aided to achieve civilization, could not but elicit a hind 
response from the Governor : 

Say to your people that I heard their message with attention : that I apprc 
their determination to retain their lands, and remain under the prol 



474. LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

State; that, so far as depends upon my exertions, the treaties made with thein 
shall be faithfully kept ; that, if white men seek to obtain their lands by force or 
fraud, I will set my face against them. If red men propose to sell their lands, I 
will expostulate with them and endeavor to convince them of their error, and 
to persuade them that their true happiness would be promoted by retaining their 
possessions, cultivating their lands, and enjoying the comforts with which our 
common Father has surrounded them. The Onondagas may confide in me. 

Of course, the Whigs, committed by their whole record to the policy 
of public improvements, did not allow the d'ay of adjournment to come 
without making due provision for their prosecution. On the 22d of 
February the two Houses proceeded to elect five Canal Commissioners 
— Asa Whitney, S. Newton Dexter, David Hudson, George N. Bough- 
ton, and Henry Hamilton — in the place of their Democratic * prede- 
cessors, Samuel Young, John Bowman, William C. Bouck, Jonas Earll, 
and William Baker. The Democrats had made gallant fight on behalf 
of the incumbents, and by debate and dilatory motions had staved off 
the election for a week. When this proved unavailing, they moved to 
adjourn in honor of Washington's birthday ; but the Whigs thought 
they could celebrate it by electing officers to carry out what they 
claimed to be Washington's policy. 

Bills were passed in aid of the enlargement of the Erie Canal, the 
extension or improvement of the Black River Canal, the Cayuga & 
Seneca Canal, the Champlain Canal, the Chemung Canal, the Chenango 
Canal, the Genesee Valley Canal, the Oswego Canal, and the purchase 
of the Oneida Lake Canal. Legislative aid and encouragement w r ere 
given liberally to the New York & Erie Railroad, the Auburn & 
Rochester Railroad, the Albany & West Stockbridge Railroad, the 
Buffalo & Batavia Railroad, the Hudson & Berkshire Railroad, the 
Ithaca & Owego Railroad, the Lewiston Railroad, the Long Island 
Railroad, the Tonawanda Railroad, and the Schenectady & Troy Rail- 
road. 

The rapidity with which internal improvements were going forward 
was shown by the fact that, although it was hardly more than twenty 
years since ground was broken for a canal, and not ten since the 
first iron rail was laid in the State, there were now nearly a thousand 
miles of railway completed or in progress, and nearly a thousand miles 
of canal in actual operation. 

The Whigs of New York came to the capital this winter with ear- 
nest appeals for the registration of voters. Convinced that fraud had 
been used by their opponents at the election in the preceding year, 
the} T now urged a bill containing stringent regulations for a registry. 
This encountered warm opposition from the Democrats, who had no 
mind to see their power abridged in the city, and who had, moreover, a 
strong ground in their argument that it was unrepublican, and unjust to 



1840.] THE D'HAUTEVILLE LEASE. 

subject the electors in the city to restrictions which were nol im 
on those in other parts of the State. Nevertheless, after a beat( d and lit- 
ter debate, the Whig majority carried their point, and passed the bill. 
It was brought to the Governor for his approval. On examination of 
its details, many of them seemed to him objectionable. lli^ views had 
always inclined toward free, uncontrolled, and universal suffrage. II 
drew up a veto message in which, while expressing Ins high approval oi 
the policy of subdividing the wards into election-districts, and holding 
the elections on a single day, he apprehended thai the bill would sub- 
ject voters to unnecessary difficulties, and would reduce tin- number 
of votes polled in the city, not so much by preventing illegal voting as 
by hindering lawful voters. His message closed with tin' expi 
of a belief that the proposed law would disappoinl the expeel 
indulged in regard to it, and lead to frauds and vexations which 
at an early period induce its repeal. 

When it became known that the Governor contemplated 
the bill, his friends from the city were almost unanimous in endeavor- 
ing to dissuade him from it. They urged that some such measure was 
of vital importance in the city of New York ; that thi had been 

framed with the light of the best talent, ami recent experience ; 
if wrong in detail, it could be subsequently corrected; bul that, to 
reject it utterly, would be an undeserved rebuke and an unmerited 
disappointment. Moved at last, by these and kindred considerations, 
the Governor consented to suppress his veto, and allow the bill to be- 
come a law. Its results justified his predictions, however, for the law- 
was found so distasteful, after one year's trial, that it was repealed at 
the next session of the Legislature. The problem which it endeavored 
to solve has since received the attention of law-makers; and, though 
progress has been made toward the solution, much still remains to be 
done before the purity of the elective franchise can be considered as- 
sured in the city of New T York. 

There was another veto message at this session which arr 
of those acts of inconsiderate legislation which, framed to m 
individual case, forget the interests of society at huge. A B 
lady possessed of a fortune, traveling in Europe, met in Switzerland 
a Monsieur d'Hauteville, of pleasing address and high famil 
tions. As has happened in many cases, before and since, she marrie 
the attractive foreigner in haste, and repented of il a1 leisure. Im- 
mured in an old chateau, and subjected to a series of pett) t 
tions, she had one son ; and, separating from her husband, returned t< 
the United States, bringing the little boy with her. Nexl ap] 
on the scene M. d'Hauteville, in Boston, requiring that she s 
return with him, or, if she would not, then that 
der the child to him. He had the law on his side, but her friends, who 



476 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

were wealthy and influential, thought they saw a way to save wife, 
child, and property, by procuring the passage of a law at Albany, 
xxnder the protection of whose provisions she might take refuge in 
the State of New York. The sympathies of Senators and Assem- 
blymen were moved in behalf of the unfortunate lady, when the story 
was told to them, and they hurriedly passed a general act providing 
that when a father, who is a foreigner, married to' an American woman, 
shall undertake to carry his children out of the country, without the 
mother's consent, the Court of Chancery may interpose and take charge 
of the children and fortune. When this bill started in the Senate- 
chamber, it was a well-meaning attempt to rescue an injured woman 
from the supposed cupidity or malice of a persecuting husband. When 
it was laid on the Governor's table in the Executive chamber, and was 
calmly scrutinized by him, as a general measure affecting not one but 
thousands of foreign fathers and American wives and children, he saw 
it to be a dangerous innovation. 

He accordingly returned it, with a veto message, remarking that, 
stated in a more simple form — 

The effect of the bill is, that, if an alien father shall, in any case whatever, at- 
tempt or threaten to carry his own child to his own country, without the consent 
of its mother, he shall thereby forfeit his natural right to determine what is ex- 
pedient for his child's welfare, and the Chancellor shall be substituted in his 
place with power over his property. I confess it does not seem to me that the 
natural wish of an alien parent to carry his child with him is so immoral that 
it ought to work a forfeiture of parental rights. . . . Undoubtedly cases occur 
where an alien husband unreasonably and arbitrarily requires a wife to leave 
her native country, and expose herself and children to the vicissitudes of fortune 
in a strange land. . . . But, on the other hand, there may be instances in which 
a wife may unreasonably or capriciously refuse to abide the fortunes of a faith- 
ful husband in the country to which he belongs, and where his interests and 
duty may require him to reside. Unfortunately, the bill before me makes no 
distinction between these cases, and the perverse and delinquent wife may, 
equally with her who is injured and neglected, carry the controversy into the 
Court of Chancery. . . . Alien husbands and fathers ought to be subjected, 
while residing here, to the control of our laws; but it is inconsistent with the 
spirit of the age to have one system of laws for our own citizens, and, like the 
Chinese, a different and more severe code for foreigners. . . . 

On receiving the veto, the Legislature at once saw its force, and 
the bill was dropped. The public wrong was prevented, and the private 
one, after a while, was adjusted by the operations of natural laws. 
The wife and child evaded the pursuit of D'Hauteville, in a long and 
romantic chase through various frequented and unfrequented localities, 
until at last the boy came of an age to choose his own residence, and 
did so. He remained in the United States, and became a respected 



1840.] LAW-REFORM. j 



. i 



citizen. The father procured a divorce in Switzerland, and remained 
there. 

At the close of the "Ilelderberg War/' as the military <1 
stration at the manor was jocosely called, the tenants remained quiet 
in accordance with the terms of the Governor's proclamation. !!.■ tc.<,k 
early occasion to bring the matter before the Legislature. In his an- 
nual message he called attention to the subject as one not altogether 
new in the legislation of the State, a bill having been discussed in L812, 
which was reported by three eminent jurists. The Governor urged 
that some measures should be now adopted which, without injustice to 
either party, should assimilate the tenures in the manor of Rensselaer- 
wyck to those enjoyed by the rest of the community, " which expe- 
rience has proved to be more accordant with the principles of republi- 
can government, and more conducive to the general prosperity and tin' 
peace and harmony of society." Upon this suggestion, tin Senate called 
for information ; and the Governor responded by a special message on 
the 14th of March, detailing the whole history of the trouble. P> ititions 
from the tenants poured in. The whole subject was referred to a selecl 
committee, of w T hich William Duer was chairman. Toward the cud of 
March the committee brought in an elaborate report, arguing that the 
tenures, and especially the quarter-sales, were contrary to good public 
policy. The committee, however, thought it would be well for tic 
State to act as mediator, before having recourse, as a final resort, to 
a change of the tenures. They accordingly brought in a Mil for the 
appointment of commissioners to examine into all grievances com- 
plained of by landlord or tenants, and to use their best endeavot 
effect a settlement upon some basis mutually satisfactory. This bill 
became a law without serious opposition. 

Seward had, while in the Senate, labored with success for the 
lition of imprisonment for debt. There was still a class of del. tors not 
reached by that repeal — those who were non-residents — or were held 
by process issued from United States Courts. The present seemed a 
favorable occasion to make the reform complete. He hail the satisfac- 
tion, before the close of the session, of affixing his signature to a law 
removing the last of these ancient usages of oppression, which no 
since has ever sought to restore. 

His other projects of law-reform were also pushed forward. 
Senate passed, and the Assembly promptly concurred in. the repeal o 
the law associating the judges with the supervisors in the distributu 
of county patronage. But, his favorite scheme of reform (tht 
reducing the costs and simplifying the proceedings at law) was 
carried through without a struggle. A hill was introduced early in 
March, by Senator Maynard, who represented the < to wn '1 

triet. In its progress through Judiciary Committe< - and Committees 



478 LLFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

• 

of the Whole, the bill encountered strenuous opposition, especially from 
lawyers, who saw in it, not merely a reduction of professional income, 
but a measure which would arouse hostility throughout the State. 
Nevertheless, the measure was so just and right in itself that it tri- 
umphed over all obstacles, though it was not until the closing hours of 
the last day of the session that it was finally delivered into the Gov- 
ernor's hands for approval. 

The State banking system did not spring suddenly into existence. 
Every such system must grow like a tree, not like a mushroom, and 
years are required to round out its full proportions. The general bank- 
ing law was a great step in advance of the old system of charters. 
Yet, as Seward, its strenuous advocate from the outset, had predicted, 
experience continually showed the need of its revision and amendment. 
Two defects now discovered in it were, the lack of a plan for the re- 
demption of notes at the centres of trade, and some further security 
for bill-holders of insolvent banks. These, and some other points need- 
ing reform, had been adverted to in his annual message. There was no 
lack, however, of financial projects in either House — there never is. 
The subject is always an attractive one to legislators ; and there is 
hardly any man who does not believe he can reform the monetary sys- 
tem. Various measures were discussed and adopted, but conforming 
for the most part to the spirit of the Governor's suggestions. The fun- 
damental difficulty in the way of financial reforms was not to be removed 
for many years to come. That difficulty was, the absence of a uniform 
national currency throughout all the States. Uniformity, however, 
was possible in regard to the relief of sufferers by commercial disaster. 
There were many such, at this period. The seasons of financial press- 
ure, depreciation of prices, the derangement of exchanges, and loss of 
credit, had wrecked not only the rash, but even many of the most care- 
ful and prudent. To give them an opportunity to recover activity and 
usefulness, a national bankrupt law was necessary. Various meetings 
were held, among them a large one in the city of New York, to urge 
upon Congress the performance of the duty assigned to them by the. 
Constitution of " establishing uniform laws of bankruptcy." Seward 
laid the proceedings of this meeting before the Legislature in March. 
Warmly seconding the appeal, he said : 

There is no moral justice in holding under perpetual and hopeless con- 
straint the debtor who, having contracted his debts without fraud, voluntarily 
relinquishes and surrenders to his creditors, when he is overtaken by unforeseen 
calamities, all the property he has in any manner acquired. The creditor so 
seldom derives any advantage from the power he retains over the insolvent 
debtor, who has honestly surrendered all his property, and the obstinacy of one 
creditor so often defeats all efforts for compromise advantageous to all parties, 
that society is without any equivalent for the privation of the labor and enter- 
prise of that class of citizens. 



1840.] EXPERIMENTS IN SILK MANUFACTURE. j;., 

The Legislature, on receiving this communication, passed r< 
tionsurging the representatives of the State in Congress i i use their 
efforts in behalf of such a law. 

Attention was also bestowed upon the prisons. A bill was intro- 
duced by the Assembly committee on the penitentiary system, emb 
ing the recommendations of the Governor for reforms of discipline and 
management, as well as the suggestions of philanthropists ; and it be- 
came a law. The Governor also directed thai each prison should In- 
supplied with one of the district-school libraries ; and arrangements 
were made for the instruction of such of the convicts as had th< 
pacity or willingness to receive it. 

Inauspiciously as the spring of 1840 opened for business in the 
commercial cities, one form of enterprise in the agricultural 

continued to grow in popular favor, the silk-culture. It had now 1 n 

demonstrated by experiment that the Moms multicaulis would thi 
and that silkworms could easily be raised in most parts of the I United 
States. In New Jersey and Long Island raw silk had been raised, ex- 
ported to Europe, and received there with commendation. Farmers in 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, and many parts of New York, now be- 
gan to embark largely in the business. As this disposition spread, it 
of course enhanced the price both of mulberry-trees and of silkworms'- 
eggs, so that those who had begun early were now reaping handsome 
profits, with every prospect of their rapid increase. About Auburn 
the cultivation received a special stimulus. 

There had long been a jealousy of prison-convict labor among 
mechanics and manufacturers who found themselves in competition 
with it. It was a desideratum to find some occupation for con' 
which would not compete with the trades, and yet would meet the 
prison expenses. It was now claimed that the manufacture of silk was 
such a one. 

The prison had abundance of operatives, and the State could af- 
ford to establish machinery beyond the reach of private means. When 
.thus turned into a silk-manufactory, the prison, instead of inji 
mechanics, would be benefiting the farmers of all the surrounding 
country, by furnishing a steady market for all the cocoons they could 
raise. The experiment was tried. Mulberry-trees w it in the 

prison-grounds; a silk-shop was established, with reels and throwing- 
mills, spindles and dyeing-kettles. In and around Auburn hundreds --t 
acres were planted with mulberry -trees, and cocooneries were built 
extemporized out of farm-buildings and rooms of dwelling-housi 
Legislature passed laws encouraging cultivation by bounties 
agricultural societies offered premiums ; newspapers and 
teemed with advice about hatching and feeding silkworms, ai 
lations showing how easily one hundred bushels of cocoons per an; 



480 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

could be produced by every owner of an acre of mulberry-trees. Final- 
ly, as if to set all doubts at rest, an advertisement appeared in which 
the agents of the Auburn Prison offered cash prices for cocoons and 
raw silk. Both began to pour into the market thus established, and for 
four or five years the manufacture went on. That it ultimately was dis- 
continued was due to causes which had not entered into the calculation. 
Adult male convicts, however cheaply supported or easily superintend- 
ed, lacked the delicate touch of women and children, and the skilled ex- 
perience that comes to silk-workers by life-long training. Worms and 
trees, though both may be raised with success in a northern climate, 
yet cannot be so cheaply raised as in a milder region. So the enthusi- 
asm for the new industry gradually died away. Of course, while the 
" fever " lasted there were many applications from friends and neigh- 
bors who wanted assistance in what seemed a venture so sure of suc- 
cess. One of Seward's letters to an Italian friend (who afterward won 
distinction in the War for the Union), in referring to the subject of 
silk-culture in the United States, contained also an allusion to his own 
pecuniary affairs, which had by this time become difficult and annoying: 

It is among the most painful embarrassments of stations such as I am called 
to fill, that they are necessarily supposed to bring with them pecuniary re- 
sources ample for the comfortable enjoyment of the incumbent, and the pa- 
tronage of merit in every form. The contrary is almost always the exact 
truth. You will better understand this, hereafter, when you come to learn 
that, in republican states, we confer our suffrages most generally upon those 
who are not favored with wealth, and that the economy of our system often re- 
stricts the salaries of public officers to narrower bounds than their unavoidable 
expenditures. 

His worldly estate at this period consisted only of the small prop- 
erty he had been able to lay up during his legal practice at Auburn, 
and the Chautauqua estate, which, though embracing a large extent of 
land, was hardly as yet paying the interest on the heavy debt incurred 
for its purchase. 

Harassed and worn with perplexing cares of the Executive office, he 
could not but smile to see how persistent is the popular belief that 
official life is a bed of roses, and that the direst threat is that of loss of 
office. A friend who had written, warning him of a proposed demon- 
stration against him, received this reply : 

I have heretofore assured you that no consideration but a desire for the pub- 
lic welfare could induce me to continue in public life. The citizens referred to 
in your letter as engaged in preparing an address to the public, showing that 
my continuance in office is not required by that consideration, will find me well 
disposed to yield them a cordial concurrence. 

A souvenir which he preserved with especial pleasure was a gold 



1840.] SMOKING. 



181 



snuffbox, simple in design, presented to him by his military 
whose names were inscribed on the under surface of the lid. In hi 
ter of acknowledgment he remarked : 

It has been a sourer of great satisfaction to me, during times of much ■ 
ment and wide diversity of political opinion, thai the personal relatioi 
between tbe members of the general staff and myself have been kind, generous, 
and confidential. The enjoyments arisingfrom the occupancy of plai esoJ | 
trust are to be looked for in the solaces which we may be able to carry into 
retirement, rather than in any absolute pleasure resulting from i 
power. 

This was a principle that he always dwelt upon, one which will per- 
haps help to explain why, though willing to undertake official trusts. In 
was always ready cheerfully to lay them down. His view about an 
official career was, that it was like a sea-voyage, a proper thing to un 
dertake, and a good thing to have accomplished in safety, though full 
of discomforts and annoyance while in progress. 

The snuffbox he always afterward used, it traveled with him in 
his voyages, and at home occupied a drawer in his writing-desk when 
not carried in his pocket. Taking snuff, however, could hardly be said 
to be a habit of his at this period. An occasional pinch in the course 
of conversation, or of work, was all that he indulged in, having b< 
advised that it was useful as a preventive of a catarrhal affection to 
which he had formerly been subject. 

Smoking was a life-long habit, especially during seasons of hard 
and laborious study. He usually lighted a cigar when he sat down to 
write, slowly consuming it as his pen ran rapidly over the page, and 
lighted a. fresh one when that was exhausted.. The number varied at 
different periods, though it rarely fell below half a doze] 
used to be a standing joke between him and Dr. Reed, professor at 
Union College, to the effect that, once when the two were driving from 
Albany to Schenectady, sixteen miles, they found themselves oul 
cigars, and at the first tavern bought a bundle of twenty-five. ' m 
reaching their destination the cigars were all gone. Each acknowledged 
that he had smoked a dozen, but each insisted that the other I 
smoked the odd one ! 



31 



482 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

1840. 

Results of the Session.— Embarrassments of the Appointing Power. — Six Thousand Disap- 
pointments. — The Rathbun Forgery Case. — Outlook for the Presidential Contest. — 
Escape of Lett. — Establishment of the Cunard Line. 

The Legislature adjourned on the 14th of May, after a session of 
more than four months. It had been unusually laborious, for this 
was the first Whig Legislature ; and, while the members and their 
constituencies were eager to accomplish many projects long cherished, 
the leaders of the party felt a grave responsibility. They were anxious 
to avert the danger which always threatens when a new party comes 
into power, that of legislating too much, too hastily, and too rashly. 
Three hundred and seventy laws were passed. The prosecution of 
internal improvements had been provided for, the redemption of bank- 
notes secured, the cost of legal proceedings reduced, the abolition of 
imprisonment for debt completed, militia reforms accomplished, politi- 
cal principles in regard to national affairs enunciated, the dead-lock of 
the previous year in regard to appointments removed, the Governor's 
nominations confirmed, the vacant United States senatorship and State 
offices duly filled by legislative election, and the usual mass of local 
measures scrutinized with unusual care, to avoid any just reproach. 
Besides the concurrent resolutions on the right of petition, the Legis- 
lature also passed resolutions protesting against the sub-Treasury law, 
and in favor of limiting the presidential office to one term ; the latter 
principle being one that the minority always favors when it finds the 
majority proposing to reelect the incumbent. With no new State issue 
to embarrass them, with the growing unpopularity of the financial pol- 
icy of Mr. Van Buren, and the growing enthusiasm in behalf of Gen- 
eral Harrison, they separated, to go home and enter upon the political 
campaign. 

George W. Patterson's second term as Speaker closed with this ses- 
sion. Dignified, courteous, and impartial, he was one of the most 
popular presiding officers that ever occupied the chair. The general 
concurrence in the vote of thanks at the closing hour was never, in his 
case, a mere form. 

A letter written this spring described Seward's feelings in regard 
to his appointments. This letter was called out by a generous and 
manly one from John B. Scoles, waiving his own aspirations for place 
if they should be found inconvenient or incompatible with other obli- 
gations. Seward, after thanking him for it, said : 

I have never been vain enough to suppose that a trust so delicate and diffi- 
cult as that devolved upon me last winter could be discharged without producing 



1840.] MURDER CASK-. 

much disappointment and misapprehension. The list of appointmi this 

winter is fourteen hundred, for all of which I of course am responsible, while 
in many if not most instances the circumstances under which the nomim 
were made left mo without freedom of election. When 1 look over it now, and 
recall the trying circumstances under which I have passed, J am uol surprised 
by any manifestation of disappointment or dissatisfaction. This onlj I claii 
that no interest, passion, prejudice, or partiality of my own has controlled any 
decision I have made. 

The applications for pardon during this year were as numen u 
in the year preceding. The principles which governed the 
were the same. Two or three are especially noticeable, as illus- 
trating his habit of weighing the consequences of his action, nol 
merely upon the prisoner, but upon the interests of the community. 
A watchman in New York (this was before the days of metropolitan 
police) had come upon some noisy men who were disturbing tit 
at a late hour by a brawl, and endeavored to persuade them to pi 
ably disperse. They turned upon him, beat him sever* ly, threw ston< - 
at his companions coming to his assistance, breaking the ribs of one, 
and seriously injuring others. After the arrest, conviction, and sen- 
tence of the rioters, the friends of a Leading one came to the Governor 
with the usual pleas of "highly-respectable connections, " "drunkenn 
at the time of the offense,''' and "the suffering of an innocenl family." 
His reply was brief and decided : 

Six months' imprisonment in the penitentiary for such offen to me 

a very moderate punishment. 1 should be very happy to relieve his family from 
the suffering he has brought upon them, but the effect of such clemency would 
be to encourage assaults upon the police-officers of the city. 

Jabez Fuller, who had murdered a woman with whom he lived, 
under circumstances of peculiar and horrible brutality, was sentenced 
to be hanged, but had friends and counsel to urge commutation of his 
punishment to imprisonment for life. The Governor, after a careful 
review of the disgusting details of the crime, closed his decision by 
saying : 

The apology for this barbarous murder is. that both the di d the 

prisoner were drunken and depraved persons, and were in 
cated when the murder took place. I confess that these circumstances - 
me not to commend the prisoner to Execul ucy. If I be m 

justice ever requires the example of capital punishment, this seen 3 to 
"of all others a case in which public sympathy ought nol to '■ r - 

The sheriff will make this decision known to the prisoner, ■ 
may not interfere with his preparation for ih^ great chan him. 

A rule which Seward had early established for his guidance in ex- 
amining applications for pardon was, that in all ca ' be 



4S4 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

furnished with the minutes of the testimony taken on the trial. It 
was of infinite value, both in showing him where mercy might properly 
be exercised, and in indicating reasons why pardons should not issue. 

But the case which most excited popular attention and sympathy 
was that of Benjamin Rathbun, the owner of the excellent hotel at 
Buffalo. He was one of the most esteemed and prominent citizens of 
that town, and had gradually amassed a fortune by active business 
enterprise. He was several years engaged in trade, and devoted a large 
portion of his means to the purchase, improvement, and sale of real 
estate. His operations gave employment to a great number of people, 
and an impetus to the business of the town. He had in his employ at 
one time two thousand laborers, besides one hundred skilled agents, 
assistants, superintendents, cashiers, and clerks. Several banks were 
more or less under his control, and his extended affairs required a finan- 
cial agency in Buffalo and another in New York. Operations like 
these are seldom carried on without considerable resort to loans and 
credits, both in making payments and in receiving returns. The com- 
mercial stringency through which the country had been passing had 
sometimes rendered the negotiation of paper difficult ; and, though he 
was prospering and making money, he found himself occasionally sub- 
jected to unexpected annoyance and difficulty from this cause. 

In an evil hour he yielded to the temptation to save some paper 
from protest by the imitation of signatures. It was of no great 
amount, and he was, of course, intending to take up the paper. But 
success in one such case not only encouraged a repetition, but created 
necessities for further proceedings of the same sort. So gradually 
grew up a system of forged notes, into which his cashier, his nephews, 
and clerks were initiated, and ultimately were busily employed in mak- 
ing, selling, and negotiating spurious paper. Sometimes there would 
be a great accumulation of it, and again it would nearly all be taken 
up. The names of between thirty and forty persons and firms were 
used for purposes of renewal, postponement, or payment ; and the 
whole amount of forgeries reached two or three million dollars. They 
were so accurately done that it was impossible for Rathbun himself to 
distinguish between his genuine and spurious paper without referring 
to private marks in his books. Incredible as it may seem, in inaugu- 
rating this gigantic system of fraud, neither design nor apprehension 
was entertained that any one would be injured thereby. It soon grew, 
however, beyond the control of its projector, and the inevitable discov 7 
ery at last came. One note was detected as being a forgery. This 
caused suspicion and inquiry into all the others, and then the whole 
fabric toppled down with a crash. He was arraigned, convicted, and 
sent to prison. 

The first effect of the case upon the popular mind was to produce 



1840.] THE RATHBUN CASH. 

an indignant outcry at the crime and the prisoner, accompani 
with threats of violence during the progress of his trial. Bui o 
within prison-walls at Auburn, public sentiment took a turn in tin- 
opposite direction. It was remembered how largely he had benefited 
Buffalo, how irreproachable had been his conduct in all other n ■;■> 
It was found that even his forgeries had ruined no one bul himself ; 
and it was claimed that they were executed without intent to train 
money, but only to gain time. 

A warm and widely-expanded feeling of sympathy for him sprang 
up. Letters and petitions poured in upon the Governor asking his 
release. One petition, signed b} r several thousand citizens of Buffalo, 
made a volume in itself, embracing the signatures of nearly all the li 
ing men of the western part of the State. Even those who joined in 
the prosecution took part in the appeal for pardon, which was further 
strengthened by letters from the prisoner's numerous personal friends. 
The pressure was a strong one ; and, had there been nothing to consider 
but the individual case, it might have succeeded. But the reasons pro 
and con were stated in the Governor's decision, denying the pn 
After narrating the history of the case, and calling attention to the 
fact that there were six indictments against the prisoner remaining 
untried, on which he would be brought to trial, even it' pardoned from 
the first conviction, the Governor went on to remark : 

Extraordinary as are the circumstances of Benjamin Rathbun's conviction, 
the sympathy of the petitioners in his behalf is by no means without cause. He 
has been for more than twenty years a citizen of Buffalo. While living there 
he rose by industry and energy from an humble condition to wealth, respectabil- 
ity, and extensive usefulness. The wharves, streets, and Institutions of thai 
beautiful city furnish many evidences of his enterprise and public spirit. Be 
was, until the forgeries were discovered, generous in all his transactions, courte- 
ous and kind in all his relations, munificent to the public, and charitable to 
the poor. Aged and respected parents, and a wife even more eminent for her 
virtues than for her misfortunes, are involved in the consequences of his convic- 
tion. The occasion does not require me to controvert the opinion expressed by 
the petitioners, that the punishment the prisoner has already suffered by being 
arrested in mid-career, suddenly stripped of his dazzling honors— torn from his 
family — cast out of society — degraded to the companionship of vileness and 
crime — and finally stamped indelibly as a felon, is enough, withoul prolongation 
of his imprisonment, to reclaim him from his dangerous ways and ref- 

ormation. 

The criminal code has one purpose more, important than th( reformation oi 
the offender. That purpose is the prevention of crime by the example of pun- 
ishment. 

Pointing out, then, that Rathbun's offenses exceeded in magnitude 
those of all the convicts for similar crimes in the State-prisons, and thai 
his education, experience, and condition in life, exempted him from the 



486 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

necessities and temptations which they have to plead : impartiality 
demanded that a plea in behalf of one whom the world esteemed and 
respected ought to be equally efficacious for the most obscure criminal 
in his solitary cell. It would be altogether inconsistent with the pub- 
lic welfare to pardon all those having excuses equally plausible. The 
decision concluded : 

For this reason I deem it certain that there is no other offender whose par- 
don would so much impair the public confidence in the firmness, impartiality 
and energy of the administration of justice. His conviction was necessary to 
maintain the sway of the laws and the rights of citizens, and to vindicate the 
dignity and honor of the State. I reluctantly add that it seems to he a case in 
which the effect of that conviction must not be impaired by the exercise of 
Executive clemency. 

The sequel of this remarkable case was perhaps as extraordinary as 
the circumstances which preceded it ; Rathbun endured the penalty of 
the law with resignation and firmness, gained the esteem of all the offi- 
cers of the prison by his conduct while there, and, when liberated at 
the expiration of his term, was received and welcomed by his friends, 
and apparently reinstated in their confidence. Far from seeking ob- 
scurity in distant lands, or by change of name, he began business-life 
anew, not only with vigor and energy, but prudence and success. His 
just and upright dealing again secured him public confidence, and he 
was a respected and esteemed citizen of New York until his recent 
death, at over fourscore years of age. 

The measures which Seward had proposed and carried through the 
Legislature, for the reduction of costs and the simplification of pro- 
ceedings at lav/, continued to excite dissatisfaction among lawyers, 
while, on the other hand, the popular interest in them, though of course 
favorable, was not sufficient to induce any concerted or extended efforts 
in their behalf. 

One of the measures of law-reform was an act reorganizing the 
Court of General Sessions in the city of New York, which dispensed 
with the judicial services of aldermen. Some of the aldermen, reluc- 
tant to give up their powers, continued to act as judges, in violation 
of the law, defending their action by saying that they considered the 
law unconstitutional. Opinions were divided in New York. The re- 
sisting aldermen were fortified by the support of the recorder ; while, 
on the other hand, some of their colleagues were asking the Execu- 
tive to interpose, remove the recorder, and punish the aldermen. His 
reply to Aldermen Baylis, Woodhull, Jones, and Graham, remarked : 

I confess my surprise that such functionaries should, in the present instance, 
be sustained in their illegal proceedings by an officer of such acknowledged abil- 
ity and learning as the recorder. But the constitution prescribes a suitable 



1840.] ESCAPE OF LETT. \^- 

mode for correcting every error and remov'm evil in the administration 

of justice. It is true, as you suggest, that the constitution authorizes I 
to rejnove judicial officers upon the recommendation of the Governor, "i • t th< 
recorder is acting as a judge, under the solemnity of a judicial oath, and no im- 
proper or corrupt motive is attached to him. It stems to me, therefore, iliat it 
will accord better with the spirit of the constitution to leave the qui 
the consideration of the Supreme Court, than to employ the Executive power, 
and thus furnish a precedent for future invasions of the independence of 
judiciary. 

"Writing to Christopher Morgan, at Washington, in regard to the 
effect of the results of the session upon the political prospects of the 
Whigs in the coining canvass, he said : 

There are complaints loud and deep on the part of the banks againsl the 
Whig party for the reform measures. The lawyers are irritated ami severelj 
wounded. Complaints from these classes must command attention. Nev< rthe- 
less, the heart of the Whig party is strong and confident ; and 1 believe thai bl 
never was, with the exception of the Jackson party in 1828, a party in this Slate 
so enthusiastic as ours. The general result of the legislation of the I is 
is benign. I do not fear the profession. Most of them will lie both generous 
and wise. 

You have no idea of the perpetual labor which I undergo. It i- now almost 
midsummer, and my table groans under accumulating business. It is my "pin- 
ion that General Harrison ought to answer nothing. I so advised when his let- 
ter was submitted to me. I shall so advise hereafter. 

Accompanied by General King, and Rogers his messenger, ho nov. 
went, for a few days' rest, to Auburn. But there was no rest or quiet 
to be found there, or, if any existed, his coming dispelled it, for a thi 
of visitors soon poured in upon him. The front-room was turned into 
an office, General King into a private secretary, and Rogers exercised 
his functions as if in his accustomed place at the door of tin- Executive 
chamber in the Capitol. 

Auburn was thrown into a state of excitement aboul this tim 
the daring escape of Benjamin Lett, who, after blowing up General 
Brock's monument on Queenstown Heights, had made an atom: 
blow up the steamboat Great Britain, at Oswego. Having been tried 
and convicted there, he had been put in charge of the sheri 
brought to the Auburn State-prison. At night, as the cars we 
inj? throuo-h the woods, four or five miles from Auburn. I .< 1 1 br< ike 
from the sheriff and jumped off, although the train w. 
rate of twenty miles an hour. The train was stopped, bul no ti 
him were found, and he was believed to have secreted himself in t 
woods. The sheriff offered a reward of one hundred dollai 
request of the authorities the Governor issued a proclamation 
an additional one of two hundred and fifty dollars, for his re 



488 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

Scouting-parties went out from Auburn, attracted by the excitement 
of so novel a chase ; but all their search, through forest and swamp, 
was unavailing. 

Boston was rejoicing, this summer, in the establishment of the 
Cunard line of steamers. A public dinner was to be given to Mr. 
Cunard on the arrival of the steamship Britannia, and a committee, 
among whom were Robert G. Shaw, William Ward, Josiah Quincy, Jr., 
and Benjamin T. Reed, invited Governor Seward to attend it. He 
wrote from Auburn, regretting his inability to do so, while warmly ap- 
proving their enterprise, and saying : 

What a singular change has come over the relations of the New World to the 
Old, within the last sixty-five years ! England was seen exhausting her wealth 
in 1776 and 1777, in sending troops and munitions of war to exact tribute from 
the citizens of Boston ; and each transport consumed a period of about two 
months. Now, Europeans compete with each other in sending steamships to 
secure a willing commerce, which enriches England a hundred times more than 
the statesmen of George HI. anticipated from all their exactions. . . . We see, 
in the enterprise you celebrate, an evidence that we have not misestimated the 
trade of the Great West, to secure which has been a leading object in our policy. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

1840. 



Cherry Valley Centennial. — The World's Antislavery Convention. — Georgetown wanting 
to get out. — The Sub-Treasury Law. — Prison Bibles. — Utica Convention. — Eenomina- 
tion. — 'Webster at Saratoga. — Caleb Cushing. — Edward Stanley. — Case of Cornelius. 

Cherry Vallet, in Otsego County, was settled in 1740. Its in- 
habitants determined that, on the 4th of July, of 1840, they would cel- 
ebrate both the national holiday and the centennial aniversary of their 
town's existence. Cherry Valley had clinging round it so much of his- 
toric and personal recollection, that the approaching celebration cre- 
ated interest in all the surrounding country. On the morning of the 
4th its streets presented a scene of unwonted animation. Farmers* 
teams, bringing their families in holiday attire, thronged the winding 
roads which led into the picturesque valley among the Otsego Hills, 
once an important point on the turnpike that was the thoroughfare of 
western travel, but since left far at one side of the railway, which had 
superseded it. The prominent citizens, with due pride in their historic 
region, had prepared for the occasion with taste and care, and had in- 
vited many guests to share in the ceremonies. Among those present 
were the Governor of the State ; President Nott, of Union College ; 
Hammond, the historian of the State government ; and Judge Camp- 



1840.] CHERRY VALLEY CENTENNIAL. £gg 

bell, who — born and reared in the valley — had recorded its eventful 
story in his " Annals of Tryon County." 

There was a large assemblage. The exercises were impressive and 
interesting. An address was delivered by Judge Campbell, who re- 
counted the tale of the hardships of the early pioneers — the Lncidi 
of the Revolutionary campaign, the Indian massacre, and the scenes in 
which Brant and Sir William Johnson, Washington, Lafayette, and 
Clinton, had participated. At the dinner, which closed the celebration, 
the Governor was called upon to respond to some complimentarj 
marks. He said : 

I have always desired to visit this place, so long an outposl of ci\ ilization in 
the western forest, and I take especial pleasure in coming to it at a time when 
the discordant elements of party strife are hushed under the influence of > 
lections of a common ancestry, and common sufferings in the cause of li! 
Only a hundred times has the scythe passed over this valley since your an 
tors pursued their weary way up the Mohawk, and over these hills, and planted 
here the first settlement of the Anglo-Saxon rare west of the Eudson. Yet, a 
hundred years is no unimportant portion of time. In a fcury four 

thousand millions of human beings appear on the earth, act their busy i 
and sink into its peaceful bosom. 

Turning then from the effects of time upon the valley, he gave a 
rapid review of the changes in the world at large : 

That century dawned upon one broad scene of war. extending throu 
Europe, into Asia and Africa, and even this remote continent. No nation es- 
caped the tread of hostile armies, and few were exempt from revolution. Si 
maintained their sovereignty, some secured their independence; but ethers had 
gone down forever. Yet, dark as the picture of the lasl century seem-;, it is 
relieved by lights more cheering than any that have shone upon our race in the 
previous course of time. The human mind has advanced with unparelleled rapid- 
ity in discoveries, in science, and the arts. Civilization has been carried into 
new regions, and has distrihuted more equally the enjoyments and comfort 
life. The education which, a hundred years ago, was a privil je of ' : :ew, is 
now acknowledged to be the right of all. What were luxuries a hundred . 
ago are common enjoyments now. A renovating spirit is abroad in the world. 
The slave-trade, a hundred years ago regarded as lawful commerce by all Chris- 
tian nations, is now denounced as piracy by most civilized state-; and ,. 
of man are secured by benign and wholesome laws. 

What could have been the condition of human rights before tic d 
Lafayette, Wilberforce, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Washington; what t ; 
of law before Montesquieu, Puffendorf, Blackstone, and Benthain; what 
natural science before Herschel, Franklin, Davy, LinnaBUS, and Buffon 
what would our literature be if we struck out of it the writin in, Gil 

bon, Hallam, Hume, Stewart, Robertson, Cowper, Pope, Gray, Goldsmith, John- 
son, Scott, Burns, Byron, and Goethe ! 

In the evening he drove over to Cooperstown, spent Sunday and 






490 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

Monday with hospitable friends there, among them Judge Russell and 
Mr. and Mrs. Bowers, attending the different churches on Sunday, and 
on Monday, accompanied by a party of several hundred, making an 
excursion on the beautiful lake. At " Three-mile Point " an address of 
welcome by Lyman J. Walworth was followed by a picnic entertain- 
ment. 

In June there had been a novel and remarkable assemblage, at a 
spacious hall in Great Queen Street, London, presided over by the ven- 
erable Thomas Clarkson, the originator of the movement, in 1787, for 
the abolition of the slave-trade. This was the World's Antislavery Con- 
vention, called by the British and Foreign Antislavery Societjr ; which, 
though principally composed of members from Great Britain and the 
United States, was also attended by delegates or visitors from the Con- 
tinent, from the West Indies, from South America, and even from Ori- 
ental lands. It was unanimous as to the end in view, the abolition of 
slavery. Its debates, resolutions, and addresses, therefore, were de- 
voted to consideration of the means to promote that end. Its chief 
value was in the comparison of views held by residents in so many re- 
gions. Daniel O'Connell and Dr. Channing were among those who 
participated, either by speech or letter. Gerrit Smith, James G. Bir- 
ney, William Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Phillips, were among the 
American delegates. Among the proceedings was the adoption of an 
address to the heads of governments throughout the world, a copy of 
which was duly forwarded to each sovereign, or chief magistrate. Gov- 
ernor Seward received, toward the close of July, the one addressed to 
him, over Mr. Clarkson's signature. 

He acknowledged it in a letter to the chairman, saying : 

I concur entirely with the convention, and with enlightened and benevolent 
men, in all civilized countries, in regarding slavery as a great moral evil, as un- 
just in principle, a violation of inalienable human rights, inconsistent with the 
spirit of the Christian religion, and injurious to the prosperity and happiness of 
every people among whom it exists. Entertaining these views, I have regarded, 
with deep interest and entire approbation, all the noble efforts which have been 
made in your country and in this for the abolition of slavery ; and especially 
those with which your name, and that of your compatriot Wilberforce, have 
been associated ; until those names have acquired an enduring place among those 
of the most distinguished benefactors of mankind. ... I have not the slightest 
hesitation in assuring you that at no time, nor under any circumstances, shall I 
fail to do whatever may be within the scope of my lawful power and rightful 
influence, and calculated in my judgment to promote, in the most effectual man- 
ner, the great and philanthropic work of universal emancipation. 

The citizens of Georgetown, inspired by the example of Alexandria, 
and by the fear of the abolition of slavery, had become convinced that 
their prosperity would be promoted by a retrocession of their portion 



1840.] CALEB CUSHING. 

of the District of Columbia to the State of Maryland. They adoi 
an address, which they sent to the authorities of each State, asking 
them to instruct their representatives in Congress to give con- 
But neither the Governor nor the Legislature of New York were ai all 
inclined to entertain the proposition for the dismemberment of tin- 
District. It is a fresh illustration of human short-sightedness in poli- 
tics, that the denial of the boon she asked, and the passage of the law 
she dreaded, have been the chief sources of Georgetown's safety and 
prosperity. 

An invitation was received, in August of this year, to a dinner to 
be given in Boston to Caleb Gushing, who was then a Whig repre- 
sentative in Congress from Massachusetts, and had won popular fawn 
by the vigor and ability he had displayed in the sub-Treasury debate. 
Seward wrote, expressing his regret at not being able to avail himself 
"of an occasion to manifest respect and esteem for that distinguished 
representative of the people." 

This versatile and accomplished statesman was then at the begin- 
ning of his long political career. Though in accord on public ques- 
tions at that time, he and Seward pursued widely divergent paths f< .-, 
years afterward. But when the war for the Union had commenced, 
they were reunited to render effective service in its defense, and cor- 
dial relations thenceforth continued between them until the end. 

Generosity toward personal or political opponents is a rare trait, 
and one apt to arouse the jealousies of friends. The practice of it 
not unfrequently brings reproaches. Alluding to the subject in an- 
swering a letter of Alexander H. Wells, of Westchester, he said : 

I have no pleasure in speaking, and I always avoid writing, concerning my 
own position or relation to the public and to political associate-. Although 1 
trust I am not ungrateful for personal kindness manifested toward me, and I 
feel that I have had a thousand times more of it to be thankful for than I h.'.\ e 
ever deserved, I have nevertheless always regarded equality, justice, and the 
public welfare, as paramount to personal friendship or gratitude. Eence, if I 
sometimes appear more ungrateful to friends than politicians are, I trust I am 
more forgiving to opponents. I do not know whether this is wise for myself, 
but I am sure that it is not injurious to the public or to the cause. I entertain 
no confident conviction of my fitness for my high trust, and then / on 

that subject by others has never seemed to me a crime. 

His expectations of being able to pass some time at Auburn were 
destined to disappointment. As the summer wont on, cares multiplied, 
and now came the season of excitement and labor incident to the | 
dential campaign. 

You must make no calculations upon me. I am overloaded with car. 
labors, besides the duty of perpetual audience and attention. 



492 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

I wish the boys were here. There is a very handsome rifle company from 
New York here. They have pitched their tents in the park, directly in front of 
our house, and have converted that beautiful lawn into a martial scene of war. 
They have a fine brass band, and the music is very cheering to one fatigued and 

careworn as I am. 

August 25lh. 

There is this difficulty in writing as often as I could wish : I cannot give you 
details of what happens to and around me. The week before last brought the 
Utica Convention. Its delegates began to pass through the city on Sunday. 
My time was occupied with them almost exclusively during that week. I went 
one day to the Helderberg, one day to Ooxsackie, and one day was devoted 
chiefly to reviewing and receiving the New York militia here. What could I 
write you about these things, unless all in the first person singular, and an 
account of myself as the person magnified ? 

Sunday I was at church. Mr. Verplanck was with me at dinner, and during 
the evening. Monday an address that I must not describe was rewritten, and 
given into other hands to be finished with the addition of what concerned myself. 
Mr. Webster had gone to Saratoga, jealous and unkind toward me. Wise and 
true men thought it was necessary that I should be there. I thought it due to 
him and due to myself to show him not less attention than I had to others last 
year. I went up on Tuesday. From the hour I arrived there I was never alone. 
The town was full of people, to the number of thousands. They were with me. 
They broke down the piazza upon which I met them, but fortunately no harm 
ensued from the accident. I returned here wearied beyond measure on Friday 
night. On Saturday morning I commenced rewriting my reply to the Governor 
of Virginia. It was begun with Willis Gaylord Clark in the house ; E. M. Blatch- 
ford came in the afternoon. The deplorable accident at the wharf occurred that 
afternoon, and the consequent funerals came on Sunday. Notwithstanding all 
these distracting circumstances, besides others too minute to be remembered or 
recorded, my letter to Governor Gilmer was finished yesterday morning, and 
laid out before me, forty-one foolscap pages in length. 

A letter requiring much care, to the State Convention, a vindication of the 
pardoning power as exercised since I came into office, a review on Friday next, a 
visit to Sing Sing Prison, are now before me. Besides these are other duties, 
such as ordinarily fall upon me. It became necessary for Jennings to go to Cin- 
cinnati to see General Harrison; but it was desirable that it should not be 
known. I did not so write to you, lest it might transpire through the post-office. 
He will be here in a day or two. Mr. Stanley, a member of Congress from 
North Carolina, and his wife, spent two days with me. I have much to tell you 
of them. Few persons, entire strangers to each other, have so great curiosity 
concerning one another. Mr. Stanley and I had each been assured that the other 
was his counterpart in person. For myself, I was quite desirous to see how I 
did look, since my unfortunate person had brought me so many ungrateful atten- 
tions, in opposition newspapers and speeches. I believe I will not tell you now . 
what was the conviction of the truth of these disparaging reflections ; time 
enough when we meet. My Virginia letter is finished ; my pardon document 
gone to press. I breathe more freely. 

The Virginia letter was a continuation of the correspondence about 



1840.] EDWARD STANLEY. 






the three colored men. Edward Stanley was alreadj a prominent 
Whig member of the House of Representatives. The acquaint 
thus commenced continued through life, and they were destined i 
together more than once in times of public danger. 

The resemblance which mutual acquaintances rema] tween 

them was at that period quite striking. Stanley was of about the same 
height, of rather slighter frame, with hair and features resembling 
Seward's more nearly than any of his brothers, and quite as rnuc 
some of his pictures. This resemblance grew less mark. .1 in I 
years, though both had the same genial manner and winning addr< 
and their view r s on political questions corresponded more nearly than 
was usual at that day among the Whigs of the North and those of the 
South. 

During the early part of the year, both parties were watching with 
strong interest the progress of the sub-Treasury bill in Congress, and 
both anticipating marked effects upon the election, li had passed the 
Senate in the winter under the advocacy of Calhoun and Benton, and 
despite the opposition of Clay and Webster. It dragged in the II' 
but was finally put through, as Benton described it, by the "summary, 
silent, and enforcing process of the previous question," at i ! ; • 
of June. 

The President, to give it national significance, approved it on the 
4th of July. Guns, drums, and bells, resounded in its honor, and 
speeches were made in its praise as the news reached different cil 
in the fond belief that, the cure having been found, Whig complaints 
of the disease in the body politic would be overcome. But ii 
late. The patient no longer cared to discuss tin- merits of the pana- 
cea, and was only solicitous to change the physicians. There ra- 
tline enough before the election for the law to demonstrate its ben 
cent character, if such it had. There was only time enough \'<>r the 
Whigs to inveigh more bitterly than ever against what they call 
new "experiment." Judicious as many of its provisions were, and 
eager as Mr. Van Buren's friends in Congress had been to pass il. it prob- 
ably gave more votes to his opponents than to him. 

In a political campaign the party .press seldom scrap! 
occasion for attack, whether grounded in justice or not. the 

themes for attack upon Seward was that he had abusi d th< pardonin 
power, by reckless bestowal of it upon the unworthy and criminal < 
score of their political affiliations, and in order that they might 
elections. The incidents already narrated show what patient and 
rious care he bestowed on every case before a pardon le 
Under his direction an elaborate summary was now prepared, stating 
each instance in which a pardon had been issued, and tie grounds upon 
which it was granted, since he took the oath of office. Tl 



494 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

showed that, although the number of convicts had increased, he had 
granted fewer pardons than any predecessor ; that Governors Clinton, 
Yates, Van Buren, Throop, and Marcy, each averaged more than one, 
two, or three hundred per annum, while he had granted during his first 
year but sixty-four, and during the second but seventy -two. It showed 
also that none had been granted on the mere application of friends, or 
without a careful examination of the minutes of the testimony of the 
case. It showed that those which were granted were usually recom- 
mended by the judges, juries, or prosecuting officers who had obtained 
the conviction ; and finally that, so far from pardoning them in order 
that they might vote, it was an established rule to withhold the rights 
of citizenship until the pardoned convict had proved, by a year or 
more of good conduct, that he was worthy to exercise them. 

Among the many touching incidents connected with the exercise of 
the pardoning power was the case of Joseph P. Cornelius, of Newbury- 
port, Massachusetts. He was in prison under a conviction of grand lar- 
ceny, upon his own confession. His wife's letter to the Governor said : 

It is with feelings of pain that I address your Excellency, to plead for one who 
is dearer to me than all earthly ties. . It is true that he has violated the laws of God 
and man ; but still it is not an unpardonable offense. Your Excellency must be 
aware of the numerous temptations there are to young men in the city of New 
York ; therefore you will not be surprised that my husband has committed such 
a crime. Last fall his health was miserable, and what little writing he could do 
was barely sufficient to pay his board. My situation at the time was such that 
he knew I must have money, or suffer for the comforts of life. He knew that I 
had been brought up with care and tenderness, and had never known a want ; he 
could not bear to see me or my children want for anything, and, in an unguarded 
moment, yielded to the tempter. We are both young and have two children, 
one of whom is but three months old ; and now that my husband is confined, 
every means of support is cut off, and we are left destitute and penniless and en- 
tirely dependent upon the kindness of his friends, for I have neither father, 
mother, sister, nor brother; and, moreover, I have no blood relation in the world 
that I am aware of, so that I have no one to call upon for assistance. Therefore 
T beg and entreat you to be merciful, and do all you can to have him pardoned. 
His disposition is such that I have every reason to think he will never commit 
such a crime again. Naturally industrious, amiable, and affectionate, he could 
not be happy to continue such a course of life. God grant that all I have said in 
behalf of my husband may have the desired effect ! 

Makgaket Cornelius. 

The Governor in his answer said : 

The affecting case you have presented to me is by no means singular. I have 
almost every day to receive applications for pardon which I must not grant, and 
which it requires a hard heart to deny. I am favorably impressed concerning 
your husband, by so many evidences of his affectionate disposition, and the cir- 
cumstances of destitution on your part, to relieve which he committed his great 
error. I think I see indications propitious to his reformation, in the sympathy 



1840.] THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN. igg 

your misfortunes and his have excited. I must bringthal syn path; to idl 
ormation, and make that aid a condition of my interp isition in 1 
Whenever your husband's friends shall have found some empl • bini 

which the Hon. Mr. Cushing shall ci rtifj to me will in his < 
for the support of your family and may be reasonably expected to be pi rmi 
if your husband continues to conduct himself well, I will grant the applic 
for pardon. 

It was not long before assurances came, from the gentlemi 
buryport who were interested in the case, that tiny had found employ- 
ment for Cornelius in accordance with the Governor's requirement. 
The pardon was granted, and he returned to his family and I 

of industry and usefulness. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

1840. 



The Presidential Campaign. — "Old Tip." — Mass-Meetii 

Conservatives. — Bishop Hughes. — The "Forty-Million Debt." — Th • 
plosion. — Reception at Albany. — The Last Time a Candidate. 

The presidential campaign was now in lull blast. It was a m 
rable one. Beginning immediately after the nomination of Barrison 
and Tyler, at Harrisburg, in the preceding December, the po] 
thusiasm had rapidly increased. The Whig papers likened then 
ment, not inaptly, to the spread of the "prairie-fires." The Whig 
leaders, of course, aided it with all the appliances that political skill or 
experience could suggest ; and the Democrat --. as not unfre hap- 

pens to those on the unpopular side of a controversy, found their argu- 
ments and even their ridicule of the Whig candidate turned t" his 
advantage. Some one, alluding to pioneer habits in the West, had ad- 
vised that Harrison be given a log cabin and plenty of hard cider to 
drink ; implying that that condition of lite was more befitting for him 
than the White House. It was an unfortunate sneer for the D 
for it supplied the spark that only was needed to kindle popular sym- 
pathy into ablaze. The Whigs fanned the flame. Hebecamethe "log 
cabin candidate." The log cabin became the emblem of his | 
life, of his military services, of Ins kindred feelings with the tarn 
of his unrequited toil for his country. A log cabin sprang up 
ly every city — a club-house and rallying-place for Wl : ! 

raisings and house-warmings were held, with n i d pol 

speeches. Log-cabin medals were struck, and pi 
hand. Miniature log cabins were carried in proces 



496 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

on platforms. Log-cabin pictures were hung in the bar-rooms and 
parlors. Log-cabin magazines and song-books found ready sale. La- 
dies made log-cabin fancy-work for fairs, and children had little log 
cabins of wood, tin, and confectionery. The Whig State Committee 
got up a campaign newspaper, to be published simultaneously in New 
York and Albany, and named it the Log Cabin, calling Horace Greeley 
to its editorial chair, and it had a popularity equaled by no campaign 
paper before or since. For him it was the stepping-stone to fame and 
fortune ; for the energy and skill displayed in it, and its wide circula- 
tion, opened the way for its successor, the Tribune. 

All the appliances and appurtenances of the log cabin came into 
favor. There was the barrel of hard cider, to stand by the door; there 
was the coon-skin, to be nailed by its side ; there was the latch-string, 
to admit the welcome guest, and it was remembered that Harrison told 
his old soldiers they would never find his door shut or the latch-string 
pulled in. There was the rye-and-Indian bread ; and there were the 
strings of dried apples, and pumpkins, and bunches of corn and pep- 
pers, hanging from the roof; and there was the broom at the door, 
typical of the purpose of the Whigs to make a clean sweep. Nothing- 
was wanting to point the contrast between " the poor man's friend " 
and " the rich man's candidate," but to recount, as Whig stump-speak- 
ers did, with gusto, the items of national expense for "gilt candelabra, 
porcelain vases, satin chairs, and damask sofas," in " Van Buren's 
palace," the White House at Washington. 

But the log cabin was not the only ad captandum argument at the 
service of the Whigs. Taking a lesson from their own crushing defeats 
by the hero of New Orleans, they proceeded to hoist flags, fire salutes, 
and declaim panegyrics on the " Hero of the Thames," the " Defender 
of Fort Meigs," the "Victor of Tippecanoe." Tippecanoe, besides 
being the leading exploit of the military chieftain, was a good sonorous 
name for the orators to pronounce, ore rotundo, and clubs to sing in 
swelling chorus. For, by this time, the irrepressible enthusiasm had 
burst out in song ; campaign songs, campaign songsters, glee-clubs, and 
Harrison minstrels, were now in vogue. Popular airs and national an- 
thems were pressed into service. English and Scotch ballads and negro 
melodies were adapted to new words. The familiar strains of the " Star- 
Spangled Banner," " Yankee Doodle," the "Marseillaise Hymn," " Scots 
wha hae," "Paddy Carey," the "Bonnets of Blue," "McGregor's 
Gathering," and " Old Rosin the Bow," resounded through halls and 
streets, to the words of political songs — " The Buckeye Cabin," " The 
Hero of the Thames," "Old Fort Meigs," "Tippecanoe Gathering," 
" Old Tip," and " Up Salt River." 

But the "song of songs" was one which, having little music in it, 
everybody could sing. And nearly everybody did. This was : 



1840.] "TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO." am 

" What has caused this great commotion, motion, m 
Our country through '. 
It is the ball, a-rolling on — 

CHORUS. 

" For Tippecanoe and Tyler too, 
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too. 

"And with them we'll heat little Van, 
Van, Van — Van is a used-up man ; 
And with them we will beat little Van." 

This chant was hummed in parlors and kitchens, sung by the boys 
in the streets, marched to in political processions, an. I was the errand 
finale of all Whig meetings, the whole audience shouting it through 
their thousand throats with as much fervor as French republi 
chant the "Marseillaise," or Englishmen sing "God save th 

The song was capable of indefinite expansion ; for new verses could 
be extemporized for each locality, or each incident of the campai 

thus : 

" Who shall we have for our Governor, 
Governor, Governor ? 
"Who, tell me ? Who ? 
Let's have Bill Seward, for he's a ; 

For Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc. 

" Have you heard from old Kentuck, 
Tuck, tuck, tuck, 
Good news and true ? 
Seventeen thousand is the tunc, 

For Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc." 

Most presidential candidates have a nick-name ; and ( reneral Har- 
rison, long before the summer was over, was universally known 
"Old Tip." There were Tippecanoe banners, Tippecanoe clubs, Tippe- 
canoe meetings. Steamboats were named after him; children chris- 
tened for him ; dogs were called "Tip;" and spans of h 
"Tip "and "Ty." 

Political meetings took on a new character. They v 
forced assemblages in club-rooms, but spontaneous out-door crowds 
overflowing with enthusiasm. The journals which used to descanl with 
pride, in large type, upon "Six Hundred Freemen in Council," now 
found themselves chronicling the gatherings of thousands with no n 
of exclamation-points. Whole counties were called to ass 
mass-meeting; whole States were invited to ble in ma 

ventions. Great meetings were held in cities, and obscure ■ intry 
towns became the gathering-points for thousands. Thi 
ing of three thousand at Martinsburg, of four 

ville, of five thousand at Auburn, of six thousand at Jamestown, ol 
seven thousand at Niagara, of eight thousand at 
sand at Glens Falls, of ten thousand at Goshen, of twenty tl 



498 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

Utica, and of sixty thousand at Syracuse. A grand Whig Convention 
of seventy-five thousand at Bunker Hill, with a procession five miles 
long, seemed to crown the series ; but even this was outdone by a 
mass-convention at Dayton, in Harrison's own State of Ohio, which the 
Whigs claimed was " one hundred thousand strong ! " 

One of the mass-meetings which excited most public interest was 
the Whig Young Men's Convention at Baltimore, held in May, at which 
fifteen or twenty thousand delegates were present from the various 
States of the Union. Intense popular indignation was excited by the 
murder of one of the marshals, by a blow from a ruffian, as the proces- 
sion was marching through the streets. 

"How long is this procession?" asked a by-stander, of one of the 
marshals of the cavalcade at Erie, Pennsylvania. 

" Indeed, sir, I cannot tell," was the reply ; "the other end of it is 
forming somewhere in the State of New. York." 

Finally, they took to measuring the size of meetings by the acre. At 
Dayton surveyors computed the throng by counting the number of men 
who stood on a quarter of an acre, and then a mathematical survey of 
the whole ground covered gave them the sum total of the mass. When 
no hall or church could hold the meeting, it gathered in some grove or 
in the fields, like a mustering army. The most eloquent speakers on the 
Whig side were called into requisition to address these assemblages, and 
traveled from point to point. Webster and Clay, Crittenden, Stanley, 
Tallmadge, Ogden Hoffman, Preston, Southard, Leigh, Legare, Rives, 
Corwin, Governor Call, General Wilson, and a hundred of lesser note, 
were on the stump. General Harrison himself made a speech at the 
Dayton Convention. His clear, sonorous voice was echoed by the im- 
mense multitude, swaying to and fro, like the leaves of a forest in a 
strong wind. " Are you in favor of paper-mone} 7 ? " they demanded, 
"lam," was the reply, and then the shouts of applause were deafening. 
Between the speeches there would be singing by trained vocalists, or a 
grand chorus by the entire assemblage. Covert and Dodge, the favor- 
ite singers at mass-meetings, became known throughout the Union. 

Held by daylight, the meeting made a holiday for the whole sur- 
rounding region. Farmers flocked in by all the country roads, bring- 
ing their wives and children as they would to a Fourth-of-July cele- 
bration. Delegations came by rail and steamboat from the adjoining 
cities. The meetings took various forms in different regions. They 
were not only meetings, but conventions, clam-bakes, barbecues, ex- 
cursions, celebrations of historic anniversaries. Nothing attracts a 
crowd so rapidly as the knowledge that there is a crowd already ; and 
when it was known that there was to be not only a crowd, but music, 
festivity, flags, decorations, and processions, eloquence of famous men, 
and keen political humor, few could resist the infection. 






1840.] MOTTOES AND PICTURES. 






Never was there a political campaigt iinding in pi 

Wood-engravers and lithographers were busy. Th< i 
Harrison papers, Harrison almanacs, and lives of Harrison. In 
picture be was welcoming his old comrades in arms al th 
log cabin. In another, he was addressing Bolivar, the South Araeri 
liberator. In another, he was driving his plough, as the "farmei 
North Bend." In another, he was building the Btockade for the de- 
fense of Fort Meigs. In another, he was mounted on an im] 
horse, leading his army to unheard-of exploits at Tippecanoe. His por- 
trait not only hung upon walls, but was borne in procession and dis- 
played by Hags. Caricatures were at every street-corner. There was 
the rooster, emblematic of the Indiana elections, ironically labeled, 
"Tell Chapman to crow !" There was the "ball" depicted as "rolling 
on " and over Van Buren and his cabinet. There was Benton, repre- 
sented as the man who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, in the 
vain hope of more. There was the canoe, with "Old Tiii' 1 as an In- 
dian chief, paddling swiftly to the White House, whence Van Buren 
was escaping, as "the Hying Dutchman." There was the log cabin 
arranged as a trap which had fallen, and the captured fox, with \ an 
Buren's face looking out of the window. 

Flags and transparencies flaunted mottoes, proclaiming prim 
and purposes, or derision of opponents, thus : "Harrison, Seward, and 
Better Times," "No Standing Army," "No Reduction of Wag 
" O. K. Off to Kinderkook," "Van Buren and Eleven Pence a Day, 
or Harrison with Two Dollars and Roast Beef," "Harrison and Reform," 
"One Presidential Term," "Where's the Promised Better Currency ?" 
" The Farmer of North Bend," "Protection to American Industry," 
"Liberty in Log Cabins rather than Slavery in Palaces." 

It was in vain that the Van Buren men tried to stem this current. 
Their speakers were able and eloquent, bu1 they could draw no such 
audiences. They called Harrison "an old granny," styled the ^ I 
"coons" and "cider-suckers," but all with no avail. Leading minds 
among them declared, and continued years afterward to believe, that 
all this popular ferment was in the nature of a era -y fanaticism, stimu- 
lated by adroit appeals to popular sympathy. There was some truth 
in this opinion, yet it did grave injustice to the common-sense 
American people, and gave undue importance to the 'power ol politi- 
cians. The Whig popular demonstrations bore the same relation to th( 
underlying public feeling that the foam and spray of Niagara do 
the deep, swift, resistless undercurrent which produces them. I 
people had grown tired of twelve years of the dominant party's rule. 
They had had "hard times," derangements of currency and pri 
quent and ruinous. They believed, whether justly or not, that thes< 
were the direct results of experiments in finance, made by their rul 



498 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 



Ae overthrow of the National Bank, the suspension of specie pay- 
ments, the passage of the sub-Treasury law, the refusal of protection 
by tariff, the tampering with the mails, and the denial of the right of 
petition, were all regarded with apprehension and alarm, not so much 
because of actual ill-effects as because they were proofs of the exist- 
ence of arbitrary power at Washington, which, if not checked, might 
lead to still graver oppression. Nothing could be more acceptable to 
a majority entertaining such apprehensions than the nomination of a 
candidate known to be a patriot, and believed to be of a condition in 
life which would make his interests and sympathies identical with their 
own. They dreaded an aristocracy which might give them a King 
Stork ; they had no fear, even if their own candidate should turn out 
to be a King Log. It is quite probable that, with a different candi- 
date, the Whigs would still have carried the election ; for the popular 
mind, as the last two } r ears had evinced, was bent upon a change of 
rulers. That the results of 1840 were not produced by the arts of 
politicians, or the infection of excitement, is sufficiently shown by the 
fact that politicians, with their utmost skill, have never been able to 
imitate them, even in times of greater excitement, since. To this day, 
the highest praise that a party newspaper can bestow upon a great 
meeting is, that it was like the old scenes of " the Harrison campaign 
in 1840." 

Among the humorous light literature of the campaign were the let- 
ters over the norm de plume of " Major Jack Downing." Improving on 
the themes of the log cabin, the major wrote a series of letters from 
the cabin itself at North Bend, describing his visit to " the Gineral," 
and his talks with him on politics, farming, and finance. As early as 
April, he announced : " The Ohio has riz — and so has the whole West- 
ern Resarve — one by hard rain, and t'other by hard cider." 

Every two or three days, as the campaign went on, the newspapers 
would announce that some prominent Democrat had left his party, and 
avowed himself for Harrison. Each renunciation stimulated fresh 
ones, and, as it drew near November, they came thick and fast. 

The Whig State Convention met at Utica on the 12th of August, 
and, like other gatherings of this extraordinary campaign, it was made 
the occasion of a mass-meeting. Instead of the few hundred people 
who usually assemble on such occasions, Utica was thronged with 
twenty-five thousand. There were, of course, processions, miles in 
length, speeches, music, banners, paintings, log cabins, schooners, balls 
rolling on, and all the other devices of the canvass. The business- 
meeting of the convention proper, instead of an assemblage for debates 
and votes, was rather an enthusiastic ratification of conclusions already 
arrived at. Peter R. Livingston was made its presiding officer. Gov- 
ernor Seward and Lieutenant-Governor Bradish-were unanimously re- 






1840.] THE CONTEST FOR GOVERNOR. - (1 , 

nominated by acclamation. A Harrison electoral tick, 
upon without a dissenting voice, headed by James Burt, one of th< 
viving electors of Jefferson in 1800, and General B. Pi rter 

fought at Chippewa in 1812. Resolutions and an address \ 
adopted, a State Central Committee named with the same unanimity 
and celerity, and the convention, which had met on Wednesday morn- 
ing, accomplished its business, and adjourned before Thursday noon. 
The address was presented and read by the Governor's neighbor, ( !hris- 
topher Morgan. 

The Central Committee was composed of Lewis Benedict, John 
Townsend, Sandford Cobb, James Horner, Samuel Stevens, Roberl 
Thompson, and John Taylor. Among the delegates were Joel B. N 
John L. Schoolcraft, John A. Collier, R. P. Johnson, Francis 11. i. 
gles, B. F. Rexford, Isaac C. Piatt, "William N. Tobey, Erastus R 
George A. Simmons, David A. Bockee, Lewis Averill, E. Minturn, M. 
O. Roberts, Francis Hall, E. W. Leavenworth, Alvah Worden, Phineas 
Rumsey, William C. Hasbrouck, Charles H. Carroll, John Whiting, 
John L. Overbaugh, John R. Thurman, and Henry B. Northrup. 

The Democratic State Convention met at Syracuse, and nomh 
— for Governor, William C. Bouck ; for Lieutenant-Governor, Daniel 
S. Dickinson, and a Van Buren electoral ticket, headed by Samuel 
Young and George P. Barker. The Democratic nomination for Gov- 
ernor was a strong one in one respect. Mr. Bouck had been a ( 'anal 
Commissioner, a zealous, faithful, and prudent one. lie had been r< - 
moved purely on political grounds, to make way for a Whig successor. 
The Democrats claimed support for him now as an acknowledgment 
due to a faithful public servant, who had been unjustly treated. Fur- 
thermore, he could hardly be accused by the Whigs of hostility to in- 
ternal improvements, since he had advocated and aided their comple- 
tion, and he was commended to Democratic indorsement as one whose 
scrupulous economy and exact accounts proved him to be trustworthy. 
Seward had, therefore, in him a more formidable competitor for the 
vote of the State than General Harrison had in Mr. Van Buren. Bu 
there were other and still more potent causes for i rd's 

reelection. His recommendations in regard to law reform haw 
hostility on the part of a profession that in every election is an influ 
ential one. His distribution of patronage, like that of every Executive 
who, while appointing one disappoints ten, had raised up oppo: 
The most effective weapon, however, against him was the mis: 
tation of his views on the public-school question. Tins wa 
edged sword : Protestants were urged to vote against him 
was giving undue privileges to Catholics, and Catholics wen 
vote against the Whig party because it could not be relied upon to 
carry out his recommendations. The recomi i hi regard to 



502 LIF E AND LETTERS. [1840. 

schools had been made after conference with Protestant divines, and 
with their concurrence. Though subsequently charged to have been 
adopted under Catholic influence, no Catholic had ever seen it, or been 
consulted in regard to it. That it would bring into the school-houses 
of the State children otherwise doomed to grow up in ignorance in the 
streets, was its chief motive. If Dr. Nott and Dr. Luckey had, in ad- 
dition to this motive, any bias of sectarian feeling, it was the hope and 
belief that education in the public schools would be more likely to con- 
vert Catholic children to Protestantism than to lead any Protestant 
child to Catholicism. 

The attacks upon the Governor not unnaturally attracted the atten- 
tion of Bishop Hughes, of the Catholic Church. Warmly condemning 
their injustice, he sent word to the Governor, through a mutual friend, 
that he should be glad to visit and converse with him. Seward an- 
swered that he should have great pleasure in conversing with the bishop 
on the subject, and would hear his views with respect, and communi- 
cate his own opinions with frankness, " on a subject which ought to 
excite not only a patriotic zeal but Christian philanthropy." Soon 
afterward the bishop came to iVlbany, and called upon the Governor. 
He was at this time a fine-looking, well-proportioned man, with round 
head, blue eyes, high forehead, delicately-cut features, with the smooth 
face and close-cut hair of his order. The acquaintance thus began was 
continued during subsequent years. 

There were, as there always are, friends who would have had Sew- 
ard explain away, withdraw, or recant the unpopular doctrine by some 
public avowal, in order to save his election. To all such his answer was 
firm and decided. He believed the principle to be right ; and not less 
so because it was unpopular for the moment. He should adhere to it, 
let the election go which way it might. Perhaps an extract or two 
from his correspondence on the subject will serve to illustrate this 
feeling. 

In a private letter to Major Mordecai M. Noah he wrote : 

I early learned the injury the State was suffering from the failure of our 
public schools to educate a large portion of the children of foreigners in our 
cities, and upon the public works. I discovered also, as I thought, that the fail- 
ure arose from a want of harmony and sympathy between native and voluntary 
citizens. I have believed no system of education could answer the ends of a 
republic but one which secures the education of all. I ventured to promise 
myself that one of the chief benefits I might render the State was, to turn the 
footsteps of the children of the poor foreigners from the way that led to the 
House of Refuge and the State-prison, into the same path of moral and intel- 
lectual cultivation made so smooth and plain for our own children. My first 
message to the Legislature contained a suggestion for that purpose, and in my 
last the subject was asserted more distinctly. If there was one policy in which 
I supposed all republican and Christian citizens would concur it was this. I 



1840.] THE FORTY-MILLION DEBT. 

found, however, to my surprise, that the proposition encountered unki 
tion. A press, that should have seconded it, perverted my langui tiled 

my motives. My surprise was followed by deep mortification , ;1I1 ,| 

that a considerable portion of the pressof the political party to which I 
adopted the same perversion, and condemned the policy recommended. N. 
theless, I am not discouraged by all this. I am only determined the more 
clusively to discharge the responsibility resting upon me, of doing what maj be 
in my power to render our system of education as comprehensive as the 
ests involved, and to provide for the support of the glorious superstructur 
universal suffrage — the basis of universal education. This, I know, can bi • 
without injustice or inequality; but the details of the improvement must i 
3arily be a subject of careful consideration. . . . 

The "Conservatives," who had rendered the Whig '. help 

during the past three years, still maintained their distinctive organiza- 
tion. They called a convention to meet at Auburn on the 1st of < )cto- 
ber. William C. Rives, of Virginia, and Hugh L. Legar6, of South 
Carolina, came up to attend it, stopping on the way at Albai \ 
breakfast with Governor Seward, and to confer with him in regard to 
the issues of the campaign. The breakfast was a pleasant and s 
factory gathering, as was the convention itself on the ensuing day at 
Auburn. It was well attended, presided over by General Pierre Van 
Cortlandt, addressed by Messrs. Tallmadge, Rives, Legale, and others, 
and it indorsed all the nominations previously made by the Whigs at 
Utica. 

Seward, in accordance with what he deemed the proper rule of 
action for a chief magistrate, remained at his official post at Albany in 
the discharge of its duties, and declined to attend the popular meetii 
though, in response to numerous letters of invitation, he gave them his 
hearty concurrence and support, to displace " an Administration that 
substitutes experiment for experience." 

Log cabins, ingeniously made of various materials, wen- sent to 
the Governor by ardent Whigs. A committee, headed by J. C. Derby, 
greeted him with one on his arrival at Auburn just before election. 

This curious and pretty relic of by-gone politics is still standing. 
with "the latch-string out," in the old house at Auburn. It i 
miniature cabin, two feet long, thickly incrusted with crysl 
ed upon it by some chemical process, so that it glittered and spark 
like a cabinet of jewels. Time has crumbled away the crystals, and 
the rude logs assert themselves. 

Napoleon used to say that the French were the only nation I 
went to war for an idea; but the Americans, in their political 
tests, sometimes even join issue upon ideas having no foundat 
fact. One of these phantasms was the "forty-million d 
during the campaign of 1840 was as-ailed by the Democrats; 
fended by the Whigs as if it were a real entity. There was 



504 LIFE AND LETTERS. L1840. 

debt ; there never had been any such debt ; there never was to be any- 
such debt. Nobody had recommended the creation of any such debt. 
But it was declared that there would be such a debt if the Whigs 
were left in power. 

Partisans in an active canvass lose no opportunity to secure votes, 
and convicts are equally watchful for chances of pardon. A curious 
illustration of both these points was the fact that, in the heat of the 
Harrison campaign, shoals of applications poured in upon the Govern- 
or for the restoration of pardoned criminals to the rights of citizen- 
ship, the inference being implied, though not expressed, that they 
would vote the Whig ticket. These projects the Governor nipped in 
the bud, by declining to consider the questions until after election. 

All eyes were now turned toward the elections in Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, and Indiana, which were regarded as foreshadowing the general 
result in November. The returns, when they came in, were full of 
auspicious promise for the Whigs. Ohio had been carried by a large 
majority ; Indiana seemed to have followed in the same direction. The 
strength of the Jackson and Van Buren men, in Pennsylvania, was 
evidently so reduced as to leave the result there in doubt, with a cer- 
tainty that, if there was a Democratic majority on the local ticket, it 
was exceedingly small, indicative of a probability of a Whig one at 
the presidential election. 

Toward the close of October, while Seward was making a visit to 
Chautauqua, came the explosion of a political mine, of which the 
train had been ingeniously laid, and which was expected to seriously 
damage the Whigs in the election. Some politicians in New York 
arrested Glentworth, the tobacco inspector, brought him before 
the recorder and Justice Matsell, on a charge of having been an 
emissary to Philadelphia, in October, 1838, to procure illegal voters 
to help elect Governor Seward. It was alleged that he had been 
employed in this nefarious scheme by Moses H. Grinnell, R. M. 
Blatchford, Simeon Draper, James Bowen, and R. C. Wetmore, leading 
Whig managers ; and it was claimed that by these means Governor 
Seward had been elected, and had rewarded Glentworth with the to- 
bacco inspectorship. The city rung with this astounding story. The 
press teemed with editorials, affidavits, letters, proofs, and denials. 
Handbills were struck off, and sent far and near, representing that 
Governor Seward had been arrested ; that some of his friends had fled 
from justice, and others were in the hands of the courts. Doubtless 
the tale was largely believed by Democrats, and even those who did 
not fully believe thought it would aid them in the election. The 
Whigs, though disbelieving, had serious apprehensions that such would 
be its result. Both were mistaken, for the public mind, even at that 
day, had learned to be incredulous of charges against candidates made 



1840.] THE GLENTWORTH CASE. 

just before election. When, afterward, the evidence came to I 
there was enough to show it was at least plausible. Glentworth had 
been sent to Philadelphia in 1838, by the gentlemen named, as they 
testified, to watch and check apprehended efforts to import illegal 
voters to New York. Whether he was tempted, by the insight thus 
gained into such frauds, and by the facility with which they could 1 i 
executed, is not clear; but, at any rate, his "Whig employers became 
alarmed, on the last day of October, by the suspicion that he was em- 
barking in some enterprise similar to that which he was to check. They 
had at once disavowed and denounced any such project, and ordi 
him to abandon it. The correspondence of October, 1838, was pro- 
duced, and the evidence before the recorder attested the truth of th< 
indignant denials of these gentlemen of any complicity in such frauds. 
No frauds, in fact, had been committed ; and if any had b< en contem- 
plated, on either side, Grinnell, Blatchford, Bowen, Draper, and Wet- 
more, had frustrated them. A revulsion of popular feeling took p] 
in their favor, and a procession of fifteen thousand people marched t< 
Grinnell's house, and tendered him a nomination to Congress. 

The extraordinary proceeding culminated when Glentworth made 
affidavit that Democratic managers had persuaded and bribed him, by 
offers of money and of the consulate at Havre, if he would make state- 
ments implicating Governor Seward and his leading friends in New 
York "in a charge of having countenanced frauds at the election in 
New York City, in the year 1838." 

Seward, to whom the whole story was a surprise, read it first in the 
papers while on his western trip. By the time he returned to Albany. 
the storm had not only broken, but cleared away ; and he learned for 
the first time from his New York friends of Glent worth's mission to 
Philadelphia in 1838, and of the part they had had in it. 

On his return from Westfield, traveling rapidly and unostentatiously, 
public demonstrations were as much as possible avoided, though he 
was everywhere received and greeted by friends who were busily 
engaged in the work of the canvass, and had already begun to enter- 
tain expectations of victory. He paused a day at Rochester, whe 
review in the afternoon was followed by a meeting and speech in the 
evening. He reached Albany, as he had purposed to <lo. on the night 
before election. A committee waited upon him in behalf of a meeting 
of the citizens to bid him welcome. Jared P. Rathbone was ; 
and among the vice-presidents were Robert Hunter, John Taylor, Clark 
Durant, George R. Payne, James Gould, John White, and Jacob Lan- 
sing ; and among the secretaries, Joseph Davis and i ' 
man. He answered them at some length, saying : 

It is a sublime spectacle to see a nation of twenty null". 
telligently and intently engaged in reviewing the policy and conduct of th 



50G LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

who administer their government, and rendering that solemn judgment in which 
all are bound to acquiesce. 

On such an occasion it must be expected, and it is right, that the severest 
scrutiny into the conduct of public men should be exercised, and the broadest 
latitude of examination be demanded. 

I rejoice in assurances from all quarters of the Union that the distinguished 
citizen of Ohio who is our candidate for the presidency is passing safely through 
the canvass, and that a grateful people have vindicated his well-earned fame. 
The nation will, I trust, now enjoy a season of repose and prosperity. . . . For 
myself, I have not desired to avoid scrutiny or circumscribe examination. 

He then proceeded to review the leading questions of that period, 
the measures which had been proposed or carried out, the difficulties 
encountered, and the progress made in regard to each. In conclusion, 
he said : 

I am well aware that, amid these and other difficulties, I have erred often 
from defect of judgment, but I have erred often, also, by reason of wrong infor- 
mation, for truth is not always swift to enter the Executive chamber. "When 
the excitement and the interests of the present time pass away, it may perhaps 
be allowed that I have sometimes been thought wrong by those who received 
their impressions through misrepresentation. Nevertheless, I have been sus- 
tained by the reflection that I, have been conscious of no motive calculated to 
sway me from equal and exact justice. . . . 

And I have been cheered by the hope that, when the annalist of our State 
shall write the history of its roads and canals, its schools and its charities, and 
its benign legislation, it may at least be allowed to me that I endeavored to 
act in harmony with the spirit of the age. 

Election-day passed off quietly. The next morning, the meagre 
returns from the vicinity of Albany, the river counties, and the city of 
New York, were not reassuring. Dutchess and some other counties 
had failed to come up to the "Whig expectations ; but, as the day wore 
on, and returns began to come in from the north and west, the pros- 
pect brightened. A day or two later success had become a certainty ; 
and the " Unionists," as the Whig association in Albany was called, 
turned out en masse to greet Governor Seward, and march around his 
house in a torch-light procession with cheers, bonfires, fireworks, and 
transparencies, congratulating him on his reelection, and proclaiming 
that the Empire State was safe " for Tippecanoe and Tyler too." 

Then came the reports from other States, which soon put Harrison's 
election beyond doubt. He had carried seventeen States, which would 
give him two hundred and thirty-four electoral votes, to sixty for Van 
Buren. New York had been carried for him by thirteen thousand ma-. 
jority. Seward, having been made the special point of attack by the 
opposing party, who had hoped to secure the State, even if they could 
not stem the tide of national enthusiasm, was reelected, but by a dimin- 
ished majority of between five and six thousand. 



1840.] WHIGS AND THE FOREIGN VOTE. -,,,; 

In regard to the Legislature, the Democrats were "more successful 
having gained enough members of Assembly to reduce the Whig 
strength to a bare majority of four. Of the eight new Senat< r el 
this year, four were Whigs, and four Democrats. So the VV1 
retained their control of that House. Of the members of Cong] 
elected, twenty-one were Democrats and nineteen Whigs — a Demo- 
cratic majority of two. 

After every election comes the discussion of the causes which led 
to its results. The echo of the enthusiastic outburst of Whig rejoicing 
had hardly died away before there began to be expressions of disap- 
pointment that, riding, as they had been, on the topmost wave of p 
lar enthusiasm, they had not achieved a greater triumph in th 
The grounds of the special opposition to Governor Seward were again 
freely canvassed. His avowed antislavery opinions, and his sympathy 
with foreigners, were charged with having been the cause of the mis- 
chief. It was said that if he had avoided the Virginia cont n tversj . and 
had not encouraged " abolition" legislation, and had not made his rec- 
ommendations about the schools, he would have had double the majority. 
"Depend upon it," political wiseacres said, "the Whig party will nevei 
get along until it cuts loose from all connection with the niggers and 
the Irish." So far as the " abolitionists " were concerned, tins view of 
the case did them injustice. They had given twenty-five hundred \ 
to Birney and Gerrit Smith, but the growing antislaveiy sentiment act- 
ually had a much larger following; and at least one-halt' of the avowed 
antislavery men had voted the Whig ticket, because they believed tin 
Whig party, on the whole, more opposed to slavery than the other. 
The law-reforms, which also cost Seward so many votes, were sul 
quently engrafted on the statute-book and in the constitution, i nd his 
views in regard to slavery are now universal. 

In his acknowledgments of numerous letters from friends, whether 
of congratulation or upbraiding, Seward's replies had hut 01 
Writing to Colonel C. D. Barton, of Keeseville, he said: 

The victory in its general results is all that was ever hoped ; in il - 
have succeeded as well as it was reasonable to expect. For m\ self, I a 
dantly satisfied with the measure of public approbation awarded I 
perhaps more than I have deserved. Besides, it is quite unimpi 
public welfare whether that measure is full or scanty. 

To Benjamin Silliman, a warm-hearted and earnest friend, who, deem- 
ing the adopted citizens ungrateful toward Seward, spoke of a policy 
of opposition to them, he replied : 

The adopted citizens, en masse, have long been opposed to the ] 
I belong. They owed me no fidelity. True, I am, or mean to l>e. just v< them. 
But I am the representative of a party that is unwilling to be so. Tl. 



508 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

against me, as such representative, deceived and misled as they were by Amer- 
icans in both parties, representing me insincere and deceitful. . . . 

Remarking that the world is apt to judge wrongly the day after an 
election which does not go to their mind, he concluded : 

And here we will drop the whole matter — at least I will, for I do not desire 
to inhibit you. I like so well to hear from you that I would rather read your 
wayward reflections upon Jesuitism than endure your silence. God bless you, 
whether you are Whig or Native American ! 

So closes the record of Seward's share in the election of 1840, the 
last election in which he was ever a candidate at the polls. His national 
reputation had hardly yet begun, and he was destined for years to come 
to be a leader of national opinion, and an actor in public events with a 
following of millions, who voted in accordance w r ith his counsels. But 
not one man of those millions, at any popular election, was ever to 
have on his ballot the name of William H. Seward. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

1840. 



Rush for Federal Appointments. — Whig Jubilations. — Antislavery Party. — Virginia Con- 
troversy continued. — Thanksgiving. — Murder Cases. — The Electoral College. 

Almost before the printer's ink was dry that announced the elec- 
tion of General Harrison, applicants for Federal offices were preparing 
their papers, and canvassing the chances for obtaining the coveted 
places. Writing on this subject to Seth C. Hawley, Seward said : 

You very rightly suppose that there will be an humiliating spectacle exhib- 
ited in the multitudinous and eager applications for Executive patronage at 
Washington. My own experience teaches me that the part to be performed in 
the exhibition by citizens of this State will not be the least active. The Presi- 
dent will need disinterested support through the fiery trial. . . . Behold, then, 
my course, not only until after the Legislature meets, but throughout. It is 
neither to look to the General Government for anything, nor to receive from it 
anything — absolutely to refrain from interfering in any way with the dispensa- 
tion of Federal patronage, and with the competition of my fellow-citizens for it, 
throughout General Harrison's term. 

A confiding support of the Whig Executive of the Union in his measures 
and policy, sustaining them with zeal and what ability I possess, allaying dis- 
contents and soothing disappointments when they occur, as my own experience 
teaches me they must, and finally exerting my best efforts in cooperation with 
his and all others, to render the triumph of Whig principles beneficial to the 
country. 



1S40.] AFTER ELECTION. 






The official returns showed thai Mr. Grin nell, after th< Glentn 

excitement, ran ahead of the rest of the ticket — "the only 
said a Whig journal, " we can find, in the Union, where a local 
date has outstripped Old Tip.*' 

Shortly there was a new phase in the Glentworth ca . The 
grand-jury in New York, who had been examining the w i 
found no ground for indictment, but rather unexpectedly turn 1 upon 
the recorder. He had charged them "deliberately to inquire, ai 
presentment make ; " and they presented his own proceeding , in the 
search and newspaper publications, as "making him a party to any 
illegality that may have taken place." 

During the preceding year dissensions had broken out among anti- 
slavery men in New England, on questions of organization and meth- 
ods of action. Those in New York had urged the formation of i 
tinctive political party. Myron Holley and Alvan Stewart wi ro active 
in this movement, which led to founding the I arty, an I 

ing a National Antislavery Convention at Albany on April I. 
which nominated for President James G. Birney. B i ii 
a slaveholder, he had manumitted his slaves and given up hi 
for the cause. Thomas Earll, a descendant 
Quakers, an editor in Pennsylvania, was the candidate for Vi 
dent. The candidates wer> personally unobjectionable; but t 1 
cord among antislavery men, the manif ! impossibility of su 
and the conviction that to throw their voles away on Birni y was bul 
to aid the election of Van Buren, led the great mass of antislavery 
men throughout the Union to cast their votes for 
The Liberty party ticket, therefore, received but seven th 
in all the States. 

The month of November was one of Whig jubilati 
returns came in, they were made fresh subjects of rejoicing. 
column of figures showing the electoral votes thai Harrison was to re- 
ceive was styled "Reports from Old Tip's Keepers." The counti 
west of Cayuga Bridge were found to have surpassed their former 
majorities. Erie gave three thousand, Chautauqua twenty-six hun- 
dred, Genesee thirty-three hundred. Very few days suffici 
that Harrison was elected ; but the respective majorities given hii 
the several States became a subject of fresh interest. \ 
Kentucky each laid claims to be "the banner S 
given the largest majority in proportion to the popular \ te. Ini 
"banner" was finally awarded to 1 

sand majority. Pennsylvania was in doubt for a h rtni 
being so close, but finally the official returns sho* 
ity of three hundred. 

Usually the excitement of an election dies .v 



510 LIFE AND LETTEES. [1840. 

smoulder out on the night after the victory ; but this year the " great 
commotion " could not subside so easily. The log cabins continued to 
be dressed with flags, the cannons to peal salutes, the processions to 
march, and the songs to resound, long after the flag on the hickory- 
pole in front of Tammany Hall had been hauled down. Fresh melo- 
dies were penned : " Up Salt River," " Farewell, farewell to Thee, 
Governor Morton," " Who killed Little Matty ? Who saw him die ? " 
etc. ; and the glee-clubs of Albany gave concerts at Stanwix Hall, of 
which the proceeds were devoted to the Orphan Asylum and other 
charities ; and the audiences seemed never to tire of rising to join in 
the grand final chorus, " What has caused this great commotion ? " In 
the letters of congratulation which covered the Governor's table day 
after day, there was mingled an undertone of regret that his majority 
had been reduced to only five or six thousand Whatever disappoint- 
ment he himself may have felt on this subject, he expressed none in 
his letters. 

Mr. Greeley, in the Log Cabin, reflected a general sentiment in 
closing an elaborate article on the subject of the reduced vote, with the 
words : 

We have never penned a eulogium on William H. Seward ; we shall offer none 
now ; but at least in one earnest, ardent, indignant heart, he will henceforth be 
honored more for the three thousand votes he has lost, considering the causes, 
than for all he has received in his life. 

But now there was other work to be done besides rejoicing, or 
grieving over the past. The accumulated business and correspondence 
of weeks was to be disposed of. First, and most important, was the 
task of replying once more to the Governor of Virginia. On the 9th 
of November, Seward finished and sent his third letter in this contro- 
versy. In it he informed the Governor that the subject had been sub- 
mitted to the Legislature, in accordance with Virginia's request, and 
communicated the action, or rather the non-action, they had decided 
upon, and their approval of his own course. 

The very next day brought fresh letters from the Governor of Vir- 
ginia, written before this answer was received. In these Governor 
Gilmer remarked that Governor Seward was in error in understanding 
as a menace of secession the Lieutenant-Governor's threat that Vir- 
ginia would " appeal from the canceled obligations of the compact to 
original rights and the law of self-preservation." 

To this disclaimer Seward said : 

Since your Excellency assures me that my inference was erroneous, I have 
great pleasure in acknowledging my satisfaction with the explanation, although 
your Excellency has, doubtless inadvertently, omitted to explain what was the 
true understanding of the expression misapprehended. 



1840.] THANKSGIVING DAY. - t[] 

Finally, he added : 

According to the views I have adopted, the tru ■ positi m of the part'u 
these: The Executive of Virginia demands what is not authorized l ■ 
stitution, and the Executive of this State declines a compliance with the ui 
stitutional demand. It is not without sincere regret that I perceive th tt i 
sisting in this demand the State of Virginia protracts a question of 
citing interest. 

When "the sere, the yellow leaf " begins to fall, every \<- 
household begins to think of the annual family gathering under the old 
roof; every child begins to think of the feast of turkey and pumpkin- 
pie; every clergyman begins to think of preparing the annual sermon 
in which he is at liberty to refer to things secular, and even, if be 
chooses, "to preach politics;" and every I to think 

that the time has come to make his annual proclamation, givh 
sanction to these time-honored customs and observances. Thi 
his public duties was always a pleasure to Seward. His proclamati 
show that with him it was no more form, but a hearty and earn 'st be- 
lief that the American people have, above all the world, ground f<>r 
thanksgiving ; and that he was already sharing in anticipation the en- 
joyment of that high festival. His proclamation, this 

God has been pleased to preserve our lives during another year, and I 
our land, and to make it very plenteous. Health, peace, and liberty, ! 
among us, and Religion has administered her divine counsels and 
No danger has menaced us from abroad, nor has any alarm of it ' mo- 

tion, sedition, or tumult, disturbed the quiet of our dwellings. The clouds have 
not withheld from the earth their timely rain, nor the sun its -< a\ ! 
plough has not been staid in the farrow, nor has blight or mildew diminished 
the abundant harvest. We have exhibited to the world the sublin 
millions of freemen carefully discussing the measures and policy which i 
their welfare, and peacefully committing the precious trust of their interes 
hopes to the care of chosen magistrates. 

Far less attractive was that other duty, perpetually recurrii 
listening to the appeals of counsel, or of relatives, to avert justly- 
served punishment from hardened criminals. A murderer in < mondi 
County was to be hanged on the 19th. In the denial of the < i mutat 
of his sentence, Seward alluded to the genen i fa : . i 
him by official observation of so many cases, thai illicit • 
seem to lead directly toward the crime of murder. Not even d 
brawls are a more prolific source of it. Nine-tenths of a 
committed are traceable to one or the other of th 
closed his decision by saying : 

The prisoner's licentious life has led to a conclusi m not un ' '■■■ i 



512 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

and I could not interfere to avert the doom that awaits him without seeming to 
regard the extravagance of illicit passions as an excuse for reckless murder. 

Nevertheless, the murderer's friends seldom despair of thwarting the 
law, until the noose is actually fastened about his neck. In this case, 
they were back again at the Executive chamber, four days later, to 
ask that the execution might be suspended until February, so that they 
might, meantime, solicit the interposition of the Legislature. The 
Governor answered that, however he might personally rejoice in an es- 
cape from this, the most painful of all official responsibilities, he could 
not conceive it right to submit to the Legislature a question properly 
belonging to the Executive, and absolutely vested in him by the con- 
stitution. 

In another case of application for pardon for a wife -murderer, who 
was to be hanged in the Albany jail, he remarked : 

It does indeed happen, occasionally, that, without impairing the salutary 
force of example, a victim may be rescued from the gallows ; but who shall be 
left to the murderer's fate if it be not he who slays the mother of his children ? 

In this case, that of Jacob Leadings, the petition was based upon 
somewhat novel ground. This was that, notwithstanding the efforts 
of the clergymen and friends of the prisoner, he showed no signs of 
repentance, and he would therefore pass from time to eternity unpre- 
pared. To this, the Governor answered : 

It is a fearful, and I earnestly hope it may be a mistaken, apprehension. But 
I can scarcely conceive the obduracy which the petitioners describe. However 
this may be, the plea, nevertheless, cannot be allowed ; for it would be to ex- 
ecute the judgment of the law upon the penitent and broken-hearted, and save 
those whom neither conscience nor the fear of death, or of the tribunal beyond 
the grave, softens or subdues. 

Launcelot Waugh was convicted of stealing fourteen cakes from a 
colored boy in Schenectady, and sentenced to State-prison for two 
years. After he had been there one year, the boy from whom the 
cakes were stolen made oath that he was mistaken about it, and that 
no theft had been committed. The judge, the sheriff, the clerk, and 
the jury, thereupon united in asking Waugh's release. The Governor 
granted the pardon. Then came an outburst of indignation from 
some of the opposing party newspapers, who averred that Waugh was 
pardoned because he was a Whig. The files of the Executive cham- 
ber were referred to, and a letter was found from the prisoner himself, 
which commenced thus : 

Mr. Governor Marcey — Sir i have taken the oppertunity to rite these few 
lines to you. dear Sir, i got into a little quarrel with a neighbor the forth day of 



1840.] TDE ELECTORAL COLL! 

July last. Mr. Whig Kane gave him a warrant for 

taken. . . . Two more Whig men put their heads tog* th< r an I 

the Albany County jail. The Whig ofic< is geting so, if a • 

man. ... I was allwaise was a good Jackson man. Mr. i 

would be so kind as to send me two or three lines to Mr. Williams, he will let 

me go. 

And this settled the question of the prisoner's politii 

Colonel Amory having resigned the position of aide-de-camp, the 
Governor appointed James Bowen, of New STork, to the place. Colo- 
nel Bowen was one of the three intimate friends in New iTork whom 
the Herald not inaptly called the " clique." 

The Herald had already achieved a reputation as being the mosl 
"witty and wicked" of papers, especially at the expense of the Whigs! 
It was consistent in its opposition to Governor Seward throughout bis 
administration, nor did it spare his friends, li said this " cli 
generally took the Albany boat Saturday night, and spent the Sunday - 
in plotting and scheming with the Governor. "We will not mention 
their names, but their initials arc Draper, Blatchford, and Bowen." 

On Wednesday, December 2d, the electoral college was to n t al 

the Capitol. The forty-two electors began to arrive in town from their 
various districts early in the week. On Tuesday they met informally 
at the Executive chamber to exchange congratulations and political 
reminiscences with the Governor and with each other. Their senior 
member was Colonel James Burt, of Orange County, who commanded 
in 1814 the militia regiment of which the Governor's father was lieu- 
tenant-colonel. Eighty years had shrunk and bent his soldier-like 
figure, and whitened his hair, but he was still hale and vigorous. Even 
more so was the erect and dignified Pierre Van Cortlandt, bul 
years his junior, who had voted with him for Jefferson in the electoral 
college, forty years before. Archibald Mclntyre, who was one of the 
Madison electors, General Peter 13. Porter, of Niagara, ex-Comptroller 
Jenkins, and Gideon Lee, were among the other men of historii 
besides several of legislative prominence. The Governor's table, tl 
day, reached from end to end of the long dining-room. < >ther 
Whigs met the electors at dinner, or came in after the cloth w 
moved, and the hours wen- marked by that unanimity which is | 
to partisans in the brief interval of triumph after the elecl 
and before the struggles for place begin. 

The next morning, at half-past ten, the electors net in tl 
chamber. The venerable senior member was presiding officer. All 
were present. After a prayer by Dr. Campbell, t ; 
appointed, and the forty-two ballots were east, with all 
for William Henry Harrison for President, and then, with equal 
mality, for John Tyler for Vice-President. When the t< Hers 
33 



514 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

this result, the crowded lobbies burst into enthusiastic applause, taken 
up and echoed by cheers from the throng without, and then by the 
cannon pealing the salute of forty-two guns. Silence restored, the 
Secretary of State, John C. Spencer, laid on the broad table the three 
certificates, duly prepared for the signatures of the whole body. An 
hour or more passed, while the forty-two electors appended their names 
in the order of their districts. One certificate was to be sent by spe- 
cial messenger to the President of the Senate of the United States, 
and Herman M. Romeyn, of Ulster, was elected such messenger, and 
returned his thanks. A second certificate was to be sent by mail, and 
a committee of electors was appointed to put it in the post-office. 
The third certificate was to be deposited with the United States Judge 
of the Northern District, and Albert Crane, an elector, was duly em- 
powered to take it to him. A vote of thanks to the presiding officer, 
and his acknowledgment, closed the proceedings. 

That night there was a great dinner at Stanwix Hall, given to the 
college by the citizens of Albany, under the auspices of the State Com- 
mittee. The hall was hung with banners and transparencies, and 
resounded with the familiar strains of the popular political airs, alter- 
nately given by the brass-band and the glee-clubs. At the table, John 
C. Spencer presided, and toasts and speeches lasted till a late hour. 
Those of Gulian C. Verplanck and Gideon Lee were especially felicitous. 
When the Governor was called on for his speech, he gave the college 
his recollections of the mountainous and secluded little town in Orange 
County which was the home of their venerable President, and of the 
time when news came there that the Capitol had been laid in ashes by 
the public enemy, and James Burt tendered his services as a volunteer, 
and set out for the field where he became the brother soldier of the 
chief whom they to-day had elected to the presidency. 

The Governor's toast was : "The recent election. It has conclu- 
sively proved that the people are competent to the consideration of all 
questions affecting their welfare." Cicero Loveridge gave : "Clay and 
Harrison. The last shall be first and the first last " — alluding to what 
was already considered settled by the Whigs, that Mr. Clay, having 
aided Harrison's election, should be his successor at the expiration of 
the " one term " to which he was pledged. An overflowing feeling of 
exultation pervaded the Whig party at this commencement of what 
bhey fondly believed to be a long lease of power. 

Monday, the 7th, was the day appointed for the meeting of Con- 
gress ; but a great snow-storm had blocked the roads and impeded 
navigation in the rivers ; so it was three days without a quorum. On 
Thursday, members enough had gathered to begin the session, and 
receive the President's message. This document Avas largely devoted 
to the discussion of the financial questions which had occupied so 



1840.] EDWARD EVERETT. ;, j g 

prominent a place in his Administration. Perhaps the fact about it thai 
will be longest and best remembered to Mr. Van Buren's honor was 
that the closing recommendation of his official career was a strong and 
earnest appeal to Congress to take measures to suppress the African 
slave-trade. 

But the words of outgoing Presidents, whether for good or ill, fall 
upon unheeding ears. The faces of politicians, like those of Parsees, 
are turned toward the rising sun. The public attention was engrossed 
now not with what Mr. Van Buren might think, but with what General 
Harrison was going to do, about his appointments, his inaugural, and his 
policy. The newspapers were already busy constructing cabinets, and 
tearing them to pieces ; while the office-seekers were legion. 

Even to the struggle for offices in the gift of the State Executive, 
an added impetus seemed to have been given by the election ; and 
those who found or feared failure at Washington naturally enough 
turned toward Albany, and vice versa. 

In a letter to Thomas C. Chittenden, Seward described a year's ex- 
perience in the dispensation of patronage : 

From the day the election closed last year, until the 1st of April, I received 
about ten thousand applications for fifteen hundred offices. With the exception 
of the time saved in the night, I surrendered myself entirely to the visits and 
explanations of those who interested themselves in this and other departments 
of my public duty. My correspondence swelled so entirely beyond all bounds, 
that it was not until last May that, with the aid of a private secretary, letters 
received in December were acknowledged; and it was not until last month thai 
the petitions and letters were filed and registered. Between the 7th of January 
and the 10th of April I nominated and appointed fifteen hundred public offi- 
cers, being an average of one hundred a week, and fifty each executive day. 
No secular day passed, during that time, in which, from eight in the morning to 
twelve at night, my doors were not open and my hall occupied. You will per- 
ceive that it will be vain for me to try to explain, to the vast number whose 
applications resulted unfavorably, the reasons for the selection of others. 

Congress, as usual, did little of importance before the holidays. 
The two chief events were the introduction by Mr. Clay of a resolution 
to repeal the sub-Treasury law, and Mr. Webster's calling attention to 
what in those days was considered a startling fact, that (lie national 
expenditures of the year exceeded the income by seven million dollars. 
Then came the adjournment for the season of social festn ities. 

The Governor's table was again thickly covered with invitations to 
take part in these gatherings, but he declined on the score of pressing 
duties. A letter to the New England Society contained a toast, sug- 
gested, perhaps, by recent sneers, in Parliament, ;'f ""S ankee degen- 
eracy : " 

If it be not improper to mingle with homage paid to the Pilgrim Fathers 



516 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

just acknowledgment to those of their descendants who illustrate their virtues, 
permit me to propose the name of one of our countrymen now in England, Ed- 
ward Everett. The most convincing proof our transatlantic brethren could give 
us of our " degeneracy " would be to send us a superior representative. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

1841. 



Second Inauguration. — A Prosperous State. — Burning of the Caroline.— Fox and Forsyth. — 
The Legislature on the Virginia Question. — The Colonial History. — Brodhead's Search 
among Dusty Records. — Cabinet-Making. — Granger. — No Secrets. — Legislative Fun. — 
John Duer. — Death of his Brother. 

Thursday night the New Year came in as usual with a serenade at 
midnight, followed by another at daybreak. At nine the Governor and 
Lieutenant-Governor, attended by the staff of the former, went up to 
the Capitol to take the oath of office at the opening of the new term, 
administered this time by the Chief-Justice. Returning to the Execu- 
tive mansion, the day passed off there much as in previous years, 
though with more order and quiet. The authorities and associations 
made their customary visits, and the house was thronged by several 
thousands. One old man among the visitors created amusement by 
the positive earnestness with which he insisted that " he had been 
voting the Whig ticket for over fifty years, having begun immediately 
after the Revolution ! " A heavy snow-storm in the afternoon brought 
the reception to an end. At five o'clock came the State dinner — the 
Lieutenant-Governor, Chief -Justice Nelson, Chancellor Walworth, Gen- 
eral King, and Colonels Cannon, Austin, and Benedict, of the staff, 
being among the guests. 

The next day the Governor' wrote to Christopher Morgan, now re- 
elected to Congress. Alluding to his relations with Granger, and 
warmly approving his selection for a cabinet office, Seward remarked : 

The world, however, will gossip about rivalry between Granger and myself. 
I cannot prevent that gossip. I can show to Mr. Granger the same justice and 
magnanimity that he manifests toward me. I should not be in that position if 
the members of Congress or General .Harrison were left to suppose that I had 
interests or opinions inconsistent with Granger's preferment. . . . The positions 
assigned to him in the State by the Whig party, of candidate for Governor and 
Vice-President, were fairly his due, and were honorably maintained. . . . Gen- 
eral Harrison can make no appointment that will be more satisfactory or more, 
agreeable to me. ... I desire you to give this letter to Mr. Fillmore ; and it is 
free to any use he or Mr. Granger may wish to make of it. 

It was less easy, however, to adhere to his resolution about the 



1841.] THE MESSAGE OF 1841. g j - 

minor offices in the gift of the new President, for which tL 

a multitude of applicants among the Whigs of New Fork He 

marked : 

I feel sometimes in regard to appointments as Paul did aboul bis bonds. It 
is hard enough to see one's worthiest friends struggling for what thej emim 
deserve, and not be able to render them any aid, or be allowed even to wish 

them success. 

Monday evening the legislative caucuses were held. The Whigs 
nominated Peter B. Porter for Speaker, and the Democrats named L. 
S. Chatfield. When the Legislature met, on the following day, the 
Whig candidate was duly elected, and the Governor's message re- 
ceived and read. 

This message differed from his previous oiks. They had n 
mended great and sweeping reforms, which, aided by legislative action, 
had now been fairly inaugurated ; this message reported progress, and 
advised continuance, while recommending few new chan 

Reviewing the condition of the universities, schools, and asylums, 
he noticed that the school-district libraries now- contain* d a million 
books. The geological survey was to be completed in the summer, the 
State Museum to be fitted up, and the reports to be made nexl \ 
"a nobler tribute to science than any which has yet been offered in 
our country." The revenue from the canals was now over a millit n 
dollars, and the annual surplus, after paying the interest on the debt, 
was nearly half a million. In view of this result, ho tendered his con- 
gratulations upon the happy termination of past embarrassments. ' 
the three great railroads he had advised in 1839, the central 
completed, or in progress, from Albany to within forty miles of Lake 
Erie. The southern one had pushed forward as far a- < I ' ■ . and the 
work was going on. The northern one was surveyed, and the reports 
were submitted. The repeal of the "Small-bill Law/' the plan for th • 
redemption of notes, and the general banking law, had had the 1. 
ficial results of maintaining credit and circulation ; and, for the fir- 
time in thirty years, the Legislature was relieved from applical 
and complaints on that subject. 

The prisons, too, were improved. Discipline had been 
male and female converts separated, cruelty abolished, and bo< ks placet 
in every cell. The Auburn Prison was earning nearly seven thousand 
dollars a year over its expenses, and the g ' Prison falling 

six thousand dollars short of paying its way. 

The law reforms had proved successful, and others v. 
Only one relic of imprisonment for debt remained, and 
advised the abolition. Elections, he recommended, should be ' 
upon one day, instead of three; and towns should be divided into 



518 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

smaller election districts. Turning then to broader questions of public 
policy, he submitted the papers in regard to the Virginia correspond- 
ence and- the anti-rent troubles. He reiterated his views in regard to 
immigration, education, and suffrage. Remarking that he had not rec- 
ommended, nor did he seek, an education of any class in foreign lan- 
guages, or in particular creeds of faith, he did desire the " education 
of all the children in the Commonwealth," and deemed our system de- 
ficient in comprehensiveness in " the exact proportion of the children 
that it leaves uneducated." He renewed his arguments for the distri- 
bution of the surplus revenue of the United States, and its applica- 
tion, in this State, to education and internal improvements. 

Giving a r'esum'e of the history of canal enlargement, he remarked : 

That there was need of enlargement was attested by the simple fact that 
there is one boat every eleven minutes at every lock on the Erie Canal. The 
"Western States are no hostile nor rival powers ; they are communities bound to 
us by interest as well as by consanguinity. Their prosperity is our prosperity. 
The Great Lakes, twenty-five hundred miles in length, may be regarded as a 
prolongation of the canal we have made across the isthmus which separates 
their waters from those of the Atlantic. . . . When we consider the vast 
amount and value of the agricultural productions received, we can form some 
imperfect conception of the interest we have in the success of the system of 
internal improvement in the Western States ; and when such conceptions be- 
come as familiar as they are just, we shall manifest more of wisdom than even 
of philanthropy by lending our Western brethren all the aid in our power " to 
complete what none but free and enlightened States could ever have undertaken." 

The message was favorably received, both by the Legislature and 
the community ; for its statements of the progress and prosperity of 
the State were undeniable and gratifying. It was announced that the 
Governor's message had reached New York within twelve hours and a 
quarter — " Dimick, who had charge of the horse-express, having driven 
down with it in a cutter, at the average rate of twelve miles an hour, 
making ten changes of horses on the way." 

A change in one habit of correspondence seemed now to have be- 
come a necessity. Seward wrote to Isaac Sherman : 

The experience of a thousand misapprehensions of letters, written in ac- 
knowledgment of applications for office, has at last obliged me to adopt the 
practice of all who have held stations similar to my own ; and it is, therefore, 
an invariable rule with me not to write in reply to letters on that subject. 

Jefferson, after like experience, adopted this rule ; and ever since 
his time it has been practised by the Executive at Washington. It is 
unquestionably a wise one. Though it may seem at first uncourteous, 
it is the only one that is impartially just ; nor is it more unsatisfactory 
than any other. Successful applicants need no answer, and unsuccess- 



1841.] THE McLEOD CASK. 

ful applicants will not find any answer satisfactory. The clerical i 
would need to be doubled to merely make acknowledgments, and th< 
head of the Government will have no time for his duties to the com- 
munity as a whole, if he stops to give reason.-, to each as individuals. 

Now came from Washington the published correspondence between 
the British minister, Mr. Fox, and the Secretary of State, Mr. For- 
syth. The minister wrote that he was informed thai Alexander Mc- 
Leod, a British subject and an ex-sheriff, had been arrested on the L2th 
of November at Lewiston, and that he was waiting trial in February 
for murder and arson. He called upon the Governmenl of the I tni 
States for "prompt and effectual steps for his liberation." 

The destruction of the "piratical steamboal Carolim " was, he 
said, "the public act of persons in her Majesty's service obeying th< 
orders of their supreme authorities;" and, therefore, could uol be 
made the ground of legal proceedings against individuals, and could 
only be a subject of discussion between the national Governments. 
Furthermore, he stated that McLeod was not engaged in thai tran 
tion. To this Mr. Forsyth replied that the jurisdiction of the several 
States was independent of the Federal Governmenl ; that the off 
was one against the laws and citizens of New Fork, and within the 
competency of her courts. " The act itself was an unjustifiable inva- 
sion in time of peace, involving destruction of property, murder, and 
outrage. Such offenders cannot have impunity, under the plea of 
orders of superior officers." As to the question whether the courts or 
the Governments should discuss the subject, he reminded the British 
Government that the case of the Caroline had long ago been brought 
to their attention, and redress of the outrage asked. No answer had 
been made. "If the act was done under orders of her Majesty's Gov- 
ernment, no such admission had been made by thai Governmenl to the 
United States." 

When this correspondence was laid before the House of Represent- 
atives, a warm debate arose, involving the inevitable question oJ > : 
rights. Mr. Fillmore said : " McLeod would have a fair trial. If guilty 
he would be hanged; if not guilty, acquitted." Mr. Granger said 
"New York proposed to do her duty. The Caroline was destroyed u 
1837. It is now 1841, and the British Government has made neither 
reparation nor reply." 

Excitement on the frontier followed this news. The I 
hastened to send Commissary-General Chandler to Buffal 
with the commanding officer of the United States troops th< i ' 
tain the extent of the grounds of alarm, and to take efficienl m 
to secure the arms and other public property lying 
quarter. This duty was promptly performed. 

Anions: the first nominations sent in to tl by the 



520 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

ernor, and at once confirmed, was that of Egbert Benson, of New 
York, to be inspector of tobacco, vice Glentworth, removed. Hugh 
Maxwell and Gary V. Sackett were nominated and confirmed as com- 
missioners to settle the disputes growing out of the manorial tenures ; 
William Kent and Gideon Lee had been previously named, but had 
declined. 

In the Assembly the question of capital punishment was brought up 
by the introduction of a resolution, by Mr. O'Sullivan, requesting the 
Governor to postpone the execution of persons sentenced to death until 
after the adjournment, on the ground that there might possibly be a 
law abolishing the death-penalty. Mr. Duer and Mr. Hawley insisted 
that this was an unwarranted interference with the pardoning power. 
It received support from opposition members, not so much, perhaps, be- 
cause it was adverse to the death-penalty, as because it was supposed 
to be adverse to the Whig administration. 

General Hubbell, the chairman of the Committee on Militia in the 
Assembly, brought in a report recommending various reforms of the 
system in accordance with the Governor's suggestions. 

In the course of the next week resolutions were introduced, par- 
tially approving and partially condemning the Governor's course in the 
Virginia controversy. Animated debates ensued during the next 
three weeks, until finally the Assembly indefinitely postponed the reso- 
lutions, implying its disposition to leave the question where it belonged, 
in the hands of the Executive. 

Early in 1839 Seward had sent a message to the Legislature, calling 
attention to the memorial of the New York Historical Society, praying 
for a law to authorize the appointment of an agent to visit Europe to 
transcribe documents remaining in the public offices of England, France, 
and Holland, relating to the colonial history of this State. Adverting 
to the efforts made by other States in the same direction, the Governor 
warmly advocated the measure, and, in accordance with his recom- 
mendation, a law was passed in May. The names of several gentle- 
men, of literary or political prominence, were presented as candidates 
for the agency ; among them, John L. Stephens, the celebrated trav- 
eler ; John Howard Payne, the author of " Home, Sweet Home ; " 
Charles Fenno Hoffman, the novelist and poet ; and Colonel William 
L. Stone, of the Commercial Advertiser. Circumstances, unnecessary 
to detail here, led ultimately to the selection of John Romeyn Brod- 
head. He was of Dutch descent, and his familiarity with European 
languages especially fitted him for the trust. 

Mr. Brodhead's description, after his return from the scene of his 
labors, of the way in which they were prosecuted, illustrates some of 
the difficulties of the historian's task, and explains why its results are 
often so imperfect : 



1841.] THE COLONIAL HISTORY. 521 

At the Hague, upward of four hundred volumes, and bundles of papers, 
many of them old, decayed, and worm-eaten, were examined. Most of the docu- 
ments were written in perverse and obscure characters, common in the seven- 
teenth century. At Paris, enormous cartons, or portfolios, in which are placed 
loosely, and without the slightest attempt at arrangement, a vast mass of original 
documents, were to he examined; and a task more appalling to the investigator 
could scarcely have been proposed. Dusty, decayed, imperfect, without order, 
often without a date, a paper relating to Dieskau's defeat jostling a dispatch of 
Count Frontenae, an account of Montcalm's last effort at Quebec pell-mell with 
a letter of Governor Dongan — the expedition of 1619 mixed up with the attack 
on Fort "William Henry — De la Barre and Duquesne, the Hurons and Manhat- 
tans, Boston and the Ottawas, side by side, in the most admirable confusion. 
Bat worst of all was the mortification and regret on finding, at the West India 
House, at Amsterdam, that the valuable papers of the West India Company, re- 
lating to the New Netherlands, though preserved till the year 1812, were now 
irrecoverably lost; eighty-one thousand pounds' weight of them having been 
sold at public auction, at some trifling sum per pound. Scattered and dissipated 
through Holland and Germany, used as wrapping-paper by shopkeepers and 
tradesmen, or ground up in paper-mills, the destruction of these priceless old 
memorials has left a chasm in the original materials for the illustration of our 
history which we look in vain to any other source to supply. 

Nevertheless, the nine great quarto volumes of documents relating' 
to "The Colonial History of New York," published by the State, are 
an enduring record, showing how faithfully he accomplished that 
work. 

State officers were again to be elected by the Legislature. Bates 
Cook, the Comptroller, resigned toward the close of January, and was 
nominated by the Governor for Bank Commissioner. The Legislature 
elected John A. Collier Comptroller in his place, reelected Jacob Haight 
to be State Treasurer, and Orville Holley Surveyor-General. While 
the State cabinet was thus undergoing change, speculations about the 
national one filled the newspapers ; and, two or three weeks before the 
inauguration, it was announced that the cabinet would consist of 
Webster in the State Department, Ewing in the Treasury, Bell in the 
War, and Badger in the Navy, with Crittenden as Attorney-General 
and Granger as Postmaster-General. 

A reference by Mr. Starkweather to the innuendoes of tliose who 
thought him insincere as regarded Mr. Clay, led Seward to say in his 
reply: 

I was not unaware that some persons affected to speak of me as you describe. 
But I can well enough afford them their full indulgence; no man speaks so of 
me who knows me well. Quite the opposite of concealment, I trust, is the error 
of my character as a public man. Every mortal being is at full liberty to reveal 
any word, verbal or written, he has from me. You will find it all consistent 
with itself, and with my letter to you. 



522 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 



The characteristic here referred to was a marked one. He had no 
inclination or capacity for double dealing or political intrigue. Partly, 
perhaps, because of natural frankness, partly from habits of thought 
acquired durino- ten years of opposition to secret societies, he was 
averse to stratagem or hidden contrivance in his political action. Never 
reserved either in conversation or correspondence, he early learned that 
it was wise to say nothing that might not be repeated, and to write 
nothing that might not be published. The same trait ran through his 
private life. He seemed to have no secrets. He locked up no private 
papers. It is not within the recollection of his family that he ever had 
a locked drawer, or carried a key. His letters when confidential were 
only so because those to whom they were addressed desired it. He 
used to dislike even to have secrets confidentially imparted to him, since 
that implied an obligation to maintain a reserve that was foreign to his 
nature. 

Although, as these letters show, Seward was not only in political 
accord, but on terms of mutual respect and friendship, with Granger, 
Fillmore, and Collier, a feeling of hostility to him was already begin- 
ning to grow up among some of the Whigs who preferred their lead to 
his own. The origin of this feeling is now easily traceable. Seward 
was the junior of these Whig leaders, not only in years, but in the 
public service ; and it was natural, perhaps, that their friends, on seeing 
him the recipient of confidence and advancement at the hands of the 
party, should think that he was preceding those whom he ought to 
follow. 

An opposition paper jocosely remarked that, under Governor Sew- 
ard's administration, " going to State-prison was not so burdensome, 
since one could have good clothing, substantial food, exercise in the 
open air of the stone-quarry, and the volumes of Harper's Library for 
amusement. The only wonder is, that the Governor did not recommend 
hard cider in each cell." 

Early in February, while McLeod was 'in jail at Lockport, an attempt 
was made to bail him out, which created a disturbance and threatened 
riot. In view of the popular excitement the bondsmen withdrew their 
bail, and he was put in confinement again to await his trial, and shortly 
after was indicted for the murder of Amos Durfee, at the time of the 
burning of the Caroline. 

Seward wrote on the 27th of February to Secretary Forsyth, ac- 
knowleding the receipt of a copy of the correspondence between the 
two Governments. He then proceeded to detail the circumstances of 
the case. McLeod was indicted for murder and arson, and would be 
tried at the next terra. The Governor concurred in the views taken 
by the General Government, and the public authorities of the State 
would support his action in accordance with those views. Solicitous 



1841.] LEGISLATIVE INCIDENTS. 593 

to preserve harmony with Great Britain, the State must, nevertheless, 
regard the transaction at Schlosser as an unjustifiable invasion in time 
of peace. The crimes committed in the aggression fell tinder the juris- 
diction of the State ; and McLeod, having come within that jurisdiction, 
was arrested, and would be brought to justice in the same manner that 
citizens of the State were. 

Now came the final phase of the Glentworth business. The At- 
torney-General (Willis Hall), to whom the Governor had referred the 
charges against Recorder Morris, gave an elaborate opinion, sustaining 
them. Upon this the recorder was removed by the Governor and Sen- 
ate, and Frederick A. Tallmadge was nominated and confirmed in his 
place. 

Fault having been found with the Governor for not removing Glent- 
worth before, the Evening .Journal replied : 

Tho Senate met on the 5th day of January at eleven o'clock, and at precisely 
five minutes thereafter, by the Shrewsbury clock, that body received tho Gov- 
ernor's message recommending the removal of James B. Glentworth. 

A letter on the 22d of February to William Robinson paid a tribute 
to an old friend : 

You ask me to speak of Mr. Duer as I think. This is an easy and grateful 
duty. I was his pupil, and ho has been my patron and friend. Taking into 
consideration his intellectual powers, his learning, his moral principles, and hon- 
orable sentiment, Mr. Duer combines more high qualities than any man I have 
ever known. If I could mark a character for my children to attain, I should set 
before them that of my old master, John Duer. 

In a letter to Marshall O. Roberts, who had named a son after him, 
he said : 

There is, I am sure, no higher expression of confidence. I am in a perilous 
walk now ; but I, too, have children who must bear my name. For their sake 
and for yours, and all who love and respect me, I will eudeavor to take care that 
the name shall bring upon those who bear it no reproach. 

The legislative session did not pass without some of those ludicrous 
incidents that mark every such season of grave debate. In the Senate, 
General Root one day introduced a resolution directing an inquiry into 
the expediency of furnishing each of the colleges and academies of the 
State with a centigrade thermometer. The resolution, as usual, was 
laid over for a day. 

Lieutenant-Governor Bradish was stately, precise, and courteous. 
His pronunciation was as faultless as his dress, and his manners those 
of Sir Charles Grandison. After the adjournment he suggested to 
George Andrews, the Clerk, that he had made an error of pronunciation 



5 24 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

in reading the resolution, and repeated once or twice for his instruction 
the correct French name of the instrument. Andrews, who was a wag, 
saw an opportunity for a joke; and so, promising compliance, waited 
till the subject came up next day. Then, with great unction and so- 
norous voice, he read the resolution : " To furnish each of the colleges 
and academies with a sonteegrad tairmomate." General Root was on 
his feet in a moment. " Stop, sir ! What is that ? Read that again." 
Andrews complied: "To furnish each of the colleges and academies 
with a sonteegrad tairmomate" The old general, red with indigna- 
tion, declared he had never introduced any such resolution, and de- 
manded to see it. When the little page ran to place it in his hands, 
he glanced at it, and said with supreme contempt : " I thought so — 
centigrade thermometer, Mr. President, if you had a Clerk that knew 
how to read the English language." 

A. B. Dickinson, in the Senate from Chemung County, an able de- 
bater, with strong common-sense, though without the advantages of 
early education, soon took rank as a Whig leader. One of the Demo- 
cratic Senators, eulogizing Mr. Van Buren, had compared him to 
Quintus Curtius, " who had leaped into a gulf to save his country." 
Dickinson, if not familiar with classics, was with politics. " I don't 
know anything about the Mr. Curtis the gentleman speaks of. I know 
Edward Curtis and George Curtis ; but I never heard of that one. All 
I can say is, that Mr. Van Buren did just the contrary ; for he tum- 
bled the country into a hole, and then wanted to be saved himself." 
The Lieutenant-Governor's gavel was necessary to restore the Senate 
to order after this retort. 

General Harrison was now on his way to Washington, receiving 
ovations at Wheeling, Pittsburg, and other towns. Seward had stead- 
ily refused to address him concerning appointments, but wrote him : 

"With some little experience of the perplexities attending the dispensation of 
Executive patronage, I have, at least, thought it was my duty in no way to con- 
tribute to your embarrassment in the performance of your responsible and deli- 
cate duties of the same kind. 

He adhered to this rule throughout the disputes between rival per- 
sonal claims, only departing from it in a few cases, where an appoint- 
ment seemed demanded by some important public consideration. The 
general arrived at Washington ; was welcomed with speeches and fes- 
tivities ; and dined with Mr. Van Buren, in accordance with the good 
old custom of interchange of courtesies between the retiring and the 
incoming Presidents, which had not yet fallen into disuse. Great 
preparations were making for the inauguration ceremonies. Washing- 
ton was already filled to overflowing with Whigs, and the general's 
doors were beleaguered, night and morning, by people who had made 



1841.] HARRISON INAUGURATED. 525 

speeches for hiin, written articles about him and biographies of him, 
organized meetings, controlled conventions, built log cabins, drunk 
hard cider, marched in procession and sung songs for him — each think- 
ing he had acquired a special claim thereby to his favor. 

One of Seward's sons was lying dangerously ill, when, on the last 
day of February, came news of the sudden death of his elder brother. 
Jennings, recently married, was on his way to Chautauqua ; had stopped 
at Florida to visit his parents, and had died after a few days' illness. 
Seward had the melancholy duty of proceeding to Orange County to 
console his parents and bury his brother. 

Jennings was in his forty -sixth year. " Estimable and benevolent," 
said Seward, "I believe he has left more friends than any man of equal 
range of acquaintance ; while I should be surprised to learn that he 
had an enemy." He left two sons, the elder of whom had completed 
his collegiate course and was studying for the ministry. The younger, 
Clarence, came home with his uncle, and thenceforward became one of 
his family. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

1841. 



New Administration at Washington. — Appointments. — The McLeod Case. — General Scott. 
— Crittenden. — Virginia Search Law. — Trial by Jury of Fugitive Slaves. — Crisis at, 
Richmond. — Irishmen and Father Matthew. — Death of President Harrison. — Funeral 
Solemnities. 

The 4th of March witnessed an imposing inauguration of the new 
President at Washington, attended by an immense crowd. The enthu- 
siastic interest in the occasion extended even to other cities. In Al- 
bany there was also a celebration with salutes, procession, and fire- 
works, closing with a ball at Stanwix Hall. Some of the members of 
an opposition club in one of the wards had prepared an effigy of the 
new President, which, in derision, they placed after dark at the door of 
the log cabin. Some of the Whigs happened to pass, and, discovering 
the trick, resolved to retaliate. So, changing the dress of the figure 
somewhat, they took it over, and, attaching it to the halyards, ran it 
up on the hickory pole of their adversaries. Then before daylight 
they industriously circulated the rumor that the Democrats were iroing 
to hang Van Buren early in the morning of the 4th, to show thai they 
had abandoned him. When the passers-by found the rumor apparently 
verified, there was much indignation. The mystery as to how it hap- 
pened remained unsolved. 



\ 



52(5 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

The papers were now filled with accounts of the inauguration, and 
speculations as to the intentions of the new President. Harrison, in 
his inaugural address, reiterated the principles avowed by the Whigs 
during the campaign, promised to seek to restore the Government to 
its former relations, to check the undue increase of Executive power, 
to use the veto rarely and cautiously, not to attempt to control the 
press, or to use the appointing power for persecution, and not to be a 
candidate for reelection. 

No President has since come in with such an overwhelming popular 
support, and none apparently had ever commenced his official career so 
auspiciously. At the executive session of the Senate the new cabinet 
was confirmed, Mr. Webster unanimously for Secretary of State. At 
the White House the office-seekers literally took possession — some, it 
was said, even sleeping in the halls and corridors in order to have the 
first chance in the morning. " The latch-string was always out." The 
doors were always open, and night and day Harrison was besieged by 
the crowd. Presidents from the Democratic party, having the advan- 
tage of that name, were always at liberty to order their day and hours. 
Those of the opposing party were deemed to be obliged to disprove the 
charge of " aristocracy " by erecting no barriers between themselves 
and the people. 

Toward the close of the month the President's proclamation was 
received, calling an extra session of Congress on the 3d of May, and 
giving as a reason that the condition of the finances was such as to 
require congressional action before winter. Meanwhile appointments 
were made rapidly, yet acceptably, and none were objectionable to 
Seward and his friends. Philo C. Fuller, his former legislative col- 
league, and subsequently Speaker in the Michigan Legislature, was 
appointed Second Assistant Postmaster-General. Elisha Whittlesey, 
of Ohio, was appointed Auditor of Post-Office Accounts, and Edward 
Curtis Collector of the Port of New York. General Solomon Van 
Rensselaer walked into the Albany post-office to resume duties from 
which he had been relieved two years before. 

As regarded the foreign question, in which the State and national 
Administration had common interest, the outlook was not so encour- 
aging. Early in March the steamer President had arrived, with news 
of a warlike debate in the British Parliament, the opposition demand- 
ing action, and the Administration promising to vindicate the national 
honor. There were rumors that the British minister would demand 
his passports in case McLeod should be executed. Naval and military 
preparations were said to be on foot in England, and great popular 
feeling excited. The English newspapers spoke of McLeod's trial as a 
"judicial murder." A squadron was said to have been ordered to the 
coast of America, and infantry were under orders for Halifax. On the 



1841.] THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CAROLINE. 527 

Canadian frontier there was much alarm at the prospect of threatened 
hostilities. The Secretary of War, John Bell, opened communication 
with the Governor in regard to providing the proper defenses for the 
harbor of New York, and putting the forts and batteries on Staten 
Island in an effective condition. General Scott was directed to pro- 
ceed to the Niagara frontier, and, in passing through Albany, to confer 
with the Governor. Attorney-General Crittenden was directed by the 
President to attend the McLeod trial ; and also to confer at Albany 
with the Governor. 

To all these communications Seward replied, promising cheerful 
and prompt cooperation. General Scott arrived in Albany on the lGth, 
accompanied by his aide, Captain Anderson ; but crossing the river on 
the ice, late at night, on foot, the veteran commander slipped and fell 
heavily, receiving severe contusions. He walked with difficulty to the 
Columbian Hotel, where he remained under medical attendance for 
several days. This, however, he would not allow to interfere with his 
military duties. He proceeded to arrange for the possible campaign. 
He submitted to the Governor his instructions, from which the latter 
learned that an attempt at invasion from Canada was apprehended ; 
and the general was authorized, should circumstances demand it, to 
make requisition for a portion of the militia of the State — a requisi- 
tion which, the Governor assured him, should be at once met. 

The next day, however, came a letter from Chief-Justice Nelson, 
announcing that McLeod's trial would not come on the next week. 
Mr. Crittenden accordingly stopped at Albany, and, after dining with 
the Governor and holding a long consultation with him and with Gen- 
eral Scott, returned to Washington. 

Seward now addressed Mr. Webster, and, referring to the changed 
aspect of the correspondence between the two Governments since the 
British Government had formally assumed the responsibility of the 
destruction of the Caroline, and had demanded the surrender of Mc- 
Leod, said : 

It seems proper for me respectfully to state, for the information of the 
President, that the views contained in my letters to Mr. Forsyth have undergone 
no change; that, in accordance with the opinions previously intimated in the 
letter of Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Fox, the question of the responsibility of McLeod 
individually, for what is now maintained by the British Government to have 
been^a public duty, is one exclusively of judicial cognizance, and can be deter- 
mined by no other than a judicial department, either in the Federal Govern- 
ment or that of this State ; and that, in the present condition of the proi 
ings against that person, it must be decided by the court having charge of the 
indictment against him. 

I cannot, consistently with a proper regard for the rights of this State, 
omit the opportunity of renewing the expression of my anxiety that the most 
prompt and decided measures shall be taken to obtain from the British Govern- 



528 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 



ment suitable reparation for the outrages committed in the burning of the Caro- 
line the responsibility of which that Government has now taken upon itself. 

On the 17th of March there was a novel celebration in Albany of 
St. Patrick's day. A large temperance procession of Irishmen, with 
medals, banners, shamrocks, and other embroidered emblems, marched 
through the streets to the Capitol, bearing the motto, "Long life to 
Father Matthew ! " whose zealous efforts and impassioned oratory had 
brought about the great reform, a labor in which the Catholic clergy 
of Albany had heartily cooperated. Similar demonstrations were oc- 
curring in several of the large cities. There was a great meeting in 
the City Hall Park in New York ; in Baltimore there was a temperance 
society numbering three thousand, one-half of whom were said to be 
reformed drunkards. 

On the 10th of March Mr. Worden reported a resolution to amend 
the State constitution, to allow colored men to vote. While the de- 
bate was proceeding, came the welcome intelligence from John Quincy 
Adams at Washington, " The captives are free," for the Amistad ne- 
groes had been released by the Supreme Court of the United States. 
Neither of these were gratifying items of news at Richmond ; and 
shortly afterward the Governor of Virginia adopted a new measure in 
the pending controversy with New York. In answer to a requisition 
for the surrender of a man charged with forgery, he refused compli- 
ance until the Governor of New York should surrender the three col- 
ored men, Johnson, Smith, and Gansey. He said that the forger should 
be detained six months, " a period sufficient, it is hoped, to enable the 
authorities of that State to determine whether the Constitution and 
laws under which this demand is made are of as binding force on the 
State of New York as on the State of Virginia." But from this the 
Richmond Whig dissented : " Do two wrongs make a right ? If New 
York violates the Constitution, does that authorize or excuse Virginia 
in doing it ? " The next day brought to Albany news of an unex- 
pected crisis in the Virginia Legislature. The House of Delegates had 
passed resolutions censuring Governor Gilmer, and saying, " He ought 
to surrender fugitives, notwithstanding the refusal of New York so to 
act in a similar case." Governor Gilmer retorted with a message, justi- 
fying his action and tendering his resignation. A struggle between 
the two parties in the Legislature ensued, the Democrats desiring to 
accept his resignation and elect a successor. But they finally ad- 
journed without action. Meanwhile Governor Seward sent in a mes- 
sage to the New York Legislature in regard to the refusal to surrender 
the forger, and with it a copy of a non-intercourse act which had now 
been passed by the Virginia Legislature. This was a law entitled " An 
act to prevent citizens of New York from carrying slaves out of the 
Commonwealth, and to prevent the escape of persons charged with the 



1841.] VIRGINIA NON-INTERCOURSE LAW. 529 

commission of any crime." It subjected all New York vessels to 
inspection and bonds, and to fines and seizure, in case of non-com- 
pliance. The law was to be suspended, however, whenever New York 
should surrender Johnson, Smith, and Gansey ; and should repeal the 
law extending trial by jury to persons claimed as fugitive slaves. In 
his message, Seward said : 

Believing that the right is invaluable as a protection to personal liberty, is 
peculiarly proper in cases where persons are exposed to the loss of liberty with- 
out even a charge of crime, and that it is important to every human being 
within our jurisdiction, in proportion to the humbleness and defenselessness of 
his condition, I cannot recommend the repeal of the act. If I supposed, as 
certainly do not, that any disposition existed in the Legislature to repeal the 
act, I should deem it my duty to remonstrate against the measure. I deem 
it proper to repeat, in the most solemn manner, that the humble individuals who 
are pursued by the Governor of Virginia as felons, for the offense of being sea- 
men on board a ship in which a negro had secreted himself in order to escape 
from slavery, if they yet remain in this State, are under the protection of its 
constitution and laws, and cannot bo surrendered to the State of Virginia by Ex- 
ecutive authority, on the pretense set up for that purpose, without a deliberate 
violation of both; and that this conviction, adopted, after most mature and im- 
partial deliberation, and strengthened by subsequent reflection, is in no degree 
affected by the recent proceedings of the authorities of Virginia. 

At the same time he submitted, without comment, resolutions sent 
by the Legislature of Mississippi, pronouncing his action " an outrage 
upon the chartered rights of Virginia, and a precedent full of danger 
to all the slaveholding States," and declaring that " Mississippi would 
make common cause with other States in any mode or measure of re- 
sistance or redress." 

The Virginia papers led to an animated debate in the State Senate, 
Senator Paige leading the Democratic side, with ability and address, 
dwelling on the constitutional obligations to perform the duty de- 
manded. Verplanck replied, insisting that property in man was not in 
our laws, and not in the Constitution. 

The next week, news was received that the acting-Governor of 
Virginia would surrender the forger ; and by the close of April further 
correspondence was published, comprising the letter of acting-Gov- 
ernor John M. Patton, surrendering the forger, and renewing the de- 
mand for the three colored men. Governor Patton was the third who 
had entered the field in behalf of Virginia. 

Governor Seward, in his reply, remarked : 

Your compliance with this requisition is made in your communication a 
ground for asking a reversal of my decision upon a similar process of your pred- 
ecessor, demanding the surrender of Peter Johnson and others. Although the 
candor you have avowed is by no means questioned, it is a matter of some sur- 
prise that you have treated the cases as altogether analogous. 
3-4 



^30 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

It was not unforeseen that difference of opinion must arise between the 
Lieutenant-Governor and the Executive of this State. It was obvious that the 
former would assume, in conformity with opinions known to prevail in Vir- 
ginia, tbat men of a certain race and condition may be and are property and 
chattels, the subjects of purchase, sale, devise, and theft. The Executive of 
this State, on the contrary, would have been faithless to the spirit of its con- 
stitution and laws if he had not maintained that all men, of whatever race or 
condition, were men, and of right ought to be freemen ; that every remedy for 
duress of a human being regarded him as a man, and not as property ; and that it 
was as absurd, in this State, to speak of property in immortal beings, and conse- 
quently of stealing them, as it would be to discourse of a division of property in 
the common atmosphere. . . . The authorities of New York have not been the 
actors in any transaction tending toward a derangement of the relations between 
this State and Virginia. New York has done nothing, and has spoken only 
when and so often as she was appealed to by Virginia, and then always in the 
language of respect and affection. New York has made no novel nor question- 
able demand, complained of no wrongs, offered no rewards for violations of laws 
of Virginia, passed no vindictive acts, made no menaces, nor has she endeavored, 
in any manner, to excite her sister States against Virginia ; although, she 
doubts not, there are many and enlightened States among them which cherish 
her own principles, and respect her decision. 

Although not loud and frequent in profession, New York is constant in 
works showing her attachment to the Union. Her history presents no instance 
in which she has questioned its value ; nor has she ever indulged speculations 
concerning that after-state which sometimes engages the contemplation of those 
whose estimate of the value of the Union is not fully settled. 

You are pleased to remark that this State is pursuing a course calculated to 
render her territory an asylum for felons and runaway slaves. Waiving all 
exceptions to the spirit of this remark, I trust I may be permitted to reply 
that the experience of the people of this State has proved, at least to their 
own satisfaction, that neither public virtue nor public prosperity has received 
any injury from extending, so far as has yet been done, equal justice to every 
class and every race of men within her limits. 

Seward, writing to John Quincy Adams in April, said : 

Our mutual friend Mr. Gales has written me that you have bestowed some 
consideration upon the discussion w T hich has recently taken place between the 
Executive authorities of Virginia and myself. I return you my thanks for 
your kind permission to him to communicate to me the opinion you have ex- 
pressed. As the subject is one of growing importance, and likely to excite 
much interest, 1 fake the liberty to send you copies of all the papers. 

Permit me to express to you my sincere acknowledgments for your high and 
honorable efforts in behalf of human liberty in the case of the prisoners in the 
Amistad. 

Writing to Jabez D. Hammond, the historian, on the 20th, he said : 

I fully appreciate the generous impulses which dictated your letter. And I 
am gratified with the direct and incontrovertible argument it contains in support 



1841.] DEATH OF HARRISON. 531 

of the position I have taken in what the Virginians call " the New York and 
Virginia controversy." 

It lias been a trial of my fortitude to stand so much alone in the matter. 
But there are now abundant indications that the doubts of men who ought to 
understand and to support the right are wearing away. ... I thauk God the 
time has come at last in which, while we acknowledge we have no right to in- 
terfere with the sovereignty of slaveholding States, we can assert also that 
those States shall not interfere with ours. ... I have received to-night a noble 
letter on the subject from President Adams, approving my views. 

Acknowledging this letter of Mr. Adams, he said : 

Even in this State the subjection into which the minds of many of our citi- 
zens were brought in regard to every question which might in any way seem to 
affect " the peculiar institution of the Southern States," has rendered them slow 
to appreciate our own deep interest in the maintenance of the position I have 
assumed. The influence of many wise and good men has been in favor of the 
extraordinary demand of Virginia. Although this influence daily diminishes, I 
shall gain much strength from your sanction of my decision. . . . With the same 
respect and veneration which, some years ago, conducted me to your retreat at 
Quincy to obtain the honor of your acquaintance, I remain, etc. 

On the 1st of April it was reported that President Harrison was 
seriously ill, and that his disease was pleuro-pneumonia, caused by cold, 
constant occupation, and excitement. Since his inauguration the White 
House had been overrun with visitors, and the President had neither 
time nor rest. On the 2d a consultation of physicians was held, and 
all visitors excluded. On the 3d he was thought to be improving. On 
the 4th he was worse, and it was publicly announced that his condition 
was very critical. On the 5th news came to Albany that he was not 
expected to survive the attack. Early in the morning of Tuesday, the 
Gth, the New York boat brought news of the President's death, casting 
a gloom over the city. Flags were hoisted at half-mast ; the courts 
and Common Council adjourned. When the Legislature met at nine, 
a message was received from the Governor, saying: 

This event brings a form of trial through wdiich our Constitution has not yet 
passed. The Chief Magistrate has been removed at the very commencement of 
his constitutional term of public service, at a moment when he was preparing 
to meet the Congress of the United States at a session called in an extraordinary 
exigency of public affairs. 

The Legislature will, it is presumed, adopt some form for the expression of 
the sympathy of the public authorities of this State with their fellow-citizens, 
and their respect for the deceased, although all must feel that public honors 
are as unavailing to assuage a nation's grief as they are superfluous to perpetu- 
ate the wisdom and the virtue of the great and the good. 

The Legislature appointed committees to pay suitable honors to 
the memory of the deceased President, and adjourned. The newspa- 



5 32 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

pers were filled with details of his sickness, and of the scenes at the 
White House. The cabinet, in the absence of the Vice-President, 
made public announcement that Mr. Tyler was at his home in Virginia, 
but would be at once sent for. Mrs. Harrison was at North Bend. 
Harrison's last words were reported to have been : " Sir, I wish you to 
understand the true principles of the Government ; I wish them car- 
ried out ; I ask nothing more." 

At Albany Adjutant-General King directed that minute-guns 
should be fired by all artillery commands in the State ; that officers 
should wear crape on their arms, and that standards should be draped 
in mourning, by order of the commander-in-chief. The Senate and 
Assembly passed resolutions to wear badges of mourning. 

The Governor was requested to transmit the legislative resolutions 
of condolence to the family, and to the State and Federal authorities. 
While the funeral was taking place at Washington, the bells of all 
the churches were tolled in Albany. Minute-guns were fired from 
sunrise to sunset at the Capitol Park. Flags were lowered and places 
of business closed. Similar ceremonies took place in other cities. 
For a day or two the great national calamity absorbed all attention. 
It was the first time a President had died in office. A discourse was 
ordered to be delivered before both Houses of the Legislature on 
Sunday, the 25th. The city authorities ordered a funeral ceremonial 
on Friday, the 9th. Minute-guns were again fired, church-bells tolled, 
and after eight o'clock no merchant had door or window open ; flags 
were shrouded in crape ; hotels, public buildings, and churches, were 
draped in mourning. There was a procession a mile in length, of 
military companies, State and municipal authorities, and benevolent 
associations. A chief feature in it was the funeral urn, followed by 
the riderless horse, with trappings of a general officer. All denomina- 
tions united. There were dirges and anthems ; Dr. Potter read the 
burial service, Dr. Sprague delivered a discourse, and Dr. Wyckoff 
offered prayer. The next evening there was a torch-light procession 
of firemen, by whom the funeral urn and mourning emblems were 
borne in red glare to solemn music. So closed the year of processions, 
mass-meetings, and public gatherings — a striking epoch, culminating 
in brief power and sudden fall. 



1841.] TYLER INAUGURATED. 533 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

1841. 

Tyler sworn in.— Whig Hopes.— The Tribune.— The State Printing.— The " Nine Months' 
Law." — Sunday-Schools. — The Public Schools in New York.— The Blind and Mute. — 
The Oneidas. — McLeod's Arrest. — Correspondence with President Tyler. 

The Whigs were startled and grieved, but not politically disheart- 
ened. They still had the Government ; they had a Vice-President who 
would doubtless carry out the views of his chief ; they had a cabinet 
with Webster at its head ; they had a Congress with a Whig major- 
ity ; and they had a candidate for the succession already settled upon, 
and that candidate was Hemy Clay. They did not yet dream that 
the death of " Old Tip " was but the beginning of their troubles. 

The Governor, in communicating the resolutions to Mrs. Harrison, 
in accordance with legislative request, added, in his letter of condo- 
lence : 

Reluctant as I am to protract my intrusion upon sorrows which I know full 
well must have higher consolations than even the condolence of a great nation, 
I shall nevertheless discharge my duty very unsatisfactorily if I leave it to be 
inferred that these expressions of sympathy of which I am the organ are mere- 
ly conventional. The Legislature are not ignorant of the domestic virtues of 
the departed President, nor of his tender affection toward yourself and all oth- 
ers to whom he was intimately allied. Death has made final, so far as this 
world is concerned, a separation which you had reason to hope and expect would 
be brief and temporary ; and the painfulness of the dispensation cannot be sup- 
posed to be relieved, even by the remembrance of the distinguished public 
honors of which he was the recipient. In these circumstances the thoughts of 
all our countrymen turn toward you w T ith affectionate tenderness and solicitude, 
so soon as their emotions of surprise and grief subside. 

The jSTatlonal Intelligencer soon announced that Vice-President 
Tyler had arrived on Tuesday, had taken the oath of office as Presi- 
dent before Judge Craneh, had entered upon his duties, and had re- 
quested the cabinet to continue in their offices. 

Shortly after his address was received. It was brief, appropriate, 
and indicated a disposition to pursue the policy already entered upon 
by the Whig Administration. He issued a proclamation for a national 
fast-day, in conformity with the general expectation and feeling. 

A great Whig meeting in New York, Moses H. Grinnell presiding, 
responded to the sentiments of Tyler's address, and expressed their 
confidence that he would carry out the measures of his predecessor. 

It was noted as a coincidence and fortunate omen that John Ty- 
ler, the father of the President, succeeded Benjamin Harrison, the 
father of President Harrison, in 1781, as Speaker of the Virginia 



>34 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 



House of Delegates. Then it was announced that President Tyler 
had removed to the White House, and held his first cabinet meeting ; 
that he had appointed Harrison's son-in-law to be postmaster at Cin- 
cinnati, and his nephew to be Register of the Land-Office. The Sec- 
retary of War placed his two grandsons at West Point ; and it was 
remarked that the general's relatives fared better than if he had lived, 
as it was his intention to appoint none of them to office. 

The Whig members of the Legislature held a meeting expressing 
their approval of Tyler's address, and his continuance of the cabinet, 
and tendered him their confidence and support. All appointments 
made and to be made, it was believed, were to be " Harrison men." 

Yet there were some disquieting political signs. Many of the town 
meetings had resulted in Whig defeats. The Whigs had carried Albany, 
but by a reduced majority ; the Democrats had carried New York, and 
elected ex-Recorder Morris to be mayor. Furthermore, the Democratic 
newspapers were praising the new President. " Why should they?" 
was the natural inquiry among the Whigs. 

A new newspaper now made its appearance in the mails and in 
the hands of Whig readers. It was the expected successor of the 
Log Cabin, was edited by Horace Greeley, and called the New York 
Tribune. The Evening Journal warmly commended it, and Whigs 
throughout the State began to subscribe for it. 

Early in April the Democrats in the Assembly devised a project to 
make the State Printer's position as uncomfortable as the Whigs had 
sought to make that of his predecessor. Mr. Chatfield introduced a 
resolution calling for a statement of all printing, and of all the prices 
charged for each item. The Whigs, though knowing this to be a hos- 
tile move, could not refuse to vote for it. They laid it over for one 
day for consultation. The next morning Mr. French, a Whig member, 
offered an amendment to the resolution, proposing to carry the investi- 
gation still further, and to require a comparative statement of the 
amounts received and prices paid to Weed and to Croswell, and a 
statement of what Weed would have received if he had been paid at 
the same rates that Croswell was. 

This turned the Democratic guns against themselves. They strenu- 
ously opposed the amendment, but the Whigs carried it, and adopted 
the resolution. A few days later, Weed's report was presented, and it 
showed a saving of several thousand dollars to the State since his ap- 
pointment, as compared with previous rates. 

On the 16th Mr. Worden, from the Judiciary Committee of the 
Assembly, reported in favor of repealing the law permitting persons 
visiting the State to hold slaves during nine months. 

A new phase of the McLeod case occurred in the Assembly, on a 
motion by an opposition member to direct a nolle prosequi to be en- 




w^^ 




1841.] THE NEW YORK SCHOOLS. 535 

tered. A debate followed, in which Messrs. O'Sullivan, Hoffman, 
Swackhamer, Richmond, Hubbell, Chatfield, Hawley, Duer, and Culver, 
took part. It was continued until, on the 25th, Mr. Simmons brought 
in a bill providing for a special circuit for the trial of Alexander 
McLeod, to be held whenever deemed expedient by the Chief-Justice. 
The ground taken by the Whig members was that, if McLeod was in- 
nocent, the jury would acquit him ; if he was guilty, British power 
could not and ought not to rescue him. 

Some official changes were made this month. Robert H. Pruyn 
was appointed Judge- Advocate-General, to fill the vacancy occasioned by 
the death of Van Vechten. Day Otis Kellogg, of Troy, was appointed 
Paymaster-General ; Dr. James McNaughton, Surgeon-General ; Spencer 
S. Benedict, Quartermaster-General. The Governor also appointed to 
be trustees of the new State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, Colonel William 
L. Stone, Nicholas Devereux, Charles B. Coventry, Willett H. Sherman, 
and Theodore S. Faxton. 

A message was sent in, in regard to the Madison County judges 
who were accused of judicial abuse of the naturalization laws. Instead 
of absolutely removing- them, the Governor laid a careful summary of 
the facts before the Legislature, saying : 

Under all the circumstances, I am of opinion that the exposure of the pro- 
ceedings of the judges in the present case will he sufficient to induce a correc- 
tion of the practices complained of, and to prevent an imitation of them by 
other courts. ... I believe it would be better, for the permanent interests of 
the country, to confer the right of suffrage upon all who ask it, and who have 
not rendered themselves unworthy of it by crime, after a period of residence less 
than that prescribed by the naturalization laws. But these are opinions, not 
laws, and judges and magistrates are hound to execute the laws, not as they sup- 
pose they ought to be, but as they are. 

A letter to George H. Thatcher, concerning the influence of Sun- 
day-schools upon the morals of the people, said : 

Our country is full of literary and benevolent associations, established with a 
view to improve the morals and elevate the character of society, and they are 
generally benign and efficient in their operation. If obliged to choose whether 
all these associations should be abolished, or the Sunday-schools should be dis- 
continued throughout the land, I should not hesitate to say, " Spare the Sunday- 
schools. 1 ' 

John C. Spencer, who, as Secretary of State, was Superintendent of 
Schools, made an elaborate report upon the memorials ami projects 
in regard to common schools in New York. He showed that the school- 
moneys for the city of New York, and the control of public education 
there, had been vested, since 182G, in a corporation called " The Pub- 
lic School Society." This society had provided commodious school- 



536 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

houses, good teachers, and a well-arranged system of instruction, with 
praiseworthy zeal and devotion. Nevertheless, many complaints came 
from people having no share in the management of the system. These 
said that duties of public administration ought not to be devolved on a 
private corporation ; that all tax-payers had a right to a voice in regard 
to taxes and the employment of funds; that the society was neither 
elected nor appointed by public authority, and formed a perpetual cor- 
poration, choosing trustees and officers without regard to the wishes of 
the public ; that while aiming to avoid sectarianism, it was sectarian, 
because it was made up of wealthy men of a few denominations, while 
others were left no alternative but to establish schools of their own, 
and pay for them in addition to the taxes paid to the Public School 
Society, and that many poorer persons were not sending their children 
at all. 

Spencer argued that the true remedy, and one consistent with our 
system of government, was absolute non-intervention by the State in 
matters of religious teachings, and that the school system of the State 
ought to be extended to the city of New York, letting each school dis- 
trict choose its own officers and teachers, raise its own taxes, and use 
its own share of the funds. Thus every citizen would have a voice ; all 
religions would be tolerated ; and the local majority would govern as it 
does in all other public affairs. He added that the Public School So- 
ciety, though eminently useful and benevolent, was not an official body, 
and was liable to defects and objections inevitable in view of that fact. 
Recommending the extension of the general school laws of the State 
to the city, he maintained the positions of the message of the Governor 
and its recognition of the equal right of all citizens to participate in 
the schools. 

Toward the close of the session the act thus perfecting the common- 
school system came to a final vote, a strong speech of A. B. Dickinson, 
for " universal education," giving it effective aid. 

The nomination of Major Noah for Judge of General Sessions, and 
of Hiram Ketchum for Circuit Judge, had been sent in by the Governor 
to the Senate. Major Noah was confirmed without opposition. While 
Mr. Ketchum's nomination was pending, he came to Albany and ap- 
peared before the Senate committee in behalf of the Public School 
Society of New York, opposing Mr. Spencer's report, and the Govern- 
or's recommendations in regard to the public schools. The Governor 
deemed that he could no longer, with consistency or due regard to his 
own convictions, present him as a candidate, and accordingly withdrew 
the nomination, and sent in the name of William Kent instead. Kent 
was confirmed, but the withdrawal of Ketchum imbittered the disputes 
going on in the Whig ranks. The opponents of the Governor on the 
school question declared that Ketchum was persecuted for opinion's 



1841.] THE ONEIDAS. 537 

sake, and that the Governor was arbitrary and unjust. The breach 
widened as time went on. 

In the Legislature, this year, the advocates of internal improvement 
derived fresh encouragement from Verplanck's report, demonstrating 
that the work on the canals might safely go on by loans as before 
recommended, if the natural and certain revenues of the canals were 
applied to the payment of interest, and gradual repayment of prin- 
cipal. 

The State institutions of New York came as usual for aid. The 
Governor directed the small-pox hospital to be enlarged at the quaran- 
tine, the dock to be extended, and various repairs to be made. An ex- 
hibition of the pupils of the Institution for the Blind, held in the As- 
sembly chamber, showed their special proficiency in music, and in 
making paper boxes, mats, and willow-ware ; while in their studies, 
prosecuted by reading with their fingers, they were apparently as ad- 
vanced as other pupils of their age. The Governor occupied the chair 
during the exercises, having previously entertained teachers and pupils 
at his house. The pupils of the Deaf and Dumb Institute also visited 
him, and by the marvelous rapidity of their pantomimic descriptions, 
and their answers on their porcelain slates, proved themselves well de- 
serving the aid they were seeking from the State. 

Another class of the wards of the State claimed Executive atten- 
tion through Moses Schuyler, the gray-haired chief of the Oneidas. Of 
all the Six Nations only the Oneidas were faithful and friendlv to the 
Americans during the Revolutionary "War. A mere handful of them 
were now left, and their old chief had come to the house of the Gov- 
ernor to talk about the sale of the lands of the tribe, and their removal 
from the State to Green Bay on Lake Michigan. Seward answered 
him : 

I have listened to your talk with deep interest. The departure from time to 
time of the several portions of your tribe is always regarded by me as among the 
most affecting events in our history. The Oneidas have always been protected 
and cherished by the public council of the State. Their welfare, their improve- 
ment, their civilization, have been our constant care; and I have indulged a hope 
that a remnant, at least, of the nation might remain among us a monument of 
the justice and generosity of our people. But the Great Spirit does not will it 
to be so. 

You know how reluctantly I have consented to the sale of your lands. 1 
have now given the reason for it. The council-fires of the Oneidas will soon be 
extinguished. It is well that no enmity can be raked from its ashes. Brother, 
your request is complied with. The agent who has been just to you and to us 
shall accompany you until you pass the boundaries of the Stat , 

Brother, I shall always listen anxiously to hear the reports concerning you 
in your new settlement. I hope to hear that your people arc contented, prosper- 
ous, and happy. Brother, you are an old and good man. You have seen the 



538 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

desolations which the fire-water has produced among your people. Admonish 
them now to banish that fatal enemy from their new home. 

Brother, I bid you farewell. May the Great Spirit guide you on your way, 
defend your people from every danger, and enlighten them with the knowledge 
that leads in ways of virtue and happiness ! Peace be with you and your chil- 
dren ! 

This Moses Schuyler commanded nine hundred Indians under Gen- 
eral Scott during the War of 1812. Two granddaughters of the famous 
Skenando were also among the departing tribe. They embarked at 
Buffalo on a vessel chartered for them by the State government, and 
went to their new home in the West. 

Early in May McLeod was taken to New York, passing down the 
river on the steamboat Swallow in charge of the Sheriff of Niagara 
County, upon a writ of habeas corpus, granted by Judge Bronson, to 
be brought before the Supreme Court. In that tribunal the counsel 
who appeared in his behalf was the District Attorney of the United 
States. Governor Seward addressed a communication to President 
Tyler, saying that — 

As the Attorney-General of this State, and the District Attorney of Niagara 
County, have charge of this prosecution in behalf of the people of the State 
of New York, the unseemly aspect is presented of a conflict between the Fed- 
eral Government and that of this State, which I respectfully submit to you is 
not calculated to inspire confidence among the common constituents of both, 
nor to challenge that respect from Great Britain to which our institutions are 
entitled, and which it is so essential to preserve, particularly in the present 
state of the controversy with her. 

Answer was made to this, that the United States District Attorney 
was acting without orders from Washington. Further correspondence 
ensued. In a letter of May 20th, Seward said : 

When her Britannic Majesty's minister protested against the detention of 
McLeod, the President of the United States, as the organ of New York and her 
sister States in their foreign relations, replied to the Government of Great Brit- 
ain that the offense with which the accused is charged was committed within 
the territory and against the laws and citizens of this State, and was one that 
came clearly within the competency of her tribunals. 

The President of the United States, having made these declarations, became 
constitutionally bound to maintain them, and to guarantee, defend, and justify 
the State of New York, with the power of the nation if necessary, in " the 
vindication of the property and lives of her citizens." New York was steadily 
and regularly pursuing that course of vindication, when the British Government 
peremptorily demanded the discontinuance of the proceeding. It is at such a 
moment that the President informs the State of New York that the Govern- 
ment of the United States has no interest in the proceeding in which that State 
is engaged. I beg leave most respectfully to assure you, sir, that the declara- 
tion will be received by the people of New York with surprise and disappoint- 



1841.] DEBATE ON THE McLEOD CASE ;,:;., 

ment. It is held on my part thai the State of New York cannot, without 
honor, especially under what must he construed as a menace bj Greal Britain 
retire from the prosecution by which she is vindicating the property and 

of her citizens. 

This letter brought a reply from Presidenl Tyler, reviewing the 
subject and adhering to his previous view that he oughl nol to inter- 
pose nor forbid the United States District Attorney from acting 
AlcLeod's counsel. In support of this view the Presidenl argued that 
every accused person was entitled to defense, and thai it is one of the 
rights of attorneys to plead for whom they choose. To this Seward 
rejoined, on the 1st of June, at some length. 

In the Legislature the debate wen! on with some vehemence. One 
orator said that, if McLeod should be hanged, one of the vultures that 
came to tear his carcass would be the fitting emblem to take tin- p] 
of the American eagle. The Whigs defended the Governor's action. 
The papers were called for by resolution; they were sen! in, and in 
the accompanying message the Governor said : 

The Assembly is further informed that the prisoner is now before the Su- 
preme Court of this State on a writ of habeas corpus, Bued out, as it i- under- 
stood, by himself, with a view to his discharge from custody. The Attoi 
General of this State was thereupon immediately instructed t<> n sisl die motion 
for a discharge of the prisoner; ami at tin- same time tin' Presidenl of the 
United States was respectfully informed that the appearance of the District 
Attorney of the United States, as counsel for the prisoner, was deemed in 
gruous with official duties and injurious to this State. The Attorney-General is 
now engaged in the duty assigned him. An incidental correspondence on the 
subject of the imprisonment of Alexander McLeod having arisen between his 
Excellency the Governor of the Canadas and the Executive of tin- Mat.-, a copy 
of the same is also laid before the Assembly. 

The letter to Lord Sydenham, here referred to, was one acknowl- 
edging his courtesy in complying with a requesl to surrender a 
fugitive from justice, and saying : 

I regret to learn, from an allusion in your letter, that your I labors 

uiuler some misapprehension concerning the detention of a British subject in 
this Stale. 

Whatever may have boon the character of the original transaction in 
quence of which that person was arrested, he had the misfortui 
affirmance of that transaction by the British Government, to be indicted in on. 
of our courts, and, as is said, upon confessions of hi- own, for the crinn 
der and arson committed in this State. Hi.- detention i- solely to am 
indictment. 

The opposition newspapers and leaders in debate . rceive 

their opportunity for fomenting discord among tie W higs, and array- 
ing: the State and national Executives in antagonism with eai 



540 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

warmly seconded the views of President Tyler, and condemned those 
of Governor Seward. 

In a private letter to Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury, 
Seward wrote : 

When Mr. Crittenden was here, he was met with frankness, and unreserved 
communications were made to him concerning our views on the McLeod and 
Caroline questions. We expected similar confidence to be reposed in us, more 
especially as the questions have a local bearing and local interest affecting this 
State. 

No communication on that subject has been received, except the President's 
reply to a letter of mine concerning an incident connected with the proceedings 
in the Supreme Court of this State. I should have been wanting in the frank- 
ness that I desire always to manifest, if I had not made known to the President 
that the surrender or discharge of McLeod, with the seeming agency or consent 
of the General Government, will have a most unhappy effect. 

1 fear that I shall be thought one of those who take pleasure in fault-finding. 
I assure you, however, that if I w r ere constitutionally disposed that way, I have 
had experience enough of being found fault with to save me from that category. 

He also wrote, on the 31st of May, to Attorney-General Crittenden, 

saying- : 

I welcome the news of your return to Washington. You will see that, dur- 
ing your absence, a correspondence, not more unpleasant than unprofitable, has 
taken place between the President and myself, concerning the offense of Alex- 
ander McLeod. 

Although I feel that I am injured in this matter, in the house of my friends, 
I care nothing for that. I cannot but believe that the confusion into which 
things necessarily fell, for a time, at Washington, in consequence of the death 
of General Harrison, and your absence from Washington, in a season when 
your explanations would have been useful, have contributed to this result. My 
object in addressing you is to call your attention to the subject, in order that 
you may now do whatever shall seem to you to be useful. I do not ask your 
interposition. I do not ask you even to acknowledge this communication. I 
should deem it improper for you, as a member of the cabinet, to write me on 
the subject, except in support of the President. 

But I think it well, in this informal way, to suggest that the talent and wit 
of a Whig Administration might be more profitably exercised in some other 
manner than in an unavailing effort to drive me from a course which, in my 
poor judgment, is required, not less by patriotism and the honor of this State 
than by devotion to the Administration itself. 

McLeod's application for discharge came up in the Supreme Court, 
and was argued before Chief -Justice Nelson, Judges Bronson and Co wen; 
the Attorney-General of the State opposing, and the District Attorney 
of the United States advocating the application. The latter, while de- 
fending McLeod, defended also his own course in assisting him. He 
said that McLeod was his client before he received his appointment as 



1841.] MICIIAEL HOFFMAN. 



II 



District Attorney. While nobody could doubt the truth of his si 
ments in this regard, there was a general impression daily strengthen- 
ing in the public mind that he was acting, at least, with tacit approval 
of the President, and the correspondence now passing between Tyler 
and Seward clearly indicated that the General (dovcrnmenl would be 
quite willing to be relieved from diplomatic entanglement, by McLeod's 
discharge. 

The court, however, ordered McLeod to be recommitted to the cus- 
tody of the sheriff. 



CHAPTER XXXVL 
1841. 



Proposal to stop Work on the Canals. — Whig Ass< mbly turned Democratic— W 

lord Clark. — The Senecas. — Tyler' Message. — T Con .—The 

Anti-rent Troubles. — Trip to New England.— Bob, the M 
ment. — Supreme Court Decision. 

A new and bold step was taken in May by the opposition in tin- 
Assembly, under the lead of Michael Hoffman. Tins was a movemenl 
to arrest the work upon the enlargement of the Erie and the construc- 
tion of the lateral canals, apply the revenues of the canals to pay- 
ment of the canal debt, and levy a direcl tax for the support of the 
government. A long and exciting debate ensued, the Whigs gen- 
erally arraying themselves on the side of the enlargement, and the 
Democrats on that of stopping the work", on the ground that the Si 
was running dangerously in debt. Upon the questions in referem 
the Northern and Erie Railroads, the Democrats took a like view of 
the necessity of economy in public expenditures, while the Wl 
favored the internal-improvement system; with this difference, how- 
ever, that some of the Democratic representatives, from regions tin 
which the roads were to pass, joined with the Whigs in their advocacy. 
The appropriation bill finally passed, authorizing the expenditun 
three million dollars upon the public works. The New 5 
tion recorded their votes almost unanimously against the i nil 
of the Erie Canal, although their opponents in the debate reminded 
them that it was to that channel of commerce the city owed its com- 
mercial supremacy. 

The State-prisons, by their success in the mechanical ught 

up another subject for legislative debate. Memorials were pi 
complaining that the cheap and forced labor of the convict 
competition necessarily injurious to those engaged in similar em] 



542 LIFE ^D LETTERS. [1841. 

ment. There were difficulties on both sides. Convicts must not be 
left in idleness ; honest mechanics outside ought not to be injured by 
a system intended for the punishment of rogues. In a message accom- 
panying some of these memorials the Governor suggested that " there 
are many kinds of manufactures, not now carried on in this State, 
which might be made profitable in the prisons." 

The session was now approaching its close. The Evening Journal^ 
summing up legislative action taken since its party came into power, 
enumerated the important measures of last year — the currency laws, 
militia reforms, legal reforms, and abolition of imprisonment for debt. 
This year the act for the promotion of agriculture had passed ; and 
those regulating elections, extending the common-school system, and 
enlarging the amount of property exempt from execution, probably 
would pass before the adjournment. 

Two days before the adjournment came, however, the Whigs met 
an unexpected discomfiture. The sickness, death, or absence, of sev- 
eral Whig members, deprived them of the majority, small at the best, 
which they had counted upon ; and the Assembly, supposed to be their 
own, proved Democratic in the last and most important week of the 
session. The exemjDtion bill was rejected. The mechanical-labor re- 
form in State-prisons was defeated. The Black River Canal shared the 
same fate. Several bills, matured for final action, were lost for want 
of concurrence. Nevertheless, some were saved. The repeal of the 
" Nine Months' Slavery Law " was adopted and signed. The election 
reforms were carried. The common-school system was adopted. On 
the 26th the Legislature adjourned. 

As they were dispersing to their homes, they met or passed on the 
way the members of Congress going to Washington to enter upon the 
duties of the extra session. The Whig members had high expecta- 
tions, for they had heard that they were to elect a Speaker and Clerk, 
were to have a brief and sound message from a President whose cour- 
teous and unaffected manners all were praising, were to repeal the 
sub-Treasury law, establish a sound and uniform currency, and go home 
assured of triumph in the coming fall elections. 

A convention of " Liberty party " men from ten States met in 
New York in May, and nominated James G. Birney and Thomas Mor- 
ris for President and Vice-President in 1844. 

The people of Franklin County were now excited over new discov- 
eries of iron-ore. Prof. Emmons went up to make a special examina- 
tion. The Governor, in acknowledging some specimens of the ore, 
wrote : " If the expectations which are now indulged concerning this 
ore shall be realized, your portion of the State, so long overlooked, 
will contribute more to the increase of national wealth than could be 
derived from the richest gold-mine." The ore was not only found to be 



1841.] INDIANS AND WHITE MEN. 543 

rich, but some points in the geologist's report had encouraged the in- 
habitants to believe would be abundant. 

The act to amend the common-school law, drawn in accordance 
with Spencer's report and Seward's policy, was now published. It was 
in substance the foundation of the present system. .James Wads- 
worth, of Geneseo, had actively assisted in the preparation and passage 
of the act. The bill extending it to the city of New York, however, 
had failed in the Senate. Strong opposition was manifested by a part 
of the press of the city. The Journal of Commerce, commenting on 
Spencer's report, said, " The proposal to cut up the city of New York 
into school districts would be death to our schools." 

Seward, writing to Benjamin Birdsall, remarked : 

While I am by no means wearied or disheartened in the cause I have under- 
taken, and in which at the same time I have boldly offered myself to the preju- 
dices of native citizens against foreigners, and been made to feel in my own 
person the retaliation by foreigners of those very prejudices, in my policy 
concerning education and naturalization, I am accustomed to look, not to the 
present hour, but to the future — to that period, not a quarter of a century dis- 
tant, when the population of this country shall have swelled to thirty-five mill- 
ions, and that of our own State to four or five millions. You can easily con- 
ceive, therefore, that I can cheerfully submit to temporary misapprehension and 
misrepresentation, which perhaps would be less endurable if any benevolent 
action was ever carried forward without encountering both. 

Glentworth was indicted in May for bringing illegal voters to the 
polls from other States in 1838 and 1839. On the trial the jury dis- 
agreed. The District Attorney took occasion to say that he did not 
charge any of the respectable gentlemen mentioned, Grinnell, Blateh- 
ford, Draper, Bowen, and Wetmore, with any participation in his at- 
tempt to obtain fraudulent voters. 

A petition was received from citizens of Suffolk County, praying 
for the commutation of the sentence of death pronounced against 
Samuel Johnson, who was convicted in May of the murder of his wife. 

In denying the request, the Governor observed : 

It is contrary to the letter and spirit of our laws to excuse the murderer 
because he has voluntarily deprived himself of his reason by drunkenness. 

Of eighteen convictions for murder which have been reported to this de- 
partment since my connection with it, there have been eight cases of the mur- 
der of wives by their husbands, and in five of these the excuse of intoxication 
was presented as a ground for Executive interposition. 

Jacob Harvey had written, asking his opinion concerning the treaty 
made by the United States with the Seneca Indians. In his answer 
he sketched the experience of the State in this regard : 

The history of the several Indian nations which have dwelt within our bor- 



544 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

ders shows many coincidences of painful interest. Each nation lias in its turn 
been surrounded and crowded by white men. White men have always wanted 
more room while an Indian reservation remained, and the Indians have there- 
fore been obliged to contract their bunting-grounds. Indians have been igno- 
rant and confiding, and white men shrewd and sagacious. Indians have been 
reckless of the value of property, and have always found avaricious white men 
among their neighbors. White men have sold intoxicating liquors, and Indians 
have too often surrendered themselves to drunkenness. Indians have generally 
neglected, if they have not always despised, agriculture, and white men suffered 
inconvenience from the neglected condition of the Indian lands. White men 
have coveted those neglected lands, and the community has been benefited in 
consequence of their acquisition. The effect is that we have now among us 
only some wasting remnants of half a dozen of the Indian nations. 

But no humane or enlightened citizen can wish to see the expulsion of the 
Senecas by force or fraud. It is a fearful thing to uproot a whole people. It 
is peculiarly so when a large portion of them, relying upon the protection of 
the laws and the justice of their white brethren, have become the cultivators of 
the soil and of the affections and habits of civilized life. Such is the condition 
of a large portion of the Senecas. Injustice to the Indians is repugnant alike 
to the settled policy of this State and the feelings and sentiments of its people. 

Toward the middle of June came news of the death of his friend 
Willis Gaylord Clark. A letter to Joseph R. Chandler described their 
acquaintance : 

Eighteen years ago I established myself as an attorney in the village of 
Auburn. It was not then the beautiful town that now induces the traveler to 
linger. The place, although not unknown, was unimportant. It contained a 
population less than half of its present number, and of course it afforded very 
limited advantages for literary studies. It was a busy town, filled with advent- 
urous spirits, but everything was new and unprepossessing. The Cayuga Re- 
publican, one of the two village newspapers, was brought regularly to my door 
by a modest, bright-eyed lad of fourteen, who, like other newsboys, occasion- 
ally stopped on his rounds to converse with his patrons. I was a subscriber to 
several of the reviews and magazines, and a reader of the new publications of 
the day. The newsboy timidly asked for the loan of Blackicood, and, when 
that was read and punctually returned, he enlarged his reading, until it em- 
braced all the publications in my possession. 

After some time my newsboy disappeared and was forgotten. Nine years 
afterward I had occasion to visit Philadelphia. My newsboy presented himself, 
a full-grown youth, full of spirit and with rich literary acquirements. He had, 
with much effort and painful sacrifices, acquired an education at a country 
academy ; had become an author, and was engaged in writing for American 
and English periodicals. He had made new acquaintances in Philadelphia, and 
was by no means unfit for the office he assumed, of showing me its monuments 
and embellishments. Unknown as I was, I found my name gazetted with un- 
merited praise, and I could not fail to recognize in it the hand of my partial 
friend the newsboy, who was no other than Willis Gaylord Clark. 

He showed me some kind and encouraging letters from novelists and poets 



1841.] WILLIS GAYLOKD CLARK. 545 

in England, and opened to me his young heart, full of hopes of literary fame ; 
and he said he was indebted to kind words spoken by me, when he was loiter- 
ing on his way in the delivery of his newspapers, for the earnest direction his 
mind had received, and his young ambition was first called into action by the 
publications I had lent him. Undoubtedly he exaggerated the kindness he had 
received at my hands. . . . Nevertheless, the conviction was sincere, and thus 
an incident altogether unimportant, and which I should never have remembered, 
became the cause of our life-long friendship. 

As a poet and prose writer, as editor of the Knickerbocker Maga- 
zine, and of the Philadelphia Gazette, Clark had already acquired a 
national reputation. He died at his residence in Philadelphia. Seward, 
in another letter to his twin-brother, Lewis Gaylord Clark, said : 

Your brother was indeed very near to me. I know not why, but he attached 
himself to me with respect and affection, and he persevered through good and 
through evil report in defending me against every injury and unkindness. I 
felt always my poverty in being unable adequately to reciprocate his kind offices. 
I know and always knew how devoted was the affection he bore toward you, 
and I know from experience how invaluable are a brother's aid and support in 
the varied duties of life. I give you my sympathy, although I know it to be 
unavailing. 

President Tyler's message at the opening of the extra session was 
succinct and brief, expressing the public sympathy and regret in regard 
to Harrison, recommending the repeal of the sub-Treasury law, urging 
the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, invoking the atten- 
tion of Congress to the subject of the currency and the tariff. The 
message was generally accepted and commended by the Whigs. The 
Northern Whigs were for protection. The South was strongly com- 
mitted against it. But, as the exhausted Treasury required revenue, it 
was expected the two sections would agree upon a tariff. The House 
duly organized by electing John White, of Kentucky, Speaker, and 
Matthew St. Clair Clark, of Pennsylvania, Clerk. 

Secretary Ewing's report on the Treasury was brief and business- 
like. He recommended a national bank. The reports of Secretaries 
Bell and Badger, and Postmaster-General Granger, were received and 
commended. And the session opened with a debate on the repeal of 
the sub-Treasury law. Mr. Clay reported a bill establishing a United 
States Bank. The House passed a bill giving Mrs. Harrison one year's 
salary of the President. Debates on the bank question and the McLeod' 
business continued through the month. 

At the beginning of the session Mr. Adams had moved to rescind 

the twenty-first rule against antislavery petitions. A warm debate 

ensued, as usual, on that question. The rule was finally rescinded by 

112 to 104. But a few days afterward the question was reconsidered, 

35 



540 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

and the petitions were again refused admittance— the Southern Whigs, 
this time, uniting with the Democrats. 

Nor was the slavery question to be allowed to rest between the State 
Executives. The Governor of Georgia sent on a requisition for one 
John Greenman, with affidavits. On its receipt, Seward, examining the 
papers, found that Greenman was charged to have committed two lar- 
cenies, one of them being " the stealing of a negro woman-slave named 
Kezia," the property of Robert W. Flournoy, valued at five hundred 
dollars ; and the other being of certain frocks, shawls, and finger-rings. 
Seward, in his answer, said that he declined compliance with the requi- 
sition, on the ground that there was no accurate or legal evidence that 
a larceny had been committed: 

I have heard the statement of the agent charged with the requisition. I have 
learned from him that the accused was a transient person, a seaman, who spent 
some months in the vicinity of Mr. Flournoy's plantation, distant ahout seven miles 
from Savannah ; that he engaged a passage to New York in the ship Wilson Fuller ; 
that when the vessel was ahout to sail it was discovered that the slave had ab- 
sconded from her master, and that, pursuit being made, she was found concealed 
on board the ship under the care of the accused, and was recaptured and re- 
stored to her master. There is reason to believe she was persuaded to seek her 
freedom by the accused, who represented to her that if she would go North with 
him she could live there in the enjoyment of all the privileges of freedom. The 
agent further states that the accused in no other manner took the clothing and 
ornaments of the fugitive girl than by enticing her to escape, and aiding her in 
the accomplishment of that purpose. Instead of his having committed larceny 
in two instances, as your Excellency has, undoubtedly through misapprehension, 
been led to suppose, the acts complained of constitute one and the same transac- 
tion, which is not divisible into two crimes. Again, if the facts be as thus 
stated, your Excellency will perceive that the goods mentioned, instead of hav- 
ing been feloniously stolen, taken, and carried away by the accused, were the 
apparel and ornaments of the slave, and were worn upon her person in her 
attempt to escape from servitude ; and that the accused did not, in fact, take or 
carry the articles in question ; but, on the contrary, they never came into his 
possession, nor did he manifest any intention to deprive the slave of them, or to 
convert them to his own use, without which possession and intent he could not 
be legally charged with larceny. 

It may, perhaps, be unknown to your Excellency that while the kidnapping 
of a person by fraud or violence, or his abduction against his will, or any unlaw- 
ful seizure of him, or abridgment of his liberty, is regarded in this State as a 
high crime, it is held that the relation of master and slave in other States does 
not constitute a property in the person of the slave so as to render the slave a 
subject of theft from the master. Without, at this time, making this position a 
point in the case, it is obvious, if the transaction be correctly stated by your Ex- 
cellency's agent, that there was in fact no taking or carrying away of the slave ; 
but, on the contrary, that she voluntarily left her master, and walked of her own 
free-will to the ship. It is true that this was done under the protection of the 
accused, and in consequence of his persuasion ; but in thus persuading and aiding 



1841.] THE GEORGIA SLAVE CASE. 547 

her he asserted no pretense of property. I cannot suppose that, however de- 
sirous to bring the fugitive to justice for his real offense, your Excellency would 
adopt the charge of stealing the slave, when she was not in fact taken or carried 
away, but, being of full age, left her home of her own free-will. 

. Nor can I believe for a moment that your Excellency, apprehensive that, 
under the circumstances, the accused could not be lawfully surrendered upon the 
charge of stealing the slave, would desire the indirect accomplishment of that 
object by means of a constructive charge that the accused had stolen the clothing 
and trinkets which the slave wore in her flight. 

In a reply to Lieutenant-Governor Rutherford, who was now the 
acting-Governor of Virginia, Seward remarked that the historian who 
in future times should be turning over the pages of her statute-book 
" will pause with wonder at the page on which Virginia has impeached 
the citizens of her sister State ; nor can he omit, in passing judgment 
on the libel, to notice that at the very moment it was written New 
York was engaged in expunging from her code the only provision then 
remaining which tolerated human bondage." 

A private letter to Christopher Morgan, at Washington, said : 

You will have seen that I have announced that I am not and will not be a 
candidate for reelection. Few will understand the grounds of this decision. 
They are, however, such as commend themselves to my judgment, and are con- 
sistent with patriotism, as I trust. Why announce it now ? I answer that the 
world may know that it is voluntary, and that it is my own act, and that the 
party may have the advantage of a fair consideration of my policy and meas- 
ures, separated from that which always weighs against any policy or measure, 
the supposed ambition or selfishness of the projector. 

There are other considerations. My principles are too liberal, too philan- 
thropic, if it be not vain to say so, for my party. The promulgation of them 
offends many ; the operation of them injures many ; and their sincerity is ques- 
tioned by about all. Those principles, therefore, do not receive fair considera- 
tion and candid judgment. There are some who know them to be right, and 
believe them sincere. These would sustain me. Others whose prejudices are 
aroused against them, or whose interests are in danger, would combine against 
me. I must, therefore, divide my party in a convention. This would be unfor- 
tunate for them, and, of all others, the most false position for me. And what have 
I to lose by withdrawing and leaving the party unembarrassed? My principles 
are very good and popular ones for a man out of office ; they will take care of 
me, when out of office, as they always have done. I have had enough, Heaven 
knows, of the power and pomp of place ! 

All that can now be worthy of my ambition is to leave the State better for 
my having been here, and to entitle myself to a favorable judgment in its his- 
tory. 

There was now a brief respite from official cares, of which the Gov- 
ernor availed himself to make an excursion to New England. Leav- 
ing Albany with his family on the 17th, they went by the boat to New 
York, and were met by Mr. Blatchford and his daughter at the New 



5 4g LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

Haven boat at six in the morning. Reaching New Haven about 
eleven, in a brisk shower of rain, they proceeded immediately to 
Hartford by railroad, having time only for a passing glimpse at New 
Haven, with its elm-lined streets. At Hartford they remained long 
enough to visit the State-House, the Charter-Oak, and Asylum for the 
Blind • then drove up the valley of the Connecticut, fresh and beauti- 
ful in the bright sun of a June morning. 

At Springfield they found Major Whistler, then actively engaged 
in constructing and superintending the new " Western " railroad be- 
tween Boston and Albany. Accepting Major Whistler's invitation, 
the Governor stepped with him on the locomotive, while the rest of 
the party took the car, and they went on to Worcester. Here one of 
the aides of Governor Davis met them, and invited them to his house, 
a plain, neat dwelling, about half a mile from the centre of the town. 
Governor Davis's integrity and sincerity had gained him the name 
throughout Massachusetts of " Honest John Davis." Between him 
and Seward a feeling of warm regard sprang up. Sunday morning 
Governor Lincoln, erect, grave, and dignified, called to invite them to 
go to the Unitarian church. He had retired from the Executive chair 
a year or two previous, having been Governor of the State for more 
than a dozen years. 

The difference between the customs of New York and New Eng- 
land impressed the travelers when, on Saturday night, they heard the 
bells tolling for church, and on Sunday night found that the setting 
of the sun was the signal to commence social visiting and secular en- 
joyments. 

The large fields, stony and filled with buttercups, daisies, and sor- 
rel, seemed an unfavorable contrast to those of rich, waving grain 
from which they had come. But the neatness, brightness, and taste of 
all the villages excited perpetual comment and praise. 

Governor Lincoln, who was collector of the port, accompanied 
them to Boston. At that time the railroads in Massachusetts were 
much superior to those in New York, having greater solidity of 
construction, and having the T-rail instead of the strap-rail on a 
wooden bar. The trains made twenty-five miles an hour, a speed not 
usually attained in New York. The visit to Boston and its environs 
was full of interest. Among its incidents were a drive to Mount Au- 
burn, the first, if not the only, tastefully laid-out cemetery in the coun- 
try at that period ; a walk through the library and grounds at Har- 
vard with the venerable Josiah Quincy, its president ; an excursion to 
Bunker Hill, where the granite blocks of the monument were being 
lifted into place by steam-power ; a morning passed in the State- 
House, and an afternoon at the Athenaeum and Historical Society, with 
their Revolutionary relics, swords and flags, letters of the colonial 



1841.] A VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 549 

patriots, and a sealed bottle of tea. The old gentleman who was point- 
ing out the curiosities said : " Here is some of the tea which was 
thrown overboard in the harbor. A broken chest floated ashore near the 
residence of an old lady, who, though a patriot, thought it a great pity 
that so much good tea should be wasted, and so locked the ' treasure- 
trove ' in her closet, She was forced to use it sparingly and privately, 
however, to avoid the observation of her neighbors. So it was not all 
gone before the event became historic and the tea a precious relic. 
This is some of it." Just as he was saying this, the bottle slipped 
from his hand and broke ; the tea was scattered on the floor. Hastily 
gathering it up, and putting the parcel back upon the shelf, he re- 
marked : " There is none lost, and it won't be hurt by it ; but since 
the bottle is broken, Governor, you might as well take half a dozen 
"•rains as mementos of Boston." 

o 

The precious leaves were put into a diminutive vial and taken to 
Albany. 

Next was a visit to the Asylum for the Blind with Dr. Howe, where 
they saw the little deaf, dumb, and blind girl, Laura Bridgman, whose 
name has since become so familiar to all scientific inquirers. 

A visit to Quincy closed their stay, and, leaving Boston by rail, 
they returned to Springfield, there remained all night, and the next 
morning at six continued their journey to Chester, twenty-eight miles 
distant, and as far as the road was completed ; then by stage over the 
mountains to Pittsfield, and through Lebanon to Albany, where they 
arrived late in the evening of Thursday, the 24th. 

Here, when the State officers and the " Dictator " came to welcome 
the Governor back, there was much amusement over the story they 
had to tell him of a proposed usurpation by the Lieutenant-Governor. 

The Commercial Advertiser had announced that, during his ab- 
sence from the State, by the constitution, the Lieutenant-Governor 
was acting-Governor. It demanded, therefore, that acting-Governor 
Bradish, then presiding over the Court of Errors in the city of New 
York, should call a session of the Senate and renominate Hiram Ketch- 
um as Circuit Judge. The Democratic papers, and some of the dis- 
affected Whig ones, delighted with the idea, were giving the project 
hearty support, But Governor Bradish steadfastly refused to take any 
notice of the greatness thrust upon him. 

Seward wrote to George Bliss, at Springfield : 

I congratulate the directors and the country upon the prospect of a speedy 
completion of the "Western Kailroad. If I had at any time entertained a doubt 
of the immeasurable public advantages to result from the improvement, that 
doubt would have given way when I became acquainted with the enterprise 
and industry of the people of Massachusetts. While, as a citizen of New York, 
I shall continue to urge upon my fellow-citizens the construction of a railroad 



550 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 



from New York to this city, as a measure necessary to the prosperity of this 
State, I rejoice in the belief that the enterprise of the citizens of Boston will 
be crowned with a rich reward. I trust that the time is near at hand when 
the chain of railroads which now binds together the valleys of the Merrimac, the 
Connecticut, the Housatonic, the Hudson, the Oswego, the Genesee, and the 
Niagara, will reach the Mississippi. Nor do I believe the day is far distant 
when the country lying on the northern shores of the Great Lakes may be 
opened to the inland commerce of the United States. 

There was a new inmate in the old mansion at Albany, and a noisy 
one ; this was a fine mocking-bird, " Bob " by name. 
His new owner wrote to his old one, Mr. Gray : 

He seems to be aware of his obligation to magnify your kindness in sending 
him to me, and evinces a very prudent desire to establish himself favorably in 
my household. He began to show off his powers as soon as his food and water 
were replenished. I believe he must have formed his opinion of me from the 
current conversation of your great city, for he evidently intended to commend 
himself by showing that he, too, was a demagogue. He began with the notes 
of the wren, passed rapidly through the gamut of the robin, the jay, the blue- 
bird, quail, snipe, crow, and woodpecker, and ended with a serenade of un- 
known but exquisite melody. In the night there was a cry of fire in the streets; 
I threw up the sash ; the sound of the alarm-bell and the fireman's horn waked 
his imitative spirit, and he joined lustily in the clamor. I have found but one 
cause of complaint against him. He is evidently in favor of the Public School 
Society's exclusive privileges, for, when the Roman Catholic Lord Bishop of 
Nantes paid him a visit to-day, he would not be prevailed upon to open his 
throat. 

Hugh Maxwell and Gary V. Sackett had been appointed by the 
Governor commissioners to effect the adjustment of the Manor of 
Rensselaerwyck difficulties. After hearing both sides, they agreed 
upon a basis which they recommended for adoption, looking to a 
gradual extinguishment of the troublesome tenures by payment of 
some fixed and definite amount to obtain the fee, thus securing the 
manorial proprietor against pecuniary loss, and giving the tenant a 
clear and untrammeled title. Although some were obstinate, the ten- 
ants for the most part signified their willingness to avail themselves 
of the plan. The Patroon, under what subsequent events proved to 
be mistaken advice, declined to enter into the proposed arrangement, 
and so the matter was left, for the time, unsettled. 

Governor Seward continued to execute the law without encounter- 
ing serious resistance, during the remainder of his term. The discon- 
tent of the tenants, however, year by year, increased ; nor were the 
friends of the Patroon pleased that the State should have entertained 
any question in regard to the justice of his claims, or the wisdom of 
their vigorous enforcement. 



1841.] THE SUPREME COURT ON McLEOD. 551 

The Canadian newspapers by ever}' mail were now'full of indigna- 
tion about the McLeod case. " Lies, forgery, scoundrels, dregs," etc., 
were among the epithets freely used. McLeod's counsel, sending a 
commission to Canada to take testimony to prove an alibi, found wit- 
nesses refusing to testify, alleging that it was derogatory to the Brit- 
ish crown to give evidence in such a case. 

The correspondence between Mr. Fox and Mr. Webster was pub- 
lished. Mr. Fox, in March, had declared the burning of the Caroline 
the act of the British Government, and demanded McLeod's surren- 
der. At the same time he defended the act as a justifiable employ- 
ment of force to defend British territory from unprovoked attack of 
" British rebels " and " American pirates." 

The 4th of July was celebrated in New York by a grand review of 
the First Division of Artillery on the Battery. The Governor mounted 
his horse, rode down and along the line, and then, returning to his 
headquarters at the Astor House, received the marching salute as the 
division passed in review, led by General Sanford, its commander. 
The day was cool and pleasant, the streets thronged. The next morn- 
ing he visited the North Carolina at the Navy-Yard, accompanied hy 
Adjutant-General King and Major-General Sanford and staff. Com- 
mander M. C. Perry was then in command of the North Carolina. He 
received the Governor with a salute and naval honors, and afterward 
accompanied him to the Fulton and the Navy- Yard, then commanded 
by Commander Sands. In the evening the North Carolina lay in com- 
plete darkness, until at nine o'clock a gun was fired. Instantly she 
seemed to burst into glittering light, her ports being simultaneously 
thrown open, her whole interior illuminated, and rows of lights deline- 
ating masts, spars, and rigging. The other United States vessels were 
similarly illuminated. Returning to Albany, he wrote home : 

Albany, July 10, 1841. 

I had a visit from an old collegiate friend, who spent the evening, night, and 
morning, with me. Since he left I have scarcely had a visitor, and the contents 
of my box diminish, while with Rogers's help I have succeeded in dispatching 
a peck of letters to the post-office. I need my secretary. Street declines. I 
have written to Mr. Underwood to send me either of his boys. 

Circumstances now indicate that an issue will he raised in this State upon 
the McLeod question— Mr. Tyler, Mr. Webster, and the Whigs generally, on the 
side of the British Government ; myself and the " Loco-focos " on the Ameri- 
can side. If the " Loco-focos " bring this question to the polls, it is not easy 
to know what will be the effect upon the stability of the Whig party. 

Albany, July 12, 1841. 
We had, or rather I had, yesterday, a visit from Blatchfonl, Bowen, and 
Colonel Webb. The conversation was all upon the gossip at Washington. I 
have prepared a letter vindicatory, and my friends are to go with it on Friday. 



552 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 



The secretary shall send you the papers, and Lewis Gaylord Clark's beauti- 
ful and touching article on the death of his brother. 

Albany, July 13, 1841. 

I am busy to-day in replying to the Governor of Georgia, amid many inter- 
ruptions. The Supreme Court has maintained all my positions and overthrown 
Mr. Webster's in the McLeod case. It is to me just now a useful vindication. 
Time favors me much; he has only to expedite his progress and settle the 
school question for me, and I have no more to ask in regard to my'public policy. 

News had come that the Supreme Court at Utica, on the previous 
day, had denied the motion for the discharge of McLeod. An elab- 
orate opinion was delivered by Judge Cowen, concurred in by Chief- 
Justice Nelson and Judge Bronson. The motion had been argued, on 
the part of the State, by Attorney-General Hall, who said : 

We cannot allow, as an act of defense, the willful pursuing of even an 
enemy, though dictated by sovereign authority, into a country at peace with the 
sovereign of the accused, seeking out that enemy and taking his life. Such a 
deed can be nothing but an act of vengeance ; can be nothing but a violation 
of territory — a violation of municipal law, of the faith of treaties and the law 
of nations. He must be remanded to take his trial. Before England can law- 
fully send a single soldier for hostile purposes, she must assume the responsi- 
bility of public war. Admitting that counsel might, by the aid of England, get 
up an ex post facto war for the benefit of McLeod, this cannot be done in 
contradiction to the language of England herself. 

It is said that McLeod is anxious to go to a jury. It is believed that, if left 
alone, he would before this have proved to the satisfaction of the court and jury 
that he bragged himself into the scrape ; would have been acquitted, and so 
ended the matter. But the two Governments were not content to allow the 
matter to go off in this quiet, unostentatious way. The question was national- 
ized. The position of England now seems to be, that she denies that she is 
nationally responsible for burning the Caroline, and refuses to let any of her 
subjects be made individually responsible. 

Great public interest was taken in the case. An express locomotive 
started immediately with the opinion, and a special messenger was dis- 
patched with it to Albany. 

The Supreme Court next granted an order, changing the venue of 
McLeod's case, and appointing his trial at Utica in September. 

Writing to Morgan, Seward said : 

Out of the city of New York opinion is unanimously with the court. In that 
metropolis it is about as unanimous against it. Nothing could have been more 
unkind or unwise than the course pursued toward me by the General Govern- 
ment in relation to the McLeod affair. It was not merely unkind, it was un- 
ions. They enjoyed my full confidence; they showed me none. Until I 
received the President's second letter I supposed that nothing had been decided 
upon at Washington, and, although I extorted from him a disclosure of a purpose 
o abandon the State, I was left to learn the ground taken by the Administration 



1841.] DR. CAMPBELL'S SERMON. 553 

from the published documents accompanying the President's message to Con- 
gress ; and even then my communications were withheld from Congress. 

It has been somewhat oppressive upon me, personally, to have Mr. Webster 
roll over upon us the weight of his great name and fame to smother me. But 
the result restores me. 

There is but one Whig paper in the State out of the city of New York that 
does not fully approve the ground assumed by the Supreme Court. The acqui- 
escence of the British minister, and of the Federal Government, will soon silence 
the presses in the city that so perversely play into the enemy's hands. 

Albany, Sunday Evening. 

I have had a day of comparative repose and abstraction from harassing cares 
and perplexities. Desirous to be more cheerful, and to carry refreshed powers 
to business to-morrow, I have concluded to enjoy rest to-night. Mr. Blatchford 
was here at breakfast. Went to Dr. Campbell's church and heard a very happy 
sermon upon the text, " Seek not great things." The doctor lectured us upon 
the folly of ambition and avarice. In his prayers he was earnest that our chil- 
dren might never lose the advantages of education, intellectual and moral, and 
especially religious. He did not forget the President and Congress in his prayers, 
and kindly commended me to the illuminating grace of the Ruler of nations. 
When we were coming out of church he was surprised to find me among his 
auditory, and told me that the moral of his discourse, so far as I was concerned, 
was, that I must not seek to be President of the United States. He said he 
would have given me a more searching reproof if he had known that I was 
among the hearers of his discourse. I thanked him for remembering my com- 
mon schools. He said he prayed for the dissemination of education, but not of 
Catholic education. I told him that he described my project of education ex- 
actly, and that I felt much encouraged by finding 1 had his prayers in aid of my 
labors. 

Mr. Verplanck has sent me his speech on the school question. You must 
read it. It will be published on Tuesday or Wednesday. 

The first reports from New York upon the McLeod question are received. 
The papers, with the exception of Greeley's and the New World, are all with 
Mr. Webster. They dispute the decision made by the Supreme Court, and prom- 
ise their readers on both sides of the water that the cause shall go to the Court 
of Errors, and from that tribunal to the Supreme Court of the United States. 
Mistaken men ! The decision made by the Supreme Court would be unanimously 
confirmed by the Court of Errors ; and the Supreme Court of the United States 
will never have it in their power to lay hands upon the case. 

We have nothing definitive from Washington relating to the subject. My 
belief is, that the Federal Government will be now advised that the prisoner be 
left to take his trial. 



554 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

1841. 

Whig Troubles at "Washington. — The Georgia Correspondence. — Stealing a "Woman.— Re- 
fusal to he a Candidate.— Extra Session at Buffalo.— Lyell.— Murder of Mary Eodgers.— 
Webster and the McLeod Case.— The Vetoes.— Clay and Tyler.— Breaking up the 
Cabinet. 

Early in July, news was received that the House of Representatives 
had taken the bill for the distribution of the proceeds of the public 
lands out of the Committee of the Whole, where it had been debated 
for a fortnight, and where its opponents meant to keep it through the 
dog-days. A bold movement, led by Edward Stanley, had forced its 
consideration, and had passed it. A few days later came the intelli- 
gence that the bank bill and the bankrupt bill had passed the Senate. 

But now it was said that President Tyler was beginning to give 
dissatisfaction by refusing to make Whig appointments in lieu of Dem- 
ocratic incumbents, and there were rumors that he was not in accord 
with his party on the bank question. 

Writing to John A. King, Seward said : 

"What do you think of matters and things at Washington? The whole con- 
cern baffles my efforts to understand it. Nevertheless, being naturally sanguine, 
and confiding in the good intention of the Wbigs, I hope for the success of Whig 
measures, without seeing how they are to he accomplished. 

In Van Buren's time we had a Northern man with a Southern cabinet. We 
have now a Southern man with a Northern cabinet. If the evils of the former 
Administration are not cured by the present, we must come to the conclusion 
that the South cannot be satisfied with any other order of things than one in 
which she will have the whole Government. 

I have seen letters from D. W.. saying that they have no assurance that the 
President will sign the bill, and manifestly revealing their fears of a veto. They 
say further that, in that event, there will be an explosion. This catastrophe, 
not more ridiculous than unnecessary, should be averted. I would go to Wash- 
ington, if it were proper, and if I supposed that I might do anything to bring 
about an explanation. 

A letter to Mrs. Seward said : 

Albany, July 21, 1841. 

You will be surprised, as many others at Auburn are, that I delay so long 
my return there. My brother's death cast upon me all the business I have been 
accustomed to depend upon him to transact for me at Auburn, in Chautauqua, 
and in New York. 

We arc very quiet and staid here. I have brought the breakfast-hour back 
to seven, and I rise at six. My morning hours, until twelve, are devoted to 
business at home. I spend two hours in the departments. Weed comes after 
dinner and stays an hour, and then I return to business until the mail arrives 



1841.] THE GEORGIA CORRESPONDENCE. 555 

at seven. The short warm evenings I occupy with reading, writing to you, and 
in walks about town. 

The unfortunate attitude of the cabinet at Washington is leading to a loss of 
confidence in regard to them. The great question about the banks is the cause 
of discord. If I were to judge from the reports that reach me, I should despair 
of any harmonious result. Clay is undoubtedly right, and the President wrong. 
If we support the President, we oppose Whig measures ; if we support Clay, we 
oppose a Whig Administration. I have seen quite enough to know that, badly 
as I have succeeded in this difficult business, I shall have little to fear in com- 
parison with those who have, during the winter, complained of and embarrassed 
me. Granger writes me courteous letters when occasion offers. I of course 
return them in the same spirit. The decision of the Supreme Court in McLeod's 
case embarrasses the Whig party, especially the press. They had gone unhesi- 
tatingly with Mr. Webster, and now it is hard to return and acknowledge that 
one so much distrusted as I was right, and the man in whom we have all so long 
confided was wrong. If you see the papers you will be afraid that I shall mani- 
fest some ill feeling toward the Federal Government. Do not fear this. I want 
only occasion and cause to speak well of them. The latter cannot but come, 
unless everything tails in Congress. The former I can make. 

I mark this day with a white stone. There has not been a beggar at the 
door, and but one woman suing a pardon for a husband convicted of bigamy. 

To Weed he wrote : 

So, instead of going to Washington, you went to the Mountain House? I am 
glad you did so, although I am still of the opinion that you could have done good 
at Washington. A. B. Dickinson gives a sad account of affairs at that capital. 
I wish you had seen him. According to his account, the President will veto tho 
bill. " Gude save us ! " If he does that, there will no longer be cause of regret, 
that I enjoyed not the love of the President or his cabinet. Maynard, Morgan, 
and J. C. Clarke, will speak out on the McLeod affair. A. B. D. seems to havo 
had warm talk with both the President and Mr. Webster. I have made up my 
mind that their displeasure is to be endured. 

He performed his customary duty of attending the commencement 
at Union College this year. Among those who delivered addresses 
there before the literary societies were, George Bancroft, William Kent, 
and B. F. Butler. Bancroft and Charles Lyell, the English geologist, 
were made LL. D.'s. 

His answer to the requisition of the Governor of Georgia had 
brought a long reply from that Governor, insisting that the affidavits 
were sufficient, the requisition just, and the duty of the Governor of 
New York imperative to return the fugitive. To this Seward again 
answered, adding: 

It cannot be necessary now to consider the hypothetical cases you have put, 
or to answer questions which, by putting such cases, you have thought proper 
to raise, whether the luring of a slave from the master, by awakening her hopes 
of freedom and assisting her to escape from bondage, is an act to be classed in 



556 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

the same category with the act of tempting a neighbor's horse with a bundle of 
hay, and appropriating the animal to the use of the wrong-doer — these, and 
other questions propounded in your communication, and upon some of which 
I might perhaps have the misfortune to differ in opinion from your Excellency, 
need not now be discussed, because they are not involved in the case you have 
submitted. 

Regarding unnecessary discussion of such questions between the authorities 
of the several States as of questionable advantage, I must be excused for declin- 
ing to enter into such a one until your Excellency shall present a case requiring 
an examination of these grave and interesting subjects. Whenever such a dis- 
cussion shall become a duty, I shall not hesitate to engage in it, with an anxious 
solicitude to arrive at the truth, and to maintain the inalienable rights of man, 
the sovereignty of the States, and the integrity of the Federal Union. 

A committee of colored men, Messrs. Austin Pray and Thomas 
Paul, wrote to him from Toronto, expressing their gratification at the 
measures he had adopted, and the principles he had maintained, in 
regard to that portion of the African race residing in the State. He 
remarked that — 

No tribute of approbation could be more acceptable to me. If there be one 
reproach which I should, above all others, most deprecate, it would be that of 
having used the high powers confided to me to check the efforts put forth by 
that people to rise from that debasement in which slavery has left them. 

It is not alone the degraded race that suffers. Slavery has brought a thou- 
sand evils which affect the whole American community, and will long survive 
the cause that produced them. 

I congratulate you upon the indications that the time draws nigh when 
slavery will be numbered among the obsolete crimes of the human race. 

In a letter to P. P. F. De Grand, of Boston, he said : 

I thank you for your kind expressions concerning my intended retire- 
ment. All my life long I have known that there would arrive occasions in 
the life of every public man when he could better promote great public meas- 
ures as a private citizen than by attempting to use the influence of an official 
station. lie who consults always the public welfare and improvement, and 
seeks to promote those great objects by wise measures, need not fear the want 
of due consideration. lie who either does not devote himself to such ends, or 
adopts injudicious means to accomplish them, does not deserve the public favor. 
In retiring from my present post, after four years of duty, I shall only pursue 
the course I have always pursued, that of relieving my efforts to advance great 
public interests from the weight of supposed personal ambition. You yourself, 
I am sure, would not dissuade me from such a course. 

The Evening Journal reiterated the determination of Seward not 
to again be a candidate. The newspaper press generally throughout 
the State, especially in the rural districts, expressed regret at his with- 
drawal from the candidacy. 






1841.] THE "PATRIOTS" STEALING CANNON. 

He had issued a proclamation calling an extra session of th 
ate, to meet August 16th, at Buffalo, to HI 1 vacancies which th- public 
interest required should not be left unfilled until the next session. 

Meanwhile he wrote to Dr. Torrey, suggesting thai the gentlemen 
associated in the geological survey should give a kind r and 

all the information in their power, to the eminent geologist Lyell, who 
was expected to arrive in New York early in August. He wroti 
Weed: 

A i i. ' 6th. 

I came through Utica, seeing Walker, Ostrom, Faxton, and Shearman, and 
had a pleasant sojourn among them. I spent the night there. The attractioi 
home increasing as I approached, it overcame my purpose of stopping at Syra- 
cuse on the way. I met James B. Lawrence in the street. 

Auburn chilled me by its silence and repose; yet it is very beautiful; and 
now men and women come about me, I am quite delighted with it. i 
many kind greetings here from persons from whom I have long been separated. 

The town has evidently passed through the most oppri sive sta i of the 
pressure, and is already recovering. 

{12,1841. 

"We leave to-morrow morning for Buffalo by the way of Niagara. 'I i. 
nothing from New York or Albany concerning the circuit judgeship. 

There is some reason to believe the "Patriots" are engaged in taking the 
public ordnance and arms, with a view to some new demonstration. I am 
doing what is prudent in regard to the movement. 

Information had been received that two cannons were stolen from 
Auburn, another from the town of Cato, and a fourth from a depol in 
Buffalo. It was surmised that the thefts were accomplished by persons 
engaged in an effort to renew frontier disturbances. The Governor 
communicated the information to Colonel Bankhead, the I nited States 
military commander at Buffalo, and instructed the Adjutant-General 
to "issue orders to the commandants of artillery regiments and de- 
tachments, requiring them to take necessary means to proteel the ord- 
nance belonging to the State; to recover thai which had been stolen, 
and further directing the commandants to give information to the dis- 
trict attorney of the county where such depredations were committed. 

Early in August the papers were tilled with the story of the mys- 
terious disappearance of Mary Rodgers, the subsequent ry "I 
her body at Hoboken, the coroner's inquest, and the circumstances 
which strongly indicated that she had been murdered. In 
with the request of the New York authorities, the Govi rr 
reward for the discovery and apprehension of the mu 

As to the McLeod matter, he wrote to Morgan : 

;1. 

I have long since been of the opinion that love was not to exist bel 
the premier and myself. I regret it sincerely. The loss of his kin how- 



558 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

ever, another of tlie misfortunes occasioned by a course which, in my judgment, 
could not be compromised without injury to the public welfare. Daniel Web- 
ster has the most powerful intellect in this land ; and yet one possessed of much 
less wisdom might have been expected to consult so important a party as New 
York ; and at least when he found her protest on record, he might have thought 
it worthy of notice. I go on Friday to Buffalo to meet the Senate, and shall 
probably be there ten days. 

The promoters of tlie temperance movement published this week, 
among their correspondence, a letter from Seward addressed to their 
president, E. G. Delavan, in which he said : 

I rejoice most sincerely in the many indications of the success of this move- 
ment ; indeed, there is nothing more remarkable in modern times than the firm, 
steady, and unparalleled progress of the temperance reformation. The result is 
full of encouragement to the Christian and to the philanthropist. 

There was interesting and important news from Washington. 
The House of Representatives had passed the revenue bill, and 
had given a favorable vote on the bankrupt bill. The new United 
States Bank was to be located in the District of Columbia ; the United 
States was to own one-third of its stock ; States, and individuals, and 
corporations, two-thirds. Nine directors were to be appointed by the 
President and the Senate ; six were to be selected by the stockholders. 
Its name was to be the " Fiscal Bank of the United States." No mem- 
ber of Congress was to be allowed to borrow money of it. But coupled 
with this news were rumors that it was feared the President would veto 
the bill. 

A question of State rights was said to have arisen in regard to 
allowing branches in States without their consent. A compromise was 
finally adopted in this form : " Branches may be established with the 
consent of the Legislature, or without it when necessary, or the bank 
may employ other agents, banks, or officers, instead of branches." 

This section was justly enough pronounced " muddled," being made 
up of amendments piled one upon another. While some Southern men 
thought it did not sufficiently guard the rights of States, Mr. Adams 
opposed it as containing nullification doctrines. Finally, news came 
that the bank bill had passed, and gone to the President for approval. 
At the same time the House had repealed the sub-Treasury law. For 
a week the public mind and the press were full of uneasiness about the 
fate of the national bank. Nothing was heard from the President. 

Weed had now been summoned to Washington, and wrote thence 
that members of the cabinet faintly hoped, but that members of Con- 
gress despaired ; that he had been laboring all day to soothe excited 
feeling among the Whigs ; that Clay and Tallmadge were highly in- 
dignant ; that Stanley, Stewart, and Botts, were trying to dissuade the 
President, but that a veto was " inevitable." 



1841.] EXTRA SESSION AT BUFFALO. 559 

On the 18th the suspense was suddenly terminated. President 
Tyler returned the bill with numerous objections. He said he had been 
for twenty-five years opposed to the exercise of such a power, if any 
such power existed. He objected to the discounting provision as un- 
necessary ; to the compromise clause as an infringement of State rights. 
He thought the bill calculated to create a conflict between the State 
and Federal Governments. 

Public opinion divided. Judicious Whig leaders were disposed to 
deprecate a conflict between the President and Congress. They re- 
gretted the difference on this question, but hoped for agreement on 
others. It was not soothing to the feelings of the Whigs when the 
Democrats in Albany had a grand procession in honor of the veto. 

Mr. Wise, and three others, who had broken from the Whig party, 
and were acting independently, received from their associates the nick- 
name of the "cab party." 

Two days later came intelligence that a caucus of the Whig mem- 
bers had been held, and they had agreed to pass the bankrupt bill and 
other Whig measures, including a " National Exchange Bank," which 
should take custody of the revenue without power to discount. Accord- 
ingly, the bankrupt bill was passed and was signed by the President. 
The " National Exchange Bank " bill was introduced into the House. 

While these events were transpiring at Washington, the State Sen- 
ate and Executive had gone to Buffalo. Seward's letters described the 
journey and the session : 

Niagara Falls, August 15th. 

Here we are, so far on our way. It is a "powerfully hot" morning. The 
ladies, with the young gentlemen, the Attorney-General, and the Speaker, have 
gone on a pilgrimage into Queen Victoria's dominions. 

I had written my programme of proceedings for to-morrow, and sent it to 
Buffalo. To-morrow morning we shall all be there. General Root is here with 
Mrs. Root. 

It is very clear that the "Whig party is perfectly unsettled in its purposes of 
peace or war, after knowing the fate of the bank bill. All expect the veto. 
General Porter obviously prefers an open breach if the bill be not signed. 

Batavia, August -22'/. 

I have been immersed in dissipation, and unable even to give you a sign of 
my where- and what-abouts during almost a week. Your letters from New York, 
Philadelphia, and Washington, have reached and enlightened me. I suppose 
that by this time your steps are homeward, and that this greeting may not be 
unseasonable upon your return to Albany. 

I have been satisfied that your views concerning the events at Washington 
were right. Having been among the people, I have had good opportunity to 
witness the operation of the veto upon the public mind. I confess my surprise 
at the unanimity of the Whig party in favor of the bank. The veto has dis- 



560 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

gusted everybody with John Tyler, but not with themselves and their party. 
The Whigs will retaliate the injury Tyler has done them. 

But these speculations are not very necessary or profitable. I went to 
Buffalo. As you will have noticed, I proceeded immediately to business. I had 
a conversation on Monday morning with all the Senators, which resulted in their 
unanimously advising the renomination of William Kent. I never knew more 
good feeling. There was but one Senator who seemed dissatisfied. I continued 
to send nominations to the Senate until Thursday afternoon, when, the business 
being disposed of, the Senate adjourned. The citizens of Buffalo are manifestly 
much gratified by the visit of the Senate and the Court of Errors. The house 
of some worthy citizen is opened every night to the strangers. The Senators 
and the ladies attending them are enjoying themselves very much. 

The gentlemen of the staff arrived on Friday. We had a very handsome 
review ; and it closed, as I believe, to the entire satisfaction of all parties. We 
passed from Buffalo £o Rochester through this place, and yesterday morning at- 
tended the ceremonial of the reinterment of the bones taken up in the Genesee 
Valley. I feared that there would be a failure in the affair. But I was agree- 
ably disappointed. All the world was there, and it was opportune that w r e were 
there too. 

We left there last night, and are spending the day quietly and pleasantly in 
the hospitable home of the Carys. A part of the staff have set their faces home- 
ward. All the ladies go on to Auburn to-morrow. At the same time Bowen, 
Blatchford, and I, go to Chautauqua. I must not omit to say that S. C. Haw- 
ley has done everything man could do to make our stay in Buffalo agreeable. I 
wanted Ruggles along very much, and have yet a lingering hope that he may 
come. 

The tolls received on the Erie Canal during the year were now pub- 
lished, showing an increase of two hundred thousand dollars over the 
corresponding period of the preceding year, and an annual increase 
since 1837, that justified Seward's recommendations and policy in re- 
gard to the enlargement, as well as the estimates of Spencer, Ver- 
planck, and Ruggles. 

The session of the Senate had been held at the Buffalo Court-House. 
A long list of appointments sent in, and during the week confirmed, 
comprised, among others, those of Benjamin Pringle, for Judge in 
Genesee ; A. P. Jacobs, for Superintendent of Montezuma Salt-Springs; 
Isaac Piatt, of Poughkeepsie, for notary public ; John Young, of Gene- 
seo, for Master in Chancery ; John M. Bradford, of Geneva, for Ex- 
aminer in Chancery ; Lyman Truman, for notary public ; and Harlow 
C. Love, of Buffalo, for Brigade Inspector. 

The Senate, after transacting this executive business, had pro- 
ceeded to hold a session as Court of Errors. They then voted to visit 
Lockport and make an inspection of the public works of that place. 

Toward the close of the month came news from Washington that the 
' National Exchange Bank " bill had passed the House. There came 
also a letter from Weed presaging disasters, and saying that Everett's 



1841.] TYLER'S VETOES. 561 

nomination for the mission to England was opposed, and possibly 
might be rejected. Southern Whig Senators had joined Democratic 
ones in opposing his confirmation, the latter having produced letters 
written by him to abolitionists. 

The President desired a postponement of the bank bill, and was 
already beginning to receive harsh denunciation in debate by some of 
his former Whig supporters. Mr. Clay had taken the floor, and his 
vigorous attack on the veto message was published. 

On his return to Albany, the Governor was met by dispatches from 

Washington, saying that there was reason to fear an anticipated rescue 

of McLeod. He wrote to Weed : 

Albany, September 1, 1841. 

I left Westfield on Friday, passed through Buffalo, and slept under General 
Porter's hospitable roof that night. On Saturday yielded to persuasion and the 
inducement of the Lieutenant-Governor's and George Andrews's company, and 
came by the Eidge road, arriving at Rochester just half an hour after the east- 
ern car had left the depot, leaving me to spend Sunday at Rochester. I arrived at 
Auburn on two o'clock of Monday. Tuesday Mr. Webster's missives met me, 
with notes, emendations, and enlargement, by you and the Secretary of State. 
I remained at Auburn twelve hours ; then came on, arriving at Utica night before 
last. I dispatched Sands Iligginbotham from Oneida, on the railroad, to Oneida 
Castle, with a summons to the District Attorney to meet me the nest morning. 
The secretary disturbed the repose of the village of Whitesboro by leaving a 
similar summons there for General White, the first judge, and Sheriff Moulton. 
Yesterday morning I held counsel with all those functionaries, and with the 
District Attorney and the Circuit Judge ; resulting in arming and equipping all 
the people of Whitesboro, and magnifying Alexander McLeod to the heart's con- 
tent, I hope, of Mr. Fox. We then rode to Trenton Falls. Returning in the 
evening after a supper with Devereux, we took the cars at nine and found our 
way from the railroad depot to the Executive mansion this morning, through 
a dense fog that stopped the steamboats all night. 

There you have my private and public journal. I much want, and I doubt 
not I very much need, your elucidation of the strange history of the Adminis- 
tration of John Tyler. Nevertheless, I read it with some success, and I wonder 
that any man of fifty years' experience should have fallen into such errors. I 
will not speculate about the future. 

As news continued to come, of affairs at Washington, it was evi- 
dent that the situation of the Whig party was rapidly growing worse, 
instead of better. The bill for the distribution of the public lands had 
passed both Houses, and had been sent to the President. The new 
bank bill had passed the Senate. But here was another disappoint- 
ment: the President would not sign it, although it had been prepared 
on purpose to meet his objections. 

The Whigs in Congress were chafing, the Democrats exulting. 
Buchanan and Calhoun were praising Tyler, and Clay retorting. In 
one of his speeches he gave a dramatic scene. He described Calhoun, 
36 



562 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841 

Linn, King, Benton, and Buchanan, as visiting and addressing con- 
gratulations to the President. In his description he imitated their 
manner, and put in their mouths quotations from their past speeches. 
The galleries and the Senators generally appreciated the joke, laughing 
and applauding. Calhoun and Benton, however, took it in sober ear- 
nest, and rose to declare and protest that they had not been near the 
White House. 

Encouraged by the success of their demonstrations against Mr. 
Everett for his " abolition proclivities," some of the Southern Senators 
opposed the appropriations for the contingent fund of the Post-Office 
Department, on the ground that Granger was an " abolitionist " at the 
head of the department through which the " diabolical principles of 
that gang of fanatics might be brought into a most dangerous conflict 
with the safety of the South, and the existence of the Union." 

To complete the discomfiture of the Whigs, it was also announced 
that Tyler was not going to remove Democratic postmasters in the 
cities, merely to put Whig ones in their places. Furthermore, it was 
said that Mr. Van Buren, whom the Whigs had worked so hard to de- 
feat the year before, approved of Tyler's vetoes, and was elated with 
the policy of his Administration. 

Toward the middle of September came his second veto. This was 
qualified with an expression of regret : 

It has been my good fortune and pleasure to concur with them in all meas- 
ures except this ; and why should difference on this alone he pushed to extremi- 
ties ? It is my anxious desire that it should not he. 

As an earnest of this good disposition, the law for the distribution 
of the public lands was signed by the President, and published. 

Congress now adjourned. It had passed the bankrupt law, the 
revenue law, the land-distribution law, the fortification law, and the 
home-squadron law. Simultaneous with the adjournment came rumors 
that the cabinet was breaking up, that Ewing and Crittenden were 
going, and that Clay had advised all the members of the cabinet to 
resign. 

Speedy confirmation came. Harrison's cabinet had dissolved. Ew- 
ing, Bell, Badger, and Crittenden, had resigned, and subsequently 
Granger. Webster alone remained. 

Forward, McLean, Upshur, and Legare, were nominated to the 
vacant places ; and Wickliffe was to be nominated to that of Granger. 
Ewing and Crittenden published letters, assigning their reasons for 
going. Webster wrote to Ketchum, giving his reasons for staying. 
He said that he regretted the differences between the President and 
Congress as deeply as any man, but had not been able to see in what 
manner the resignation of the cabinet was likely either to remove or 



1841. J A CHANGE OF CABINET. 563 

mitigate the evils produced by them. On the contrary, he said, his 
reliance for remedy was on the union, conciliation, and perseverance 
of the whole Whig party ; and added that his particular connection 
was with another department, and there was, so far as he knew, an 
entire concurrence of opinions between himself and the President, in 
reference to foreign relations. He saw no reason, therefore, to run 
the risk of embarrassing the Executive by sudden or abrupt proceed- 
ings, especially as questions were immediately pending affecting the 
peace of the country. 

Seward's letters to Auburn detailed his occupations : 

State of New York, Executive Department, | 
Albany, September \Qth. ) 

I began an official document, but my conscience smites me so that I will 
change it into a letter to you. 

It was a pleasant visit that I had at Auburn, and I found things here very 
much as they were left. Mr. Blatchford had set his successor in the way of 
copying my ancient letters, and was on the eve of embarking for New York. 
He has gone — a youth of splendid talents, good principles, and affectionate dis- 
position. 

Mr. Underwood is very attentive, and bids fair to be useful and agreeable. 
"We are again cheerful, with an occasional lay from Bob the mocker. He has 
his new coat adjusted, and is continually engaged in trying to clear his throat, 
and remember his notes. He seems, however, to be unable to recall any but the 
lower notes. 

Dr. and Mrs. Doane have sent a green turtle, that is to be here on the 25th, 
to greet you on your arrival. 

The Helderberg troubles open badly. Despite the ridicule heaped upon 
them, they will attract notice, and blood will yet flow in a cause that has, thus 
far, moved only derision. 

The President's second veto is here. He has at last played away the con- 
fidence of a great, generous, and confiding party, and won nothing but the con- 
tempt of the opposition. 

The Governor of Georgia has replied to my rejoinder. His communication 
is even less convincing than John Tyler's second veto. 

I have much more to write you, but my time is precious ; I must defer fur- 
ther gratification of this kind until to-morrow. 

Tuesday Morning. 
Mr. Webster goes into the new cabinet with Tyler, and against Clay and his 
friends, now the mass of the "Whig party. There will be loud denunciations 
of both, and open feud. 

Albany, September 15. 1841. 
I received last evening your letter of Sunday. Poor Brown! her relief has 
come, and it may not be doubted that she is blessed. How foolish to wish to 
stay in such a world of trouble and pain as this ! I am glad that she was able, 
through your kindness, to die at home. 






564 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

Thursday Morning. 

I am yet plodding through business accumulated during my long absence. 

Nobody bas yet come on from Washington. I am thankful that I have no 
responsibilities concerning tbe new order of things. I incline to believe it will 
be disastrous to both factions. 

Mr. and Mrs. Fillmore are spending the day with me. Maynard is here and 
dines with me. Morgan has not yet come. 

Albany, Sunday. 

I saw many of our friends in New York. Few of them were prepared for 
the sudden movement by which tbe President and his cabinet were cut off from 
the confidence and support of the Whig party. Messrs. Curtis and Lyman are, 
even now, in Washington, endeavoring to induce tbe President to adopt a course 
suitable to regain the lost confidence of his party. It is "love's labor lost." 
The uncertainty of our friends in New York, on the subject, arises solely from 
a reluctance to abandon Mr. Webster. The evil, however, is irremediable. 

Albany, Tuesday Evening. 

I am occupied incessantly with " wars and rumors of wars," and my corre- 
spondence is oppressive. It is quite uncertain whether I can leave here. Indeed, 
I am almost sure I cannot. The Comptroller and tbe Secretary of State are 
both absent, the latter for several days. 

John C. Spencer is to be no more of us here. He has received an informal 
invitation to be Secretary of War, and went last night, with all our best wishes, 
to Washington. 

There will be such a crowd at Utica about McLeod's trial that I think you 
will find it necessary to come directly through. I shall look for you in the 
Saturday's train that leaves Auburn at three in the morning. 

The Whig members of Congress were now returning home. An 
address of the Whig members to their constituents ajvpeared, headed 
by Berrien, Tallmadge, J. P. Kennedy, Mason, Horace Everett, Clark, 
and Raynor, saying that the President had forfeited public confidence, 
avowing their determination to persevere in Whig measures, recom- 
mending reduction of Executive power, limitation of the veto, one 
term of office, the election of the head of the Treasury by Congress, 
the subjection of the appointing power to restrictions, and the estab- 
lishment of a national bank. 

This was regarded as an open declaration of war, and as betokening 
the final separation between Tyler and the Whig party. 

The defeat of the Whigs in Maine was the first discouraging omen 
of the new era. 

The Whig newspapers opened bitter war against " Captain Tyler," 
as they called him ; but the office-holders were in a quandary. If they 
went with their party, they would lose their places ; if they kept 
their places, they would forfeit the confidence of their party. The 
fruits of the great triumph of 1840 had turned to ashes in the victors' 
grasp. 



1841.] "THE LATCH-STRING PULLED IN." 565 

The Washington papers announced President Tyler's regulations, 
as to the days and hours upon which he would receive visitors. They 
went the rounds of the Whig press, under the caption of " The Latch- 
string pulled in ! " 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
1841. 



Spencer in the War Department. — Trial of MeLeod. — An Alibi. — The Election. — A Demo- 
cratic Victory. — Letters to Adams and Scott. — The Prince de Joinville. — Lord Mor- 
peth. — Opening of Boston & Albany Railroad. — Josiah Quincy. — O'Connell's Opinion. 

The political outlook was neither very clear nor very encouraging. 
But the State Central Committee, in accordance with usual custom, 
called a Whig State Convention, to meet at Syracuse on the Gth of 
October, as they cautiously said, " to adopt such measures as may be 
deemed expedient." 

On the 28th, after a protracted conference with the Whig leaders 
and State officers at Albany, Seward wrote to Mr. Webster and to 
President Tyler, in regard to the appointment of John C. Spencer as 
Secretary of War. Spencer had received an intimation from Washing- 
ton that the President was desirous to confer that position upon him, 
and before replying he had desired to consult with his political and 
official associates. The question presented to these was twofold : 
first, whether Mr. Spencer's acceptance would be advisable for his own 
interests ; and, second, whether it would promote the harmony of the 
Whig party. The latter view of the case would make his appointment 
a wise political step, both for himself and for the country. After 
weighing the various possibilities, the conclusion was finally arrived at 
that, if he could not convert Mr. Tyler, at least Mr. Tyler could not 
pervert him, and that his presence in the cabinet would have a salutary 
influence at Washington, and tend to promote harmony of feeling be- 
tween the State and Federal Governments. 

It was understood that Mr. Webster was in New York, holding 
somewhat similar consultations with his friends. 

An interesting letter was received from Mr. Morgan, whose seat in 
the House of Representatives was next to that of John Quincy Adams. 
He inclosed a manuscript copy of Mr. Adams's poem, " The Wants of 
Man." Its history was said to be that General Ogle, of Pennsylvania, 
had informed Mr. Adams, in July, 1840, that several young ladies in 
his district had requested him to obtain Mr. Adams's autograph. The 
latter wrote this poem in twenty-five stanzas, each upon a separate 
sheet of note-paper. 



5(50 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

The murder of Mary Rodgers still remained a mystery, and the 
Governor now, at the request of the authorities in New York, offered a 
pardon to any accomplice in the crime who should turn State's evidence, 
so that the others might be ferreted out and convicted. Still no one 
appeared to claim either the amnesty or the rewards. 

The trial of McLeod had been set down for the 27th of September 
at Utica, Chief -Justice Nelson presiding ; the Attorney-General for the 
prosecution, and the United States District Attorney for the defense. 
But it began to look as if those engaged in the frontier troubles were 
desirous not to let slip the opportunity presented by the international 
dispute to stir up fresh hostilities. There were rumors of " Patriot " 
movements at various points on the frontier. Information came that 
bands of marauders were organized along the Canada line under the 
name of "Hunters' Lodges," and these were supposed to have stolen 
the missing cannon. The newspapers in the Canadian interest charged 
that Governor Seward was a "paving member " of one of these lodges. 
Meanwhile, he was promoting as actively as possible the search for the 
lost guns, and taking precautions against any outbreak. He issued a 
proclamation offering a reward for information which should result in 
the conviction of the persons who stole the two cannon in Cayuga 
County. He instructed the sheriffs and military commanders in the 
various counties, and gave the War Department and the United States 
civil authorities such information and assistance as they desired. 

A proclamation was also issued by the President in regard to the 
lodges and clubs ; exhorting the participators to abandon their projects; 
assuring them that the laws would be executed, and that, if captured 
by the British, they would not be reclaimed. 

Among the rumors was one that some persons had a cannon on 
Navy Island, and were preparing to attack the Canadian shore. An 
attempt was made at Allenburg to blow up the locks of the Welland 
Canal. 

James Grogan, of Lockport, was seized near St. Albans, Ver- 
mont, by twelve or lift ecu men, wounded by a bayonet, gagged, and 
dragged away, having Deen accused of complicity with the incendiaries 
in the late troubles. The party engaged in the outrage were said 
to be dragoons and volunteers from Canada. Later, it was reported 
that he was in Montreal Jail. 

CJtica was full of visitors and strangers, attracted by the State 
prosecution. The Court of Oyer and Terminer was duly opened, Judge 
Gridley presiding; and on the 4th the trial commenced. W. L. 
Mackenzie, the so-called General Southerland, and other participators 
in the frontier troubles, were in attendance. Forthe prosecution there 
appeared the Attorney-General, assisted by S. C. Hawley, and District- 
Attorney Wood ; for the prisoner, United States District-Attorney 



1841.] THE TRIAL OF McLEOD. 507 

Spencer, Hiram Gardner, and A. C. Bradley. The court-room was 
crowded. After the jury was impaneled, Attorney-General Hall opened 
the case. 

Witnesses were called, who testified to the attack at Schlosser, the 
burning of the steamboat, the murder of Durfee, and the wounding of 
others. The next day further testimony was adduced to prove McLeod's 
presence and participation, and his subsequent boasting of having 
killed Durfee. A special messenger was dispatched each day to the 
Governor at Albany, with reports of the progress of the trial. This 
messenger came by an extra locomotive from Utica to Schenectady, and 
thence drove to Albany in a sulky, making the sixteen miles one day 
in fifty-five minutes. The first day he brought a private note to the 
Governor from the counsel for the State, saying that an embarrassing 
question had arisen about the payment of expenses of witnesses, the 
judge being of opinion that the expense ought not to be paid by 
Oneida County ; that several witnesses were either unable or unwilling 
to attend in consequence. 

The Governor answered this with an assurance that the expense 
should, at all events, be paid. 

Another letter was from Judge White, giving information of the 
measures to preserve the peace in Utica during the trial. Seward 
replied : 

I am much pleased with the indications that the trial will pass off' without 
any outhreak of popular discontent. The result will, I trust, vindicate the au- 
thorities of this State, not only in regard to their desire to secure to the pris- 
oners a fair and impartial trial, but also in relation to the right of the State to 
try the prisoner for the crime laid to his charge by the grand-jury. 

The testimony for the prosecution having closed, Spencer opened 
for the defense, and called witnesses to prove that the destruction of 
the Caroline was under the orders of the British Government, to whom 
alone the State should look for redress. McLeod was only their ser- 
vant. He also called witnesses to prove an alibi. These testified that 
McLeod was at Stamford, five miles off ; that he went the day before, 
staid all night, and never heard of the destruction of the Caroline until 
ten o'clock the next morning. 

Judge Gridley ruled out the documentary evidence in regard to its 
being a national act, following the decision of the Supreme Court, and 
holding the question to be one of McLeod\s individual responsibility. 

Intelligence now came from Montreal, tending somewhat to allay 
popular excitement ; this was, that Grogan had been released, that 
his seizure had been pronounced illegal, and that he had been safely 
escorted back to the United States. 

The next day a deposition was read from Allan McXab, who was 



5(58 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

the commander of the British forces in the attack on the Caroline. 
He testified that he had no knowledge or belief that McLeod was con- 
nected with the affair. Four more persons swore that he was five 
miles away, and a dozen swore positively that he was not in the at- 
tacking party. The counsel summed up, and the judge charged that, 
if there were doubts about the alibi, the prisoner must be given the 
benefit of them. The jury retired, and in thirty minutes returned 
with a verdict of acquittal. 

McLeod, under the Governor's direction, was safely and quietly 
taken to the frontier. 

Thus the threatening national question was disposed of, and the 
war-cloud dispersed. There was no longer a pretext for outbreaks or 
outrages on either side. The Whig journals, while commending the 
" wisdom and firmness of the Governor," remarked that he had " saved 
the General Government from itself." 

A few days later it was announced that McLeod, under the pro- 
tection of the Sheriff of Oneida and two army-officers, had reached St. 
John's, Lower Canada, and had gone on to Montreal. Excitement on 
the frontier calmed down when the disturbing cause was removed. The 
missing cannon were reported to have been found in Ohio City, oppo- 
site Cleveland, where the United States officers would take possession 
of them and send them back to the State. 

Meanwhile, information came from Washington, raising alternate 
hopes and fears among the Whigs. It was feared that the Presi- 
dent's last veto was for the express purpose of causing a rupture, be- 
cause the bill had been prepared at his own suggestion and conformed 
to his own views. On the other hand, the appointment of John C. 
Spencer as Secretary of War revived confidence to some extent. He ' 
was known to be the intimate friend and associate of the Whig lead- 
ers at Albany, and it was believed his appointment might restore the 
party harmony. It was recalled that in Congress, in 1817, he was 
chairman of the Committee on the United States Bank, of which John 
Tyler was a member. He left Albany early in October to enter upon 
his duties at Washington. 

The Governoi*'s duties, apart from the question of the frontier 
troubles, were now less onerous. A deputation of the chiefs of the St. 
Regis Indians waited upon him. Answering, he said : 

Brothers! I am very happy that you prefer receiving your annuities instead 
of having the principal paid at once. With industry and temperance your peo- 
ple may derive abundant support from the lands which they enjoy. The annui- 
ties may be very useful in enabling you to support a school and a church, and 
procure useful implements for tilling the earth. 

The Surveyor-General will ascertain the boundaries and conditions of the isl- 
ands and meadow-lands which you want to sell to the State. It would be much 



1841.] WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS. 5G9 

better for you to keep the lands altogether, unci study to improve in agriculture, 
and in the manners and customs of the white men. The lands will never be 
worth less than they now are, and you would best promote the welfare and hap- 
piness of your children by leaving to them the entire inheritance you received 
from your forefathers. . Brothers! I commend your chiefs, and also the old 
men and the young warriors, and the women and children of the St. Eegis 
nation, to the blessing of the Great Spirit, who, though he hath made red men 
to differ from white men. nevertheless equally cherishes them all as his children, 
and commands them to do good to one another. 

From the Whig State Convention at Syracuse, which met October 
6th, came reports of harmonious councils, if not enthusiastic hopes. 
George W. Patterson presided ; leading Whigs from the various coun- 
ties participated. Speeches were mads by John A. King, Alvah Wor- 
den, David Graham, Daniel D. Barnard, Duer, Clarke, Fillmore, and 
Tallmadge. An address and resolutions were adopted, reiterating ad- 
herence to the former Whig policy, approving the action of Congress, 
condemning Tyler's vetoes and dissolution of the cabinet, but saying 
they were anxious to give Tyler a hearty support, and that it would be 
wholly his own fault if they did not. They indorsed the course of 
Clay and intimated a preference for him as the coining presidential 
candidate. The county and district conventions of the two parties 
were actively at work, during the month, making nominations for the 
Legislature. Among those of the Whigs were Daniel Lord, Henry A. 
Livingston, Killian Miller, Allen Ayrault, Gideon Hard, Gulian C. 
Verplanck, Azor Taber, George A. Simmons, Nelson J. Beach, John C. 
Hamilton, James W. Gerard, T. C. Flagler, William J. Bacon, Amos 
F. Granger, and Levi Hubbell. Among those of the Democrats were 
Erastus Corning, John A. Dix, Michael Hoffman, Lemuel Stetson, 
Arphaxad Loomis, John A. Locke, Horatio Seymour, David R. Floyd 
Jones, Sanford E. Church, Levi S. Chatfield, George R. Davis, Calvin 
T. Hulburd, and Theron R. Strong. 

Political meetings were held, but they were tame affairs on both 
sides, compared with the great gatherings of the preceding campaign. 
The logs of the log cabins still remained in place, but they no longer 
rang with the enthusiastic melody and oratory of the year before. 

The issues at the election between the parties, as stated by their 
conventions, seemed to be, that the Whigs were for a national bank, 
with increased currency and credit, the distribution of the proceeds of 
public lands, a protective tariff, and a general bankrupt law, and for 
the State an increase of the school system and of internal improve- 
ment. 

The Democrats opposed internal improvements, State or national, 
when involving public debt ; opposed a national bank and protective 
tariff ; were in favor of the sub-Treasury and hard money, strict con< 



570 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

struction of the Constitution, and direct taxation for the public works 
and payment of debt, rather than financial schemes looking to loans to 
be repaid out of future revenue. 

In New York City the school question entered into the political 
canvass. A " Free-School ticket " was nominated, its candidates being 
selected from the tickets of both parties already in nomination. 

The political phrase of " pipe-laying " originated about this time 
in New York, probably from observation of the numerous pipes that 
workmen were laying under the streets for carrying the Croton water. 
They suggested an analogy with political jobs and subterfuges. For 
some years a favorite phrase among New York newspapers and poli- 
ticians was the charge of " laying pipe." Glentworth and his employ- 
ers were especially characterized as " pipe-layers " to bring voters from 
Philadelphia by secret and underground appliances, as water was 
brought from Croton Lake. 

The election in Albany passed off quietly. Whigs there, as else- 
where, seemed discouraged or indifferent. None were surprised by the 
announcement in the evening that the city had gone Democratic. A 
day later the great eagle appeared in the Argus, with the tidings that 
the Democrats had carried the State, had gained the Assembly by 
a majority of thirty or forty, and would also have a majority in the 
Senate. So the Whig control of both State and national Governments, 
triumphantly secured in 1840, had in a single year drifted out of their 
hands into those of their opponents. 

Each day brought confirmation of the change. The Whigs would 
have but fifteen Senators, the Democrats seventeen ; while in the As- 
sembly the Democrats had more than two-thirds of the whole — ninety- 
five to thirty -three. 

Mr. Granger's election to Congress, which had been assumed as a 
certainty in Ontario, was achieved by a majority of only five hundred. 
Sanford E. Church was elected to the Assembly from Orleans, the first 
Democratic member from the " infected district " in many years. This 
was a subject of much exultation. It had been a standing joke with 
the Whigs that in Democratic legislative caucuses, when a committee 
was appointed, consisting of one from each district, the eighth either 
had none or a "transplanted" one. Seward wrote to John Quincy 
Adams, November 6th : 

The mails have borne to you the news of a disastrous overthrow of the 
Whig party in this State. There will be much speculation, and, as usual, very 
little wisdom in it, concerning the causes of this popular change. History is 
not very accurate in her judgments upon the causas rerum, but contempora- 
neous commentary is never just. I am, my dear sir, very much gratified by the 
kind consideration you express concerning my public action in the difficult 
place assigned me. If I were to define the ruling motive of my political con- 



1841.] DEFEAT OF THE WHIGS. 571 

duct, in and out of place, it would be that of solicitude to avoid doing or saying, 
under the pressure of the times, anything which, in all time to come, should 
require vindication. Such, you will permit me to say, has always appeared to 
me to be the moral of your distinguished life. 

I early determined not to be a candidate for a third election to my pres- 
ent place. As for the future, I await its developments without concern, con- 
scious that if my services are needed they will be demanded ; and, if not needed, 
that it would be neither patriotic nor conducive to my own happiness to be in 
public life. 

His Thanksgiving proclamation had been issued on the 25th of 
October, designating Thursday, December 9th, as the day for the fes- 
tival. As yet there was no unanimity among the States in regard to 
it. The Governor of Ohio had designated December 21st ; the Gov- 
ernor of Rhode Island, November 25th; and it was remarked that by 
diligent travel, from State to State, one could find a Thanksgiving in 
progress somewhere on each Thursday between election and Christmas. 

Among his correspondence was a letter from General Scott, in 
reference to the presidency, which he acknowledged, saying : " It is a 
frank and manly paper. The events of the next three years are uncer- 
tain. But, let the end be as it may, you have this proud advantage 
over your contemporaries, that you have already achieved a fame that 
will reach the great future without further acknowledgments from the 
present generation." 

Among the expedients suggested by Whig friends to save some 
portion of the public patronage, which seemed to be slipping from the 
party's hands, was the plan of convening the Senate, and making 
appointments to fill vacancies that would occur during the next year. 
Seward answered : 

Such a proceeding, however desirable it might be upon party grounds, could 
not be adopted consistently with the spirit of the constitution and laws of the 
State. None can doubt that I lament, as deeply as any one of the two hundred 
and twenty thousand citizens who brought me into a situation of high respon- 
sibility, a result that, besides all other public consequences, deprives me of the 
power of preferring sound and patriotic men to places. But since that result 
has come, it must be met with firmness ; and while there shall be no deviation 
from consistency on my part, I cannot question, much less endeavor by extraor- 
dinary means to defeat, the desire of the people, constitutionally declared. 

There was danger, moreover, of a greater loss than that of patron- 
age in the State. The opposition were beginning to hint a disposition 
to avail themselves of the power they had acquired to stop the enlarge- 
ment of the Erie Canal. 

Mr. Clay's retirement from the Senate was now announced. His 
proposed resignation was approved by his political friends : because, if 
he should remain in the Senate, he would be embroiled in collisions and 



572 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

strife damaging to his presidential prospects. But, if he remained two 
years in retirement, the people would go to Ashland for him, as they 
did to North Bend for Harrison. As if to once more revive illusory 
hopes, rumors came from Washington that the President himself was 
now preparing a plan for a " fiscal agency " to submit to Congress. 

The Democratic newspapers, encouraged by a more favorable out- 
look of political affairs, were beginning to talk of Mr. Van Buren as a 
candidate in 1844. The leaders of his party, at Albany, were already 
planning for the resumption of the power in the Legislature which 
they had lost three years before. 

Congress met on the 6th of December. A plan apparently ac- 
ceptable to the Whigs was to be submitted by the Secretary of the 
Treasury — a financial scheme which the President thought would "meet 
the requirements of the Government and the wants of the people." 
The message repudiated the theory of a purely metallic currency, and 
advocated one of paper, redeemable in specie. Its views on the tariff 
were in accord with Whig doctrines. It recommended the establish- 
ment of a Board of Control at Washington, with agencies at prominent 
commercial points, for the safe-keeping and disbursements of public 
moneys, and the substitution, at the option of the public creditor, of 
Treasury notes in lieu of gold and silver. The Whig papers generally 
approved the message. Committees were appointed in Congress, with 
ex-President Adams at the head of that on foreign affairs, and Mr. 
Cushing at the head of that on the President's fiscal plan. 

The new Secretary of War presented an able report, promising an 
early and successful closing of the tedious Florida War, and commend- 
ing the proceedings of Colonel Worth. 

Thirty-five of the Amistad Africans were embarked in a ship for 
Sierra Leone. Before leaving they sent, through Lewis Tappan, a 
grateful letter and a handsome Bible to John Quincy Adams. 

The Prince de Joinville, having arrived in his vessel, La Belle 
Poule, was now entertained in New York and Boston with great fes- 
tivities. There was a ball at Faneuil Hall. Araono; the quests was the 
Countess America Vespucci, a lineal descendant of the great discoverer 
from whom the continent was named. Some years before it had been 
proposed in Congress to give her a township or a county in the West, 
to be called by her name ; but Congress turned a deaf ear. 

Among the guests at the dinner given to the prince in New York 
was Lord Morpeth, the heir to the earldom of Carlisle, who was already 
favorably known in America by his liberal speeches in Parliament. He 
was now traveling through the United States, and was received with 
much hospitality in New York and Boston. Pausing at Albany to 
study the workings of an American State government, he remained a 
few days. During his visits to Governor Seward, he found they were 



1841.] LORD MORPETH. 573 

so much in accord on many public questions, notably those in regard to 
Ireland and slavery, that their intimacy ripened rapidly. He was appar- 
ently about the age of Governor Seward, with hair just turning- gray. 
He was staid, dignified, and courteous, and won the esteem of public 
men of both parties whom he met. 

After an evening visit to Seward, the latter offered to accompany 
him to call upon some of the other State officers. As they walked, 
unattended, through the dimly-lighted streets of Albany, he said, 
" You are quite like the Caliph of Bagdad in the ' Arabian Nights,' 
walking out this way, unknown, among your subjects." " Not quite," 
answered Seward, " for you must remember that in this city there 
are forty thousand caliphs, and it is I who am their subject." 

He observed that it was a surprise to Lord Morpeth to find that 
the Democracy in this country were not the " Exeter Hall radicals " 
which their name seemed to imply, and that the Whigs, stigmatized 
by their opponents as the " aristocratic " party, were really the party 
of most advanced views. 

Lord Morpeth told an incident of his western trip that had much 
pleased him. Going one evening into a theatre at Rochester where a 
company of indifferent players were performing, he found, when the 
curtain fell between the acts, that on it was painted an accurate pict- 
ure of his own place, Naworth Castle. The British residents of New 
York gave him a dinner, to which the Governor was invited, who, in 
his answer, gave the toast, " Honor to the English statesman who de- 
votes his talents, learning, and influence, to an amelioration of the 
condition of Ireland." 

December was signalized by several evidences of railway progress. 
A new winter route was opened to New York. This was from Albany 
to West Stockbridge by rail ; then twenty-two miles by stage to 
West Canaan ; then by rail down the Housatonic Valley to Bridge- 
port ; thence by steamboat to New York — a total distance of one hun- 
dred and ninety-four miles, but an improvement in point of time upon 
the tedious stage-ride down the post-road along the bank of the Hud- 
son. Another route was also opened before the winter was over, en- 
tirely by rail and steamboat, and occupying thirty-two hours. This was 
via Springfield, Hartford, and New Haven, the " Western Railroad " 
being now completed. 

The opening of the railway to Boston was considered as the begin- 
ning of a new era in commerce, and was greeted with appropriate 
demonstrations. On the 27th the first through-train from Boston over 
the Berkshire Hills arrived at Greenbush in the evening, and was wel- 
comed with rockets and cannon on both sides of the river. 

The Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the 
Common Council of Boston, several of the editors and citizens of that 



574- LIFE AND LETTERS. [1841. 

city, and the directors and officers of the railroad, were on board ; 
were received at the ferry by the Common Council of Albany, and 
escorted in triumph by military and fire companies, with torches and 
music, to Congress Hall. 

The next morning there was a formal reception by the city authori- 
ties at the City Hall, and an exchange of congratulations. Afterward 
they waited on the Governor at the Executive chamber, and visited 
the Court of Errors. At five in the afternoon three hundred guests 
sat down to dinner at Landon's Stanwix Hall, the mayor presiding. 

The toast of " The city of Boston " was responded to by Mayor 
Chapman ; that of " The State of Massachusetts " by Attorney-Gen- 
eral Austin. 

When " The State of New York " was toasted, and Governor Sew- 
ard called out by cheers and applause, he spoke briefly of the progress 
of internal improvements, and said : 

I will, with the permission of the company, read a letter, which perhaps 
has an interest as the record of an arrangement made with a view to an im- 
provement of the internal communication between New York and Massachu- 
setts. It bears date " Fort James" (now the city of New York), "27th Decem- 
ber, 1672," just one hundred and sixty-nine years before the arrival of our guests 
from the Bay State by a railroad journey of eleven hours. The letter was 
written by Colonel Francis Lovelace, then Governor of this colony, to the Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts. It stated that his royal Majesty King Charles com- 
manded that the colonies should enter into a close correspondence with each 
other, and that to accomplish that purpose Governor Lovelace had established 
a post to proceed on horseback once every month to Boston, allowing two 
weeks for the journey and an equal time for returning! 

Seward's toast was: " The States of Massachusetts and New York : 
they have combined in the prosecution of the "Western Railroad ; may 
they become as united in maintaining the faith and the integrity of the 
Union ! " 

The hall where these festivities took place was handsomely lighted, 
and decorated with the arms of Massachusetts and New York, of Bos- 
ton and Albany, and portraits of George Clinton and John Jay. When 
the Attorney-General of Massachusetts referred to De Witt Clinton as 
the pioneer of internal improvements, the whole company rose to their 
feet with cheers. 

Josiah Quincy, Jr., on behalf of the Western Railroad Company, 
told the story of the King of Spain, who said of the proposed canal to 
Madrid, " If it was the will of the Almighty that a water communica- 
tion should be there, he would have made one." The same, he said, 
was the case of the Berkshire Hills. Having found a place in them 
just wide enough for a railway to go through, they came to the opin- 
ion that the world in general, and Berkshire County in particular, had 



1641.] BOSTON RAILROAD CELEBRATION. 575 

been made with express reference to the Western Railroad. He had 
always known that " a good name was better than riches ; " and the 
company had found it true when they had the power of obtaining 
great riches by simply presenting good names on a piece of paper to 
Mr. Olcott at the Mechanics and Farmers' Bank. 

On such an occasion Quincy was inimitable. His wit and humor 
kept the table in a roar, and seemed to be prompted by the incidents 
of the hour. Colonel Webb, in his speech, remarked that they might 
almost attribute the presence of Yankees in Albany, who twelve hours 
before had been in Boston, to the " witchcraft " once said to be very 
prevalent among that distant people. Quincy retorted, "There are yet 
witches in Massachusetts that are said to be able, by the power of their 
charms, even to turn a Dutchman into a Yankee." In one remark, 
Quincy almost predicted the telegraph. " These iron bars," said he, 
"that extend from one capital to the other, will in time of peace trans- 
mit the electric spark of good feeling and good fellowship." 

General Dix, in his speech, adverted to the fact that the Mayflower 
started for the Hudson River, but by the ill-will or the ignorance of 
the captain blundered on the rocky, barren, and inhospitable shore of 
Plymouth. However, the mistake was now corrected, and the descend- 
ants of those who came by the Mayflower had reached the Hudson 
River at last. Croswell toasted the Massachusetts poet : " It will be 
long before we look upon his fellow." John Q. Wilson gave : " Bos- 
ton enterprise, that has discovered a Northwest Passage." Randall, of 
New Bedford, promised that town would grease all the wheels and 
light all the lamps of the new railroad. Weed gave : "Massachusetts, 
the cradle of philanthropists, statesmen, heroes, and historians. Keep 
it rocking." The last toast was the hope that our neighbors "may 
return us railing for railing;" and Quincy's closing salutation was, 
" See what Massachusetts and New York can do when they lay their 
heads together." At midnight the party broke up, but adjourned to 
meet the next day at Faneuil Hall. 

There was a like celebration there. On the table was bread made 
of flour which was in the sheaf, brought in a barrel that was in the 
tree, at Canandaigua two days before. Sperm-candles, made by Mr. 
Penniman at Albany in the morning, were burning in Faneuil Hall in 
the evening. Salt was on the table which thirty-six hours before was 
three hundred feet underground at Syracuse. When General Law- 
rence presented this in a humorous speech as having been brought 
from the cellar of New York, he was answered that it smacked rather 
of the " Attic." 

In return, the Bostonians promised that fish swimming in Boston 
harbor in the morning should grace dinner-tables in Albany in the even 
ing, and gave the sentiment, " May their best breadstuffs follow their 



576 LTFE ANr> LETTERS. [1841. 

best-bred men to Boston ! " General King replied that " with such 
facilities for getting (y)east the breadstuffs of Western New York 
must speedily rise.'''' Mayor Chapman gave a humorous report of the 
Yankee expedition of the day before to the western wilds, returning 
in triumph with one hundred and fifty captives, the head-men and 
chiefs of the tribe. To that Mayor Van Vechten replied that his 
" worst fears were realized ; he had been warned that the Yankees 
would 'take them in,' and now they had, clear into Boston." Troy 
was toasted : " A wooden horse was the destruction of the old Troy. 
May the iron horse be the making of the new ! " 

Canaan Gap was the subject of various puns — that it led " to a 
feast of the passover," and that being overrun by Jews was nothing 
to being overreached by Yankees. 

Quincy toasted : " The four mayors present. With such a team, 
who could want a locomotive ? " Judge Van Bergen spoke in Dutch. 
Another guest gave: "Boston, known for one tea-party and sev- 
eral dinners." The allusion to the tea-party brought out a series of 
jokes, and led to complimentary allusions to the ladies. John Q. Wil- 
son closed them by giving, " The Yankee ladies — may every one who 
comes to New York catch a Dutchman ! " to which Quincy retorted, 
" May they not, in catching a Dutchman, catch also a Tartar ! " Amid 
the laughter created by this sally the assemblage broke up. 

The foreign mail brought O'Connell's opinion of the McLeod case 
as delivered at a recent " repeal meeting." He said that the British 
had had a happy escape — the Americans had had the best of the con- 
test; that the American nation had vindicated its own honor, had vin- 
dicated the law of the land against a supposed murderer, and had done 
so in defiance of England. " Americans had decided that, whatever 
might be the power of a nation opposed to them, should the blood of 
an American be shed, no other power should be suffered to screen the 
murderer from justice. This was a triumph for America, and an im- 
portant lesson to the governments of Europe." 



1842.] THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 577 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

1842. 

The Temperance Reform. — Opposition Plans and Discords. — The Right of Petition.— Sir 
Charles Bagot. — Dickens. — Lord Ashburton. — A Revolutionary Reminiscence. — Letter 
to Greeley. — Battle between Senate and Governor. — Expunging Messages. 

Ox the closing day of the year, the newspapers announced that the 
Governor, in his preparations for New-Year's celebration, intended to 
substitute lemonade and cold water for punch and wine — a bold innova- 
tion. He deemed that the temperance cause had a right to claim an 
example from those in authority. 

This was in accordance with the popular feeling of the time. The 
temperance reform, led by Father Mathew and the Washingtonian 
Societies, was regarded as a benevolent and praiseworthy enterprise, 
entitled to the help and encouragement of all good citizens. At 
public dinners, as well as in private houses, it was rapidly growing to 
be the custom to dispense with wine and spirits on festive occasions. 
At the railroad celebration, and at the dinner on Forefathers' Day, 
the new custom was also adopted. As yet, there had been no question 
of prohibition by law, and the subject of temperance was not regarded 
from a partisan point of view. The Governor laid aside the amount he 
had formerly expended on such occasions, and gave it to the Orphan 
Asylum. 

Some of the advocates of temperance, however, had engaged in a 
public controversy, which was deemed unfortunate. It grew out of a 
proposal to banish wine from the communion-table. Up to this period, 
action in regard to it had been harmonious ; henceforth it was to be 
marked by disputes, recrimination, and shades of difference in opinion, 
profitable neither to the disputants nor to the cause. 

Another illustration of the progress of the temperance reform was 
the announcement that twenty-five hundred dollars had been paid out 
to the sailors on the receiving-ship at Boston, in lieu of grog, which 
they voluntarily relinquished. 

On Monday the members were arriving from the various counties. 
From the Senate, Verplanck, Lee, Maynard, and Sibley, had gone out. 
Most of the veteran Whig members of the Assembly had also gone : 
while those of the Democrats remained. There was an active can- 
vass for the speakership between the supporters of Davis, Humphrey, 
and Chat field. 

The Legislative met on Tuesday, at noon. Among the new Sena- 
tors were Morris Franklin and Isaac L. Varian, of New York ; A. 
Bockee, of the Second District ; Erastus Corning, of the Third ; and 
Gideon Hard, of the Eighth. Among the new members of the Assembly, 
37 



578 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 



were John A. Dix, of Albany; Lemuel Stetson, of Clinton ; William A. 
Bird, of Erie; John A. Lott, of Kings ; Thomas T. Flagler, of Niagara ; 
Horatio Seymour, of Oneida; Sanford E. Church, of Orleans ; George 
R. Davis, of Rensselaer; Calvin T. Hulburd, of St. Lawrence; John 
Cramer, of Saratoga ; and Theron R. Strong, of Wayne. 

The Assembly organized by electing L. S. Chatfield Speaker, and 
John 0. Cole Clerk. The Whigs gave their thirty votes to George A. 
Simmons, of Essex, and P. B. Prindle, of Chenango, the former Clerk. 
Committees were duly appointed to wait upon the Governor, and 
inform him of the meeting of the two Houses. His message was im- 
mediately sent in by the hands of Mr. Underwood. It announced that 
the new State-Hall was completed, the asylum at Utica ready for the 
reception of inmates, the geologists arranging their cabinets, and the 
colonial documents in process of collection. 

He laid before the Legislature the law of Virginia, aimed at New 
York commerce, as well as the correspondence with the Governor of 
Georgia. He recommended the replenishing of the safety-fund ; called 
attention to the Six Nations, who complained they had been defrauded 
out of some of their lands ; advised the division of the election districts 
into smaller ones, and that the election should hereafter be limited to 
one day. He announced that the prisons were paying their own 
expenses, and warned the Legislature that the substitution of imprison- 
ment for life for the death-penalty would be unsuccessful without 
some modification of the pardoning power. He gave a history of the anti- 
rent troubles, and of the McLeod case. The literature and common- 
school fund, he remarked, now amounted to several millions, and there 
were nearly eleven thousand school-district libraries — a happy contrast 
to the resolution of the colonial Assembly just before the Revolution, 
declaring that the report that they intended to levy a tax of five 
hundred pounds to promote learning " was a slander." 

A statement of his views on the subject of New York schools fol- 
lowed, presenting the questions whether the schools should be placed 
in the hands of a corporation or in those of the government, and 
whether all the children in New York should be educated, or only a 
part of them. The principal portion of the rest of the message was 
devoted to the history, the condition, and the needs of the public 
works ; presenting arguments against the threatened stoppage, warn- 
ing the Legislature of its consequences, and showing how closely the 
welfare of the State depended upon their prosecution. 

It was evident, as soon as the Legislature had assembled, that the 
predominant party realized and were disposed to use their power. At 
the same time, success had sowed, as it usually does, the seeds of dis- 
trust between those who, while in a minority, were in entire accord. 
The terms of the State officers were to expire this winter ; the Legisla- 



1842.] AN OPPOSING LEGISLATURE. 579 

ture was to elect new ones ; but there were predilections in favor of 
different candidates. There was a distrust of the wisdom of restorino- 
the sway of the old " Regency," and a doubt whether Croswell, having 
become the president of a bank, was a safe guide for an " anti-bank 
party." 

Aggressive steps in reference to the Governor were canvassed in 
the evening at the hotels, and a plan was talked of for repudiat- 
ing his sentiments on the Virginia question, and for declaring that 
Virginia was rio-ht. In reference to the McLeod case and the school 
question,, some of his own political party were confidently counted on 
to oppose him. 

On the 10th of January, Senator Franklin proposed a resolution 
avowing a determination to maintain inviolate the State credit, in 
view of the repudiating movements in other States. Democratic Sen- 
ators offered a substitute and amendments, declaring that, as the pres- 
ent system of finance had contributed to the general excitement and 
alarm, and, if further continued, would be ruinous, therefore the 
Legislature was resolved to have no further debt. This was felt on 
both sides to point to a stoppage of the work on the canal enlargement. 
Similar resolutions were similarly met in the Assembly, and so the 
issue between the two parties was gradually made up. Debate now 
began, and continued long in both Houses, participated in by all the 
leading speakers of both parties ; the Whigs presenting arguments in 
favor of the maintenance of public faith, and the promotion of public 
benefits ; while the Democrats with equal ability urged those of rigid 
governmental economy, and "strict construction." The pending ques- 
tion in Congress on the repeal of the bankrupt law also came in for a 
share of legislative debate. Among the Whigs, Messrs. A. B. Dickin- 
son, Mchols, Franklin, Root, Rhodes, Furman, Hard, and Simmons, 
were prominent. Among the Democrats, Foster, Loomis, Hoffman, 
Stetson, Davis, Humphrey, and Swackhainer, took a leading part. 

In the Senate, a motion of Mr. Foster to vest the appointment of 
committees in the majority was acquiesced in by the Whigs, but A. B. 
Dickinson and others opposed a further modification of the rules in- 
tended to provide against the accident of a temporary Whig majority, 
which might confirm some of the Governor's nominations. But the 
rule was adopted in spite of their opposition. The act of the previous 
session relating to the appointment of receivers of moneyed institutions 
was repealed, and the power of such appointments taken away from the 
Bank Commissioners, who were Whigs, and given to the Chancellor, 
who was a Democrat. 

In the Assembly, war was at once opened on the State Printer, and 
resolutions introduced to have no printing done, unless by the special 
order of the House. 



580 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 



From Washington came discouraging news for the Whigs. Whig 
Senators were taking ground against the currency plan of the President.' 
Mangum, of North Carolina, had made a speech against it. Tallmadge 
and others were trying to pass some bill that would meet the wishes 
of the Whigs, and at the same time secure the approval of the Presi- 
dent. 

About the middle of the month, a tumultuous debate in the House 
of Representatives over the bankrupt law was reported as in progress, 
with points of order, dilatory motions, and callings of the roll. On the 
21st came news that the House had voted to repeal the law. 

The Whig members from New York had opposed the repeal, but 
had been overborne. Its fate in the Senate was doubtful. 

Seward, writing to Spencer, described the political situation : 

The Congress was so fortunate in the extra session as to retain the confidence 
of the Whigs, while the President lost public favor. That confidence is now 
being destroyed by the mad repeal of the bankrupt law. It seems as if the 
Whig party were now doomed to every form of disappointment. Our concerns 
here are interesting. We are once more to see a division among our opponents 
upon the ground on which they split before Their party is without leaders, and 
without, as yet, the power to combine upon any common ground. 

The Argus and its friends go for stopping the public works, and no tax. A 
large portion of the members are for prosecuting the public works, with a tax, 
while there are some who will insist upon prosecuting the works without a tax. 
Their confidence in carrying the State next fall diminishes, although ours does 
not revive. 

I have the pleasure to inform you that we are speedily to have our vindica- 
tion on the school question. The bill will pass without considerable opposition. 

On the 28th the newspapers announced a " row on the abolition 
question," " a motion severely censuring Mr. Adams," " exciting de- 
bates." Two days later came the details of the stormy scene. It was 
the memorable debate on the right of petition, occasioned by Mr. 
Adams's presentation of a petition for the dissolution of the Union — a 
debate which he led with such tact, eloquence, and success. 

The financial outlook was not a cheering one at the opening of the 
year, either as regarded railroads, canals, banks, or State credit. Mary- 
land, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, had failed to pay the January 
interest on their bonds. The safety-fund of the State banks was nigh 
exhausted. The national-bank scheme was growing every day more 
hopeless. The canals were menaced with the stoppage of work, and 
railroad enterprises suffered from the general distrust. Nevertheless, 
such as had been built were more than justifying the expectations of 
their projectors. The Utica & Schenectady Railroad was doing a profit- 
able and increasing business. So was the Boston & Albany road. The 
Auburn & Rochester Railroad had declared a dividend of nine per cent., 
and the canal-tolls had been confessedly beyond all estimates. 



1842.J SIR CHARLES BAGOT. 581 

Early in January came information that Sir Charles Bagot, the 
new Governor-General of Canada, had arrived at New York in her 
Majesty's ship Illustrious. The next week he arrived at the Eagle 
Tavern, in Albany, with his suite. Very sensibly he had chosen this 
route to Canada, possibly under instructions from the Colonial Office, in 
order to have unofficial and private conference with Governor Seward, 
as the latter had desired, in reference to the prevention of frontier 
troubles. 

On the 7th, Sir Charles went with the Governor to visit both Houses 
of the Legislature, the Supreme Court, Court of Chancery, and the State 
Library. In the evening the Governor gave a dinner, at which many 
of the prominent public men of the capital were present. Sir Charles 
was a fine-looking man of sixty, of portly figure, wearing the glittering 
star of the Order of the Garter. His frank and courteous manner, and 
judicious views, made a very favorable impression in Albany, which 
was, doubtless, of service in aiding to restore cordial feeling. 

Another British celebrity was now coming to the United States, 
whose arrival had been eagerly anticipated, and for whose entertain- 
ment hospitable preparations had been made in the larger cities. On 
the 25th, news was received of the arrival of the Britannia, twenty- 
eight days from Europe, at Boston, after a stormy passage, and that 
among her passengers were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens. Festivities 
in Boston greeted the favorite novelist ; citizens vied with each other 
in hospitable attentions, and the newspapers took up the theme of 
international copyright, which, for the moment, seemed to acquire 
popularity. 

Still another English visitor was on his way, whose mission was one 
destined to be of permanent and substantial benefit, both to England 
and the United States. This was Lord Ashburton, who was coming on 
a special mission to settle all existing differences between the two 
countries. 

On the evening of the 19th, the State Agricultural Society met in 
the Assembly-chamber — its president, Joel B. Nott, delivering the 
address. After the meeting the members went from the Capitol to the 
City Hotel, where they had a " temperance supper," the Governor 
being a guest. Brief speeches were made by him, by General Leland, 
Mr. Coleman, Alderman Joy, and others. 

The Irish Repeal Association had addressed the Governor, offering 
to enroll his name as a member. He declined on the ground that it 
would be inconsistent with his official relations, although he shared in 
their wishes for the restoration of constitutional liberty in Ireland. In 
his letter he recalled an early incident in American history : " The 
Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in 1775, soon after the 
shutting up of the town of Boston by the royal troops. Among the 



532 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

early measures of that venerable body was an address to the people 
of Ireland. The Congress, after recapitulating the oppression suffered 
by the colonies, and announcing that they had adopted an act sus- 
pending all trade with Great Britain, assured the people of Ireland 
that it was not without the utmost reluctance that the Congress discon- 
tinued commercial relations with that country. ' Your Parliament,' 
said they, ' have done us no wrong. You have ever been friendly to 
the rights of mankind, and we acknowledge with pleasure and grati- 
tude that your nation has produced patriots who have nobly distin- 
guished themselves in the cause of humanity and America. On the 
other hand, we are not ignorant,' said the Congress, ' that the labor 
and manufactures of Ireland, like those of the silkworm, are of little 
moment to herself, but serve only to give luxury to those who neither 
toil nor spin ; and it moreover gives us some consolation to reflect that, 
should the measures we have adopted occasion much distress, the fer- 
tile regions of America will afford you a safe asylum from poverty, 
and in time from oppression also — an asylum in which many thousands 
of your countrymen have found hospitality, peace, and affluence, and 
became united to us in all the ties of consanguinity, mutual interest, 
and affection.' " 

The Liberty party was making a fresh movement. A State Con- 
vention was held at Peterboro on the 19th and 20th. Gerrit Smith 
was nominated for Governor, but declined, and the name of Alvan 
Stewart was substituted. 

The Cooper libel-suits, which were to occupy a prominent place in 
court proceedings during the next few years, had now commenced, 
seven declarations having been served upon Mr. Weed in a case of 
alleged libel. 

Mr. Samuel Blatchford, the former private secretary, was admit- 
ted to the bar at the January term of the Supreme Court. Mr. S. G. 
Andrews retired from the clerkship of the Senate, but followed by the 
good wishes of all its members. 

The law transferring the appointment of receivers of moneyed insti- 
tutions to the Chancellor instead of the Bank Commissioners was laid 
before the Governor for his signature. He returned it to the Senate 
with a message, remarking that he had approved the law of the previ- 
ous year in regard to these appointments, believing that it would have 
a salutary effect ; and that, while it was the duty of the Governor 
to veto measures infringing upon constitutional provisions or indi- 
vidual rights, yet he could not interpose objections to less impor- 
tant bills, upon the mere ground of a difference of opinion concern- 
ing their expediency, without assuming an undue share of legisla- 
tive responsibility. " Applying these principles to the present case, I 
have not thought it my duty to embarrass the action of the Legislature, 



1842.] A BATTLE WITH THE SENATE. ;,*;* 

but, cheerfully confiding in their wisdom, have approved and signed the 
bill, availing myself of this occasion to submit an explanation, inasmuch 
as the proceeding involves an apparent inconsistency, which might lead 
to misapprehension concerning my views of the policy of the measure." 

It is not easy to understand, after the lapse of so many years, why 
this message, apparently unobjectionable in tone and temper, and not 
referring to any of the great questions upon which parties were divided, 
should have been selected as the point on which to begin the attack 
upon the Executive long before determined upon. Perhaps between 
legislative parties, as between armies, when it has been decided to wage 
battle, a trivial incident is as good as any to give signal for its com- 
mencement. At any rate, on the succeeding day the storm commenced. 

It was moved in the Senate to expunge the message from the min- 
utes. "He had no right," said the Democratic Senators, "to spread 
his reasons on their records. It was only when he vetoed a measure 
that his objections to it were to be recorded. In this case he does not 
recommend anything, or object anything. It was an innovation, dan- 
gerous and inconvenient." 

The Whig Senators, Furman, Dickinson, Root, and others, defended 
the Governor's action. It was in accordance with precedent. Like 
messages were on record from Governor Clinton, from Governor Tomp- 
kins, and even from Governor Marcy, his Democratic predecessor. If 
the message was struck out, what record would there be that the law 
had been approved ? How could it be proved that it was a law at 
all? 

The debate went on, not only with vigor, but with acrimony, and 
charges were freely made of " discourtesy," " unparliamentary trilling," 
and " insult." 

Finally the motion to expunge was carried, by a party vote, four- 
teen to thirteen. 

The next day the Governor sent in a second message, saying : 

It is not ray purpose to complain in any manner of the proceeding upon the 
ground of its injustice. But it is a solemn duty of the person administering the 
government of this State, at all times, to preserve, as far as may depend upon 
him, the constitutional power of the department assigned to him. I do, there- 
fore, with extreme regret that such a proceeding has become necessary, and with 
the most respectful deference, inform the Senate that the suppression of the 
communication referred to is regarded by me as a dangerous invasion of the 
rights of the Executive department, unwarranted by any precedent in the his- 
tory of the government, and without any justification in the circumstances of 
the transaction. 

When this came in, it set the Senate into a blaze of excitement. 
It was declared "an insult." "The Governor had no right to rebuke 
them." "Docs he think he can browbeat a Democratic Senate?" A 



-gj. LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

motion was made to reject it ; to refuse to receive it ; to send it back 
to him. The Whig Senators who undertook its defense were charged 
with being inspired and controlled by the Governor in the debate. 
Dickinson was accused of having a resolution in the handwriting of the 
late private secretary, and of having that functionary sitting by his 
side, prompting him. The motion to return the message to the Gov- 
ernor was carried through, by a party vote, fifteen to eleven. 

The next day, when the Clerk was reading the minutes, the inquiry 
arose whether the message appeared on the journal. The presiding 
officer replied, "Yes — as component part of a resolution offered by 
Mr. Root ; " for the general, in submitting a resolution referring to the 
subject, had recited the words of the message, thus putting it back into 
the journal. 

On this arose furious debate, lasting five hours. Mr. Strong moved 
to amend the minutes, so as to exclude the message. Foster, Strong, 
Hard, Furman, Dickinson, and Root, all took part. The Whigs con- 
tended that the Senate was stultifying itself and mutilating its own 
records, by not only suppressing an Executive message, but by altering 
a Senator's resolution. However, the vote was taken, and resulted six- 
teen to eleven. So the second message was suppressed. 

The day after this, when the journal was read, General Root, find- 
ing that his resolution had been so inserted as to exclude the message, 
rose and insisted that the rest of it should not be put in. " The Senate 
had no right to mutilate his resolution. If they insisted on suppressing 
what he said, they had no right to put him on record as saying what he 
did not." Again followed fresh debate, and motions to amend. The 
presiding officer having decided that Root's resolution should be en- 
tered in full, as he had written it, Mr. Foster appealed to the Senate, 
and on this question the debate lasted all day. 

On the morning of the 29th, Root returned to the attack. Fortified 
by a precedent of Governor Marcy's time, he introduced a resolution 
incorporating the message in extenso, and followed it with another, 
approving the transmission of the message. 

So the message again went on the journal, amid hearty congratula- 
tions from the Whigs to the veteran legislator, whose vigor had 
secured a triumph after his long battle. But this was not to be the 
end. The next Tuesday the Clerk read his report to the effect that, 
" in obedience to the resolution of the preceding week, he had waited 
upon his Excellency the Governor, and showed him a copy thereof, and 
tendered to him the message therein referred to. Whereupon the Gov- 
ernor was pleased to say that ' it was a paper which seemed to him to 
belong to the Senate, and he was not aware that he had any right to 
the custody thereof ; and that he therefore declined to receive it.'" 

Senator Rhodes immediately offered a resolution concurring in this 



1842.] A MAMMOTH PETITION. 585 

view, and reciting the words of the message, so as to again place it on 
record. 

The President decided this to be in order. Appeal was taken, de- 
bate followed ; the appeal was sustained, and the decision overruled by 
a party vote, seventeen to eleven. So the second message was excluded 
from the journal. The next morning it was moved to strike out the 
report of the Clerk's conversation with the Governor. It was argued 
that the Senate had sent no one to hold a colloquy, but simply to per- 
form a duty. An amendment was offered, merely stating that the Clerk 
had carried out the instructions of the Senate Dickinson retorted, in the 
debate : " You not only undertake to amend the messages of the Gov- 
ernor, but now you propose to amend the report of your own messen- 
ger, so as to make him say he did what he did not do." Furman said: 
" This is a curious proposition. The amendment says the Clerk deliv- 
ered the message to the Governor, but the Clerk tells you expressly 
that he did not deliver it, because the Governor would not receive it." 

Further debate ensued. There was another appeal, and the decision 
overruled again, by sixteen to twelve. Finally, the debate was termi- 
nated by Senator Foster offering a resolution reciting the history of 
the controversy, and reaffirming the position of the majority. This 
was placed upon the journal and adopted by a party vote. It is a 
curious fact that the message sought to be excluded from the record 
now appears in it twice. Though suppressed in the usual place, it ap- 
pears in full in Root's resolution, and reappears in Foster's. 



CHAPTER XL. 

184-2. 



A Mammoth Petition. — Change of State Officers. — South Carolina Search-Law. — The "Fis- 
cal Agent." — Passage of the New York School Law. — Seward's Policy adopted. — Meet- 
ing of the Legislatures of Massachusetts and New York. — "Honest John Davis." — 
General Herkimer. 

While this contest was going on in the Senate, Mr. Maclay had 
created a marked sensation in the Assembly, by presenting a petition 
asking that the common-school system of the State should be extended to 
the city of New York. The mammoth document was signed by upward 
of fourteen thousand names. It was borne into the Assembly-chamber 
by three men. It was headed by John Anthon, Aaron Yanderpoel, and 
James T. Brady. The reading of the petition was called for, but it was 
found that, if the document was unrolled, it would extend the whole 
length of State Street, from the Capitol to the Exchange, and that the 



586 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 



reading would occupy several days. It was accordingly dispensed with. 
This movement in behalf of the school bill was made under Democratic 
auspices. Simultaneously came a significant change of tone in the 
Democratic press. Their leading journal ceased its censures of the 
Governor and Bishop Hughes, and now gave hearty support to the 
policy they had advocated, of the election of school trustees and com- 
missioners, and the extension of the system to the city of New York. 

This was welcomed by Seward and his friends as indicating a salu- 
tary change in public sentiment ; especially as Maclay announced that 
some of the most estimable citizens of New York, of every class, sect, 
and party, were among the signers of the petition. 

The State officers were now to be changed, and members of the 
dominant party installed in their places. The office of Secretary of 
State was vacant, by Mr. Spencer's resignation, and its duties had de- 
volved temporarily upon Archibald Campbell, one of the most faithful 
of public officers, who had been deputy secretary for more than thirty 
years. S. S. Randall, the Deputy Superintendent of Common Schools, 
was acting as Superintendent. The terms of office of the State Treas- 
urer, Attorney-General, and Commissary-General, were about expir- 
ing. A bill was introduced to provide for the election of a new State 
Printer, and on the 3d of February the Assembly voted to remove the 
Comptroller, Surveyor-General, and Canal Commissioners. 

In the evening a Democratic legislative caucus nominated A. C. 
Flagg for Comptroller, Samuel Young for Secretary of State, Thomas 
Farrington for Treasurer, George P. Barker for Attorney-General, 
Nathaniel Jones for Surveyor-General, and George H. Storms for Com- 
missary-General. At an adjourned meeting the next day they nomi- 
nated for Canal Commissioners, Jonas Earll, James Hooker, George 
W. Little, Daniel P. Bissell, Benjamin Enos, and Stephen Clark, all of 
whom the Whigs said were "anti-improvement men," though acknowl- 
edging them to be men of strict personal integrity. All were duly 
elected by the Legislature on the 7th and 8th. The Governor now 
had political opponents in control of both branches of the Legislature, 
and each department of the Executive government. The Senate did 
not neglect to make use of their power to reject the Governor's nomi- 
nations, on political grounds. 

The Whigs, if they could no longer hope for offices, still had some 
prospects of success in regard to measures. 

The change in the election laws, so as to have the election on one 
day, and to have smaller election districts, which the Governor had re- 
peatedly urged, was now favorably reported upon in the Assembly, 
and both parties appeared to favor it. Mr. Furman introduced a bill 
to provide funds for carrying on the public works, the main feature of 
which was a loan of three millions. There was such evident difference 



1842.] SOUTH CAROLINA SEARCH-LAW. 537 

of opinion among the Democrats upon the subject of the public works 
that the Whigs counted confidently upon the cooperation of some por- 
tion of the opposing party, looking to the completion of the enlarge- 
ment. 

Comptroller Flagg published a report on the condition of the finances 
of the State, as viewed from his party standpoint. Both Whigs and 
Democrats were not very far wrong in their logic, although the an- 
tagonistic theories with which they started were such as to lead them 
to inevitable collision. The Democrats said the State was running in 
debt for works that did not pay for themselves. The Whigs said that 
ultimately they would pay. The Democrats had the actual fact on 
their side. The Whigs were true prophets, but they could only prove 
it by lapse of time. Mr. Flagg said, " In the judgment of the present 
Comptroller, the debt of the State, direct and contingent, has already 
been carried beyond the point of safety." He recommended a sinking- 
fund, to be created by direct taxation, if there was no other resource, 
and also proposed measures to extricate the finances from embarrass- 
ments immediately pressing. 

Resolutions of inquiry about the geological survey were introduced 
in the Legislature, apparently under the impression that it was a cost- 
ly enterprise, furnishing sinecures for favorites, and of little public 
value. Never was there a more mistaken idea. The little force of 
scientific men was hard worked and poorly paid, and the results of their 
labor were of incalculable value. 

On the 11th Seward sent in to the Legislature an act of South 
Carolina in regard to the search of New York vessels and imprison- 
ment of colored seamen, with his reply to the Governor of that State 
as to the questions involved in the Virginia controversy. 

The threatened search law of South Carolina was to go into effect 
on the 1st oi May, unless Governor Seward should surrender the per- 
sons claimed by Virginia and the Legislature should repeal the "trial- 
by-jury " law. 

A few days later he sent in, with another message, some resolu- 
tions received from South Carolina, announcing her determination to 
refuse her share of the proceeds of the public lands, and requesting 
the cooperation of other States in annulling and repealing the law, 
her argument being that " the United States is a body corporate, 
distinct from the States as political bodies, and that the property 
in the public lands does not vest in any or in all the individual 
States for partition." lie recalled attention to the position of South 
Carolina in 1832, when she 'proposed to annul the tariff law, and de- 
clared that national sovereignty remained undivided and undiminished 
in the several States, while the United States was merely a confedera- 
tion, without absolute independence or sovereignty ; but remarked, 



J8S 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 



" Happily it is not necessary to decide between these certainly very 
incongruous expositions of the same text by the same respected au- 
thority; " and said that, " having always approved and often recommend- 
ed such a measure, I cannot now commend the views of South Carolina. 
On the contrary, I ask you to uphold the law." 

The legislative discussions over the questions raised by South Caro- 
lina the election law, and the canal question, lasted many days. The 
Senate, on the 24th, repealed the registry law, the Whig vote dividing, 
some for and some against it, so that there were only eight votes in its 
favor. The Governor signed the repeal of the registry law, but ac- 
companied the bill with a message making suggestions of further ac- 
tion in the same direction, and specifying the defects which it left un- 
corrected. 

Macla}\ from the committee to whom his monster petition had been 
referred, brought in a report on the school question, varying somewhat 
in detail from Verplanck's, but substantially adopting the same gen- 
eral principles ; and in his speech quoted from the recommendations of 
Governor Seward and Secretary Spencer in behalf of the same princi- 
ples. After long debate, the bill finally received a majority vote. The 
Whigs divided, some for and some against it. Most of the Democrats 
voted for it, but some declined to vote at all. 

The common-school system, so bitterly opposed, and regarded with 
such deep suspicion, was successfully carried through. In principle 
and in substance it has remained ever since a part of the statute-book 
of the State. Modifications, suggested by experience, have, from time 
to time, perfected it; and its plan of " cutting up the city of New York 
into school districts," instead of " being the death of the schools " of 
the metropolis, has rendered them models for imitation throughout the 
world. 

Intimations were freely given out that it was the intention of " the 
Regency," or rather of that portion of the party which claimed to be 
its descendants and representatives, to suspend the public works, and 
devote all funds at command toward paying the debt, at the same time 
passing laws not to increase it. 

While public questions were thus actively contested at Albany, the 
issues at Washington were confused and uncertain. The bill repealing 
the bankrupt act, which had passed the House, was nearly carried 
through the Senate. The vote stood twenty-two to twenty-four, so 
the repeal was defeated, and the law remained on the statute-book. 

In the United States Senate debates were going forward with ear- 
nestness over the veto-power and the tariff, the revenue and the cur- 
rency. Mr. Cushing had reported a bill for an " exchequer plan " sub- 
stantially embracing the views of President Tyler, but from this the 
other members of his committee dissented. 



1842.] THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 539 

But the portion of the Washington news that excited most inter- 
est at Albany was the struggle in the House of Representatives over 
the right of petition, and it was hailed as a triumphant vindication of 
the "old man eloquent " when the resolution censuring him was laid 
upon the table by one hundred and six to ninety-three. 

Among the military promotions now gazetted from Washington 
were those of some officers destined to future prominence, beyond, per- 
haps, even their ambition. First-Lieutenant E. V. Keyes was pro- 
moted to be a captain, and Second-Lieutenant William T. Sherman to 
be first-lieutenant in his place. Lieutenant Robert Anderson was also 
promoted to be captain, and Major Joseph P. Taylor, commissary, 
to be lieutenant-colonel. 

In the Legislature, Mr. Dickinson brought in a bill to make the 
New York & Erie Railroad, like the Erie Canal, a State work, to be 
owned and controlled by the government. Resolutions introduced 
by Franklin, and counter-resolutions brought in by Sherwood, sought 
to define the position of parties. The Whigs labored to show that 
New York was able and willing to pay her debt. The Democrats mag- 
nified the debt, and capitalists already began to feel nervous anxiety 
about the State stocks. European holders, since the repudiation of 
the debts of other States, were distrustful even of the credit of New- 
York. Many sent their securities home for sale ; and prices, of course, 
dropped lower and lower. The result was that a strong feeling began 
to grow up in Wall Street in favor of the Democratic policy of stop- 
ping the work on the canal enlargement, and incurring no further 
debt. 

The temperance reform seemed to be gaining in volume and force. 
In portions of the western part of the State, the popular interest in it 
seemed to equal that of a political campaign. 

Mass-meetings were held at Penn Yan, Palmyra, Seneca Falls, and 
other .places. Churches were thrown open, and filled with eager audi- 
ences. Many thousand names were enrolled. At the levee held on 
the occasion of the marriage of the President's daughter, no wine was 
given. Hotels in various towns closed their bars, and announced that 
hereafter they would be conducted on temperance principles. A Legis- 
lative Temperance Society was organized, with the Speaker at its head. 
A temperance meeting was held in the Assembly-chamber, the call 
having been signed by thirteen Senators and seventy Assemblymen. 
At Syracuse a temperance ball was given. It was announced that the 
pledge had been signed by four thousand people in that city, and by 
fifteen thousand in the county. Some Catholics, to give it more bind- 
ing force, wrote it in the form of a cross. Many of the temperance 
societies took the name of " Washington Temperance Society," and 
" Washingtonians." One in Salina celebrated the 22d by burning the 



£qq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

liquors of a public-house on a bonfire in the street, the proprietor hav- 
ing joined the society, and reopening his establishment as a temperance 
house, with a temperance oyster-supper. Temperance celebrations of 
the 22d, in various towns, with processions, orations, banners, and ban- 
quets, rivaled in enthusiasm even the festivities of the 4th of July. 

Charles Dickens was now having a triumphal progress among his 
readers and admirers. Crowds flocked to greet him, welcome him, and 
invite him. At Boston there was a great "Boz" dinner. In New 
York there were preparations for a still greater " Boz " ball. The Gov- 
ernor sent his good wishes, while regretting his inability to be present. 

In March the Legislature was to meet the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts at Springfield. This was to be the official celebration of the com- 
pletion of the railway between Boston and Albany. 

The 4th of March was deemed an appropriate day for the inaugura- 
tion of the line. The morning opened wet and unpropitious, but 
later, cleared off serene and balmy. At seven o'clock the Governor, 
accompanied by his staff and some of his family, found on board the 
ferry-boat about one hundred members of the Legislature. 

Starting from East Albany in the special train, they climbed the 
heavy grades till they had ascended fourteen hundred feet, and then, 
descending the eastern slope of the Berkshire Hills, ran smoothly and 
easily down into rittsfield. The State line was marked by a station, 
and jokes flew thick and fast when the party passing it found they had 
gone into a foreign jurisdiction where their power ceased. The train 
reached Springfield about mid-day. Forming in procession at the 
Hampden House, they moved under a discharge of artillery up to the 
Town-House, where the assemblage from the east were already await- 
ing their arrival. Entering the great hall, the Governors, legislative 
presiding officers, and other public functionaries, of both States, pro- 
ceeded to the platform. Governor Davis, of Massachusetts, rose, and, 
in the name of the Commonwealth, bade the New-Yorkers a cordial 
welcome. The two Governors joined hands, amid thundering cheers 
given by the assembled legislators. 

The cheers having subsided, Governor Davis made a brief address, 
alluding to the impressive and extraordinary character of the meeting, 
the useful effects of this reciprocal interchange of civilities, and the 
magnitude of the interests involved in the enterprise, one of mutual 
advantage to both States. 

Governor Seward responded in similar strain, remarking that Mas- 
sachusetts had hitherto seemed a distant country : 

The morning sun was just greeting the site of old Fort Orange as we took 
our leave, and now when he has scarcely reached the meridian, we have crossed 
our hitherto impassable mountain-barrier, and have met you here on the shore 
of the Connecticut. 



;LS42.] MEETING OF MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW YORK. 591 

On many occasions, in all ages, States, nations, and empires, have come 
together. But the trumpet heralded their approach ; they met in the shock of 
war, one or the other sunk to rise no more, and desolation marked the scene of 
the fearful encounter. How different is this scene! Here are no contending 
hosts, nor even the pomp of war. Not a helmet, sword, or plume, is seen, in all 
this vast assemblage. Nor is this a hollow truce between contending States. 
We are not met upon a cloth of gold, and under a silken canopy, to practise de- 
ceitful courtesies. We have come here, enlightened and fraternal States, with- 
out pageantry or even insignia of power, to renew pledges of fidelity, to culti- 
vate affection, and all the arts of peace. 

At the close of his speech, the entire auditory rose and gave six 
hearty cheers. Josiah Quincy, Jr., the President of the Massachusetts 
Senate, occupied the chair for the day. Then the company paired off, 
the two Governors leading the way, and each Massachusetts man arm- 
in-arm with a New-Yorker. Proceeding to the dining-hall, they found 
it decorated with flags and mottoes. There were long parallel tables, 
covered with a collation, and by each plate a cup of chocolate and a 
glass of water. The guests were standing, for there was no room for 
seats. The Governors and presiding officers occupied an elevated place 
at the centre of the east side. 

After grace had been said, the chairman observed that he had 
never heard before of a standing Committee of the Whole, but he 
nevertheless begged them to proceed to the discussion of the sub- 
jects laid before them. Laughter, applause, a clatter of knives and 
forks, and merry conversation, followed his sally. By-and-by, remark- 
ing that the time had come for sentiments, though he feared on this 
occasion they might be thought little better than toast-and-water, he 
brought down the house again by giving " The president and directors 
of the Western Railroad, who, notwithstanding the financial difficulties 
of the times, have contrived to make both ends meet." Then followed 
speeches by Colonel Bliss, of the railroad ; and Mr. Paige, the acting 
President of the New York Senate, who humorously described the hesi- 
tation with which he and others of the land and lineage of Diedrich 
Knickerbocker had ventured among the dreaded Yankees ; nay, how his 
political alarm had been excited lest, as Locofocos, they might be over- 
powered, and now they were conquered by the kindness and courtesy of 
their reception. Here Quincy characteristically remarked that "the 
Yankees who didn't like such Dutch should have French leave to walk 
Spanish." Mr. Walley, of the Massachusetts House, followed in a 
playful speech in which he questioned a decision of the chair. He 
was called to order for it and directed to take his seat, which he de- 
clined to do because he hadn't any. Mr. Taylor, the acting Speaker of 
the New York Assembly, followed. General Root, being called out as 
"the father of the New York Legislature," doubted if the Legislature 



591 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 



and suspending the further prosecution of the public works. It passed 
the Assembly by a party vote, and, after some debate, received the 
sanction of the Senate on the 28th of March. 

In commercial circles, in New York, there was no small rejoicing- 
over the success of Hoffman's bill. True, the canal enlargement was 
stopped ; but the check to Western trade seemed remote, while the 
restoration of financial confidence was immediate, and the imposition 
of taxes raised State stocks to par, giving the banks who held them a 
handsome profit. 

The aldermen of New York had, up to 1840, exercised magisterial 
functions. Charges of frequent abuse of this privilege led the Legis- 
lature to take it away from them, by a statute reorganizing the criminal 
courts. Strenuous efforts had been made to defeat this law, by con- 
testing its constitutionality. These failing, a bill to repeal it was hur- 
ried through both Houses. The Governor thereupon sent in his veto. 
In it he remarked : 

Shall we repeal a constitutional law, because a subordinate municipal coun-' 
cil denies its constitutionality? Or, because persons whom the act divests of 
judicial power, angrily contend with those to whom that power is transferred? 

We have the aid of experience in reviewing the decisions which the Legis- 
lature of 1840 made upon induction only. The greater number of trials, and 
smaller number of cases, and the increase of convictions and diminution of 
recognizances, seem to show, if not the excellence of the court, at least the 
superiority of the present over its former organization. 

Meanwhile, the Whigs at Washington were waging their contest 
about the tariff and finance. Mr. Clay had made his great speech on 
the 1st of March, exciting even more than usual attention, because it 
was believed to be his last one in the Senate. Tyler's message, about 
the condition of the Treasury, and the Secretary's report, had been 
received, but did not tend to clear the difficulties from the path of the 
Whigs ; and, finally, when his special message came in, recommending 
the repeal of the land distribution law, the censures of him, by his 
former supporters, were loud and deep. 

The antislavery men had now come to a better understanding of 
Seward's sentiments. Convinced by his course in the Virginia and 
Georgia controversies, the trial-by-jury act, and by all his letters and 
speeches, that he was an earnest opponent of that institution, they 
sought to enroll him under their own banner, as " a straight-out abo- 
litionist," tendering him a prominent place in their councils and nomi- 
nation on their ticket. 

While freely conceding and appreciating the honesty and single- 
ness of purpose which guided Gerrit Smith and his political associates, 
Seward frankly told them that he believed the way he had chosen was 
the one in which he could render most patriotic and effective service, 







v t 



'■K 



1842.] THE ABOLITIONISTS. 595 

even to the cause of antislavery. The destinies of a nation are deter- 
mined by one or the other of the two great parties that alternately gain 
control of the Government. They are not determined by the smaller 
factions, who, though they may educate public sentiment, never ac- 
complish practical results, because never strong enough to carry an 
election, or pass a law. To Gerrit Smith he said : 

March \Uh. 

I know Mr. Leavitt somewhat, and his writings much more. His suggestion, 
concerning a seat in Congress, arises from great kindness, but it is for many 
reasons impracticable. 

I have read, with much surprise, the accounts the newspapers give of Judge 
Story's decision, concerning the provisions of the Constitution relating to fugi- 
tive slaves. The startling doctrines propounded will awaken a profound sensa- 
tion throughout the country, and the advantages that slavery gains from them 
will be dearly bought. 

To Lewis Tappan he wrote : 

I have received your kind letter of the 18th instant, and beg you to be con- 
vinced that I am grateful, not only to your correspondent, Mr. Chase, for his 
favorable opinions, but to yourself, for communicating them to me. 

I have read, with much pleasure, the address of the Liberty party's State 
Convention in Ohio. It is written w r ith marked ability. I am right glad to see 
the argument for abolishing slavery placed upon the impregnable and yet popu- 
lar ground of the evils resulting to the whole country from the maintenance of 
a system of compulsory labor in the Southern States. Every day will win listen- 
ers and favor conviction, under such arguments as these, while the moral ques- 
tion encounters prejudices, the growth of centuries. 

As if in illustration of these views, debate on the slavery ques- 
tion now broke out in the Legislature, Democratic members attacking 
Seward's position in the Virginia controversy and Whigs defending it. 
The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States upon 
State laws, in regard to fugitive slaves, brought up the question 
whether the New York " trial-by-jury law " was valid, or a dead letter ; 
whether it ought to be repealed, whether it could be enforced, whether 
the decision of the Supreme Court applied to it, or was merely obit r 
diction. 

The bill taking away from the Governor the power of appointing 
the Bank Commissioners, and vesting it in the Legislature, had little to 
commend it to favor, except on party grounds. It was accordingly 
passed by only a party vote. The Governor vetoed it, saying : 

The bill under review proposes to transfer the power of appointing and re- 
moving those officers to the same bands which confer the banking privileges 
and the fiscal trusts, and would thus bring the banks and the Treasury into close 
conjunction with each other and with the Legislature. Such a conjunction 



59g LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

cannot be contemplated without apprehension for the public credit, the public 
morals, and the successful industry of our fellow-citizens. 

The Governor's veto of the State-Printer bill was also sent in. He 
deemed that it violated the constitutional restriction in regard to con- 
tracts. 

Attack was now opened on the Executive vigorously in regard to 
the Virginia controversy. Resolutions were adopted in the Senate, by 
sixteen to fourteen, disapproving the Governor's action, and requesting 
him to transmit the legislative censure of himself to Virginia. A bill 
was also reported to repeal the law granting trial by jury to fugitive 
slaves. In the debate the Democrats claimed that the decision in Prigg 
vs. Pennsylvania was applicable to that law. The Whigs took issue 
with this, but the bill was ordered to a third reading. 

Two days later came the Governor's reply in a special message : 

I am requested by that body to communicate their preamble and resolution 
to the Executive of Virginia. In proper cases I cheerfully comply with the 
requests of the Senate and Assembly, but I cannot do so when a request con- 
flicts with constitutional duties. I could not transmit the resolution in the pres- 
ent case without silently acquiescing therein, and thus waiving a decision to 
which I adhere. 

Cherished principles of civil liberty forbid me equally from recognizing sucli 
a natural inequality of men as the resolution of the Legislature seems to assume, 
and from contributing in any way to perpetuate the inequalities of political con- 
dition, from which result a large portion of the evils of human life. 

The Senate and Assembly will therefore excuse me from assuming the duty 
which an assent to their request would impose. 

The bill to repeal the " trial-by-jury law " passed the Senate, six- 
teen to fourteen, one Democrat, Bockee, voting against it. 

When the message about the Virginia resolutions was received, the 
Senate laid it on the table by a party vote. In the Assembly, unfavor- 
able reports as to the public works and the canal enlargement were 
agreed to. Twelve o'clock, the hour fixed for adjournment, arrived, 
amid much confusion and excitement, the supply bill not having 
passed. A joint resolution was adopted extending the session until 
three o'clock, that the Senate bills might be acted on. Three o'clock 
arrived, but the hand of the clock was seen to move backward by 
some unseen power. Finally, in the course of an hour, the Assembly 
adjourned. 

After the adjournment the story of the Virginia resolutions and the 
bill to repeal the trial by jury came out. 

The Democratic leaders, willing to show their party fidelity, had 
allowed them to be introduced ; but, preferring to avoid the responsi- 
bility of voting for them, had delayed twenty-four hours before the ad- 
journment, trusting that then some Whig would avail himself of his 



1842.] CANAL ENLARGEMENT STOPPED. 597 

privilege of objecting. As one objection would require the matter to 
be laid over one day, it would necessarily prevent final action. But 
the Whigs, determined that they should place themselves on record, 
made no objection ; so the bill passed the Senate. In the Assembly it 
was referred to the Judiciary Committee, an indirect method of stran- 
gling it ; and now, as the Governor refused to send the resolutions, 
Virginia received no aid or comfort from the Legislature whence she 
had confidently expected it. 

The vetoes of the bills legislating out of office the judges of the 
New York criminal courts, the Bank Commissioners, and the State 
Printer, not having been overruled in the Senate, they remained in 
office. Two columns and a half in the State paper were taken up with 
a list of the Governor's nominations, rejected or laid on the table. 

The address of the Whig members of the Legislature was published 
on the 14th. Its chief topic was the stoppage of the public works, 
which it deplored as a calamity to the State. They also addressed a 
letter to Henry Clay, referring to his course, thanking him for his 
national services, especially in the protection of American industry, 
and tendering their good wishes on his retirement. 

It received a courteous and appropriate acknowledgment, the whole 
correspondence implying, though not expressing, the Whig determina- 
tion to nominate him for the presidency. 

The Democratic members also published their address to the peo- 
ple, saying that the practice of contracting large State debts was dan- 
gerous to public liberty, subversive of free government and repugnant 
to maxims of Jefferson. 

The Erie Canal had now been enlarged between Albany and Wa- 
tervliet. It was a handsome work, costing more than a million dol- 
lars, and its completion was celebrated with festivities. But these few 
miles were comparatively useless, until the other sections were enlarged. 
The enlargement work was now stopped. The Black River and Gene- 
see Valley Canals were deserted. The work on the New York & Erie 
Railroad was abandoned. The Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Rail- 
road was left unfinished. In all parts of the State unfinished arches, 
embankments, culverts, and bridges, were seen, while the tax-gatherer, 
always an unwelcome guest, was knocking at every door for money to 
pay for them. The New York & Erie Railroad made an assignment 
of its property. In strong contrast to this sudden decay of works of 
improvement in New York, the Albany & Boston Railroad was doing a 
rapidly-increasing business through the thriving farms and busy vil- 
lages of Massachusetts. Its directors exultingly announced that they 
now had " two daily trains," and that their receipts were one thousand 
dollars a day. 

At the charter election in Albany the Whigs were beaten this 



598 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

spring. In the city of New York, Morris, the Democratic candidate 
for mayor was elected, the Whigs, however, carrying the Common 
Council. At about two o'clock in the afternoon a gang of fighting 
characters known as the " Spartan Band " of the " bloody Sixth " 
Ward, and claiming to be in the interest of Tammany Hall, had a 
fight with some Irishmen, which led to an attack upon the Sixth Ward 
Hotel. Having sacked this, they proceeded to Bishop Hughes's house 
in Mulberry Street, and with loud vociferations and threats smashed 
his windows, and apparently were proceeding to destroy it. As the 
news spread through the streets, the Irish assembled in large numbers 
to protect the bishop. The mayor and Justice Taylor now arriving 
with the police force, the mob withdrew, though not till they had 
smashed the windows of the Irish porter-houses in the vicinity. 

They then rushed to Prince Street, and commenced throwing brick- 
bats to smash the windows of the cathedral. The Irish again assembled 
to defend the cathedral, the men with clubs, the women, some armed 
with brickbats, some on their knees in prayer. A troop of horse sent 
by the city authorities now arrived on the scene, dispersed the mob, 
prevented further damage to the cathedral, and kept the peace by 
patrolling the neighborhood for several hours afterward. After care- 
ful examination into the casualties of the riot, it was found that no 
persons had been killed, though several had been severely wounded. 

Very seasonably, in view of these events, the new election law was 
now published, dividing towns and wards into smaller election-dis- 
tricts, abolishing the three days' election, and fixing the Tuesday suc- 
ceeding the first Monday in November as the election-day throughout 
the State. It also contained provisions to prevent illegal voting, and 
to secure the freedom of access to the polls. This reform, which Sew- 
ard had urged ever since he came into office, was at last consummated 
during the closing year of his term. 



CHAPTER XLII. 
1842. 



Lord Ashburton.— " The Dorr Rebellion" in Rhode Island.— Prigg vs. Pennsylvania.— 
Virginia Search Law.— Protestants and Catholics.— Extradition.— Jenny, the Fawn.— 
Dickens. — Spencer. — Wickliffe. — Hammond. 

Lord Ashburton was reported, early in April, to be at Annapolis, 
in the British frigate Warspite, commanded by Sir John Hay, after a 
voyage of fifty-two days. Received with a salute on landing, he pro- 
ceeded to Washington, where he took the house of Mathew St. Clair 



1842.] REBELLION IN RHODE ISLAND. 599 

Clark, and entered upon his negotiations with Mr. Webster, in accord- 
ance with his instructions, to settle " the various questions in dispute 
between the two countries," in reference to the unsettled questions of 
boundary, naturalization, fisheries, and unadjusted claims. Lord i\sh- 
burton was the second son of Sir Francis Baring*, and commenced a 
mercantile career in early life in Amsterdam. He came to the United 
States in 1796. In 1798 he married Miss Bingham, daughter of a 
United States Senator, whose hospitable house had open doors for the 
exiled French nobility in this country. He was thus brought into 
acquaintance with the Duke of Orleans, who had now become Louis 
Philippe, the King of the French, with Talleyrand, and with Washing- 
ton, Hamilton, Madison, Adams, Pinckney, and Jay. After passing 
five or six years in Philadelphia, he returned to England, and became 
a partner in the house of Baring Brothers. He withdrew from busi- 
ness in 1831, leaving his son in his place, and had since been often in 
Parliament, and long in public life. His appointment to negotiate with 
the United States was regarded as eminently judicious. 

The " anti-rent " troubles this year broke out in Schoharie County 
among the tenants of the Livingston Manor. The Governor issued ;i 
proclamation, offering a reward of seven hundred dollars for "persons 
convicted of unlawfully and forcibly resisting the execution of legal 
process in Schoharie County, by tumultuous bodies of disguised and 
armed men," and giving notice that the power of the law would be put 
in exercise to prevent the recurrence of the transactions, and to bring 
the offenders to punishment. 

Early in the year there w r ere rumors of serious trouble in Rhode 
Island. A party there was aiming to make a change in the form 
of the State government, which still retained features prescribed lijj- 
the royal charter in colonial days, and restricted the right of voting 
by a property qualification. This party, having failed in peaceable 
efforts, was now threatening force. There Avas great excitement in 
the State, and Governor King had issued a proclamation calling on all 
good citizens to sustain the constituted authorities. A few days later 
it was stated that he had sent commissioners to Washington, invok- 
ing the aid of the President to sustain the State government against 
attempts to overthrow it by violence. The President had answered, 
promising to aid and support the existing government until the peo- 
ple should have legally framed a new constitution. The election in 
Rhode Island took place on Monday, the 18th. The nominee of the' 
" Law-and-Order " party was Governor King, while the revolutionary, 
or "Free-suffrage" party, as they called themselves, nominated Thomas 
W. Dorr. They further declared that, notwithstanding the President's 
letter, they should persist in holding an election under the pretended 
new constitution which they had framed, but which had never b. en 



qqq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

legally adopted. At this election, under the so-called " People's Con- 
stitution," a large vote was polled for " Governor " Dorr. 

Governor King now called an extra session of the General Assembly 
at Providence. The Legislature promptly authorized the Governor to 
take measures for the public defense, and to appoint a Board of Coun- 
cilors. They empowered the major-general to enlist volunteers and 
provide for their payment. Various projects were proposed and dis- 
cussed for another convention to frame a constitution, the right of 
voting to be extended to all taxed for one hundred and fifty dollars. 

In April, a meeting at the City Hall, in Albany, demanded an 
amendment of the Constitution in view of the decision of the Supreme 
Court in Prigg vs. Pennsylvania. This decision in the Prigg case 
was one that occupied a prominent place in all future discussions in 
regard to fugitive-slave laws. Briefly it was this : Edward Prigg, as the 
agent of a Maryland slave-owner, seized a runaway slave-woman, Mar- 
garette, with her children, one of whom was born some time after she 
had made her escape. He returned her to bondage. For this he was 
arrested, tried, and convicted, in Pennsylvania. Appealing from the 
courts of that State to the Supreme Court of the United States, the 
argument there turned upon the constitutional provision relating to 
" persons held to service in one State escaping to another." Judge 
Story pronounced the decision, which was, that Congress had exclusive 
power to legislate concerning fugitive slaves ; that the States had no 
power to legislate on the subject, either for or against ; that the owner 
might take his slaves wherever he could find them. Judges McLean and 
Thompson were of opinion that the owner must prosecute his claim ac- 
cording to the provision of the act of 1793. The other judges held 
tat the slave might be seized and removed, with entire disregard of 
3 laws of the State. But the main point was, that fugitive-slave 
catching belonged exclusively to the Federal Government, and that the 
States had no right to interfere with it. 

While the laws of Pennsylvania in regard to fugitives were thus 
declared null and void, the time had arrived when New York was to 
receive her punishment by Virginia for a like offense. The non-inter- 
course act of Virginia was to take effect on the 1st of May ; Governor 
Seward not having delivered the three colored men, and the Legislature 
not having repealed the " trial-by-jury law." The Virginia act pro- 
vided for the search of all vessels coming from or belonging to New 
"York. To make sure that no slave should be concealed on board, the 
vessel was to be seized and held by the local authorities until the mas- 
ter or owner had executed a bond of a thousand dollars to the Com- 
monwealth, to satisfy any judgment growing out of the violation of 
the act. For every neglect to comply with the act a fine of five hun- 
dred dollars was imposed. For these fines the vessel was made liable. 



1842.] THE VIRGINIA SEARCH-LAW. G01 

Inspectors were stationed at Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, Hampton, 
the mouth of the James, the York, the Rappahannock, and wherever 
else the Governor should think proper, to watch New York vessels, and 
to collect fees from them for this surveillance. The tendency of the 
whole enactment was to discourage New York vessels from coming 
into Virginia waters. 

Affairs in Rhode Island soon reached a crisis. The insurgents or 
" Free-suffrage " party had announced that on the 3d of May they 
would induct their Governor, Thomas W. Dorr, and his Legislature, 
into office ; Governor King declared his determination to enforce the 
law against all attempts to usurp the government. The insurgents 
sent out invitations to various military companies to march to Provi- 
dence "to perform escort-duty on Tuesday at the inauguration of Gov- 
ernor Dorr." 

General Wool, meanwhile, had arrived at Fort Adams, in Narra- 
gansett Bay, with three hundred United States troops. In Providence 
no opposition had been made to the election held by the " Free-suf- 
frage " faction, who polled G,989 votes. On the Wednesday succeed- 
ing, at the regular election, 7,152 were polled by the " Law-and-Order 
men," who claimed that they were " not a party," but " the gov- 
ernment." 

Intelligence next came that on Tuesday the Dorr party had 
marched in procession, sixteen hundred strong, about half of them 
armed, from a tavern to an unfinished foundery -building in Providence, 
with music and banners. There they proceeded to organize a " Gen- 
eral Assembly." Sixty-six members of the " House of Representa- 
tives " answered to their names, were sworn in, and elected a Speaker 
and Clerk. The towns were then called for votes for Senators anJB 
general officers. Everything went off quietly without interference. 
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Legislature met on the same day at 
Newport. Two days later came tidings that the usurping Legislature 
had adjourned till July. 

The regular one remained in session, recalled the State arms from 
the military companies, counted the votes for Governor, showing that 
King was elected by a large majority, and discussed resolutions asking 
the assistance of the General Government in their difficulties. There 
were rumors that the sheriff was in pursuit of Governor Dorr to ar- 
rest him, but could not find him. A manifesto of the revolutionists 
declared: "The people of Rhode Island are now struggling for con- 
stitutional liberty. They appeal for sympathy and assistance; they 
have arrayed against them the concentrated wealth of their own State. 
and are threatened with the armed force of the United States Govern- 
ment. They solicit contributions of arms and ammunition, musk> 
rifles, pistols, and swords." 



g02 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

Soon after Governor Dorr's whereabouts was explained. He and 
other leaders of the revolution were in New York, in conference with 
sympathizers there. One evening they honored the Bowery Theatre 
with their presence. A national banner was displayed, bearing the in- 
scription, "The democracy and patriotism of New York will throng the 
Bowery this evening to give their champion a welcome." 

Some of the members of the revolutionary party, alarmed at the 
crisis to which affairs were evidently tending, now renounced their 
association with it, and the Rhode Island papers contained several res- 
ignations of the so-called " representatives." 

On the other hand, Governor Dorr, encouraged by the support 
given and promised in New York, issued his proclamation, appealing 
to the people, expressing his opinion that the contest would become 
national, with the State as the battle-ground of ancient freedom, and 
adding, " No further arrests will be permitted, and I hereby direct the 
military promptly to prevent the same, and to release all who may be 
arrested." This was signed by Dorr, as Governor and " Commander- 
in-Chief of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." 

On his return from New York, Dorr was received at the depot by 
eleven hundred men, partly armed. Escorted through the streets, he 
made a violent speech, brandishing his sword and saying that he 
" would die rather than yield," etc. He ordered the military to be 
ready at an hour's notice, called a council of Avar, established his head- 
quarters at a Mr. Anthony's house, on the hill, defended by two field- 
pieces and an armed force. There he defied the government to arrest 
him. 

Governor King issued his orders, calling the military companies 
^nder arms, the bells ringing an alarm about midnight. Wednesday 
morning the insurgents marched, in full force, to the arsenal, Dorr 
at the head, demanding its surrender. Colonel Blodgett, its com- 
mander, refused, and was evidently prepared to defend it. No assault 
was made : the insurgents apparently having expected that their mere 
demonstration would have made it yield. At this point, the tide 
seemed to turn. The confidence of the " Law-and-Order " men rose : 
that of the Dorr men rapidly abated. Governor King dispatched his 
troops to the principal points of the city, of which they rapidly took 
possession. The Governor and sheriff went to Anthony's house, to 
arrest Dorr, but found him absconded, and his supporters dispersing 
or surrendering. The so-called "People's officers," who had been 
elected, published their resignations, disavowing Dorr's acts, and say- 
ing that "they never contemplated resisting the General Govern- 
ment." 

The close of the troubles now seemed at hand ; especially as the 
"Law-and-Order" party announced their readiness to make a liberal 



1842.] THE "DORR WAR." ,; .;, 

extension of the right of suffrage, and to hold a Constitutional Con- 
vention, in a lawful and peaceable way. 

Quiet was once more restored in Providence, though the war of 
opinions continued to rage in the newspapers within and without the 
State. No one know whither Dorr had fled ; but there were rumors 
that Governor King had issued requisitions for him on the Governors 
of adjoining States. 

On the 20th Dorr issued an address, dated nowhere in particular, 
in regard to what he called his " withdrawal from headquarters," and 
explaining why his cannon did not go off when ordered to be fired at 
the arsenal. He said " they were found to be plugged with wood and 
iron!" He stated that "the absence of friends" and the "paralyzing 
effect of the publication of resignations" obliged him to withdraw. 
He said there had been no compromise, and that he still considered his 
constitution and government the only ones to be recognized, though 
omitting to tell where they were to be found ! 

Governor Seward's attention was called to the question by a requi- 
sition for the surrender of Dorr in case he should take refuge in New 
York. With this he promised to comply. Insurrection, though some- 
times a necessity in monarchical countries, he never believed justifiable 
in the United States. He held that the opportunity given by our 
political system, through the press and the ballot-box, was ample to 
achieve all reforms. Although he sympathized in the desire of the 
Rhode Island reformers to make their State government more repub- 
lican, he steadfastly opposed all their revolutionary proceedings. So, 
in the anti-rent excitement, though he concurred in the dislike to 
feudal tenures, he discountenanced everything that savored of riotous 
resistance to legal authority. 

Advices from "Washington continued to grow more and more dis- 
couraging for Whig harmony. The rejection of nominations by the 
Senate widened the breach between the President and the friends of 
Mr. Clay. 

Negotiations between Lord Ashburton and Mr. Webster were more 
satisfactory. They were going on at the State Department, and were 
promising to settle all the points in dispute. 

The Florida War, through the perseverance and activity of Colonel 
Worth, had apparently been brought to an end after seven years' .skir- 
mishing. Orders were issued for the withdrawal of the troops. One 
hundred and fifty Indian warriors were captured, and one thousand old 
men, women, and children had been sent bej'ond the Mississippi. The 
Indians, however, were still left in possession of several fastnesses. 
The war had cost forty million dollars. 

As no extradition treaty yet existed, American and British Gov- 
ernors had to rely upon each other's courtesy, or sense of justice, to 



6 Q4. LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

obtain the surrender of criminals for punishment. Seward wrote to 
Sir Charles Bagot in reference to one : 

.... He is a notorious offender, well known to the police in most of our 
cities. I have no right to demand from your Excellency a surrender of the 
fugitive, but, supposing that it would be agreeable to you to relieve the Brit- 
ish Province of such felons, I beg leave to say that, if you should think 
proper to cause him to be surrendered, the proceeding would be regarded by me 
as an act of international courtesy. 

In a letter to an earnest friend in Canada he wrote, in regard to 
the Protestant and Catholic religions : 

There will be errors of religious belief, as there will be of opinion upon 
questions of moral truth or abstract science. These are to be tolerated until 
they are corrected, and they can only be corrected by kindness, persuasion, and 
conviction. No man, I think, more clearly sees the errors of the Church of 
Rome, or regards them as more inconsistent with the simplicity and beauty of 
Scriptural revelation, than I do. None values more highly the political, and 
moral, and social advantages the world is deriving from the Reformation. Yet 
I should esteem myself an unworthy Protestant and no Christian if I forgot 
that the Catholic holds fast to the Christian faith that I deem essential, and 
that every man, no matter of what race, clime, or complexion, is my brother, 
and has a right to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience and 
the faith of his forefathers. 

A young fawn had been sent to Seward by a friend. Playful and 
docile enough to be a household pet, she for some months enjoyed 
the liberty of the grounds about the Executive mansion ; but, unfor- 
tunately for her, the day came when she grew large enough to clear 
the board fence at a bound. On the evening of the day on which Mrs. 
Seward had gone to Auburn for the summer, he wrote : 

Tuesday Evening, May 24th. 

When I reached the house this morning, on my return from the cars, I found 
a multitude of boys, almost as great in number as Governor Dorr's " invinci- 
bles," and presently Nicholas and a stout apprentice came in at the gate, bringing 
Jenny, the fawn, a captive. The poor, foolish creature, lonesome and broken- 
hearted, I suppose, because Fred and Willie had left her, leaped the inclosure, 
and commenced a most improbable search for sympathy in the thoroughfares of 
the capital. The dogs pursued her, and the boys became allies by force of natu- 
ral instinct. She came back, Weeding from her wounds, and " weeping," in- 
deed, like an innocent that had been stricken. She is now in the cellar, and 
since she cannot be restrained, if you will send for Colonel Richardson and get 
him to show John how to make an inclosure, I will, as soon as you let me know 
that the prison is ready, send the foolish creature to you. 

The house is solitary, and I am quite lonely ; but the day has been turned to 
good account in examining and assorting old papers that have been too long 
neglected. 

I am thinking about a study when I go home. Unless I can sell some real 
estate, of which there is now no probability, I can scarcely afford to build ; and 



1842.] PLANS FOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 605 

vet it seems almost unendurable to take my books and exclude myself from the 
dwelling of my family. Besides, I bave now an accumulation of really valuable 
books and papers for literary purposes, and they would be exposed to accident 
and to depredation in the crowded part of tbe town. 

Bob is whistling away in solitude in tbe ball. I grieve to see him alone 
there. Shall I not send him to you by the first man kind enough to carry him 
to you — and the canary-birds too? Abby will take better care of them than w e 
can. 

This afternoon I dropped into Mr. Brown's studio. His heads of Dr. Nott, 
Dr. Potter, and others, almost speak. lie is making a marble bust of Mrs. AVil- 
lard. By-tbe-way, he told me that Jocelyn's picture of me was the best that 
had been made. 

Ai.kaxy, May 2C>tJi. 

We have a fine bright morning here, and I trust that you have had sufficient 
repose after your journey to begin to enjoy the pleasures of rural life. 

I met Mr. Huntington, of Troy, a few days since. He enjoys, perhaps, more 
perfect health than any person in our acquaintance. He gave me an account of 
bis mode of life. One feature in it seemed to me worthy of notice. Hi 
be never takes his breakfast without some previous exposure in the air, wii h 
ercise, if possible. Nothing be thinks worse than going from the toilet straight 
to tbe breakfast-room. I have, since you left, endeavored to commence a habit 
of rising half an hour or an hour before breakfast, with a view of going out. 

I bave advices this morning from Colonel Pitman. Governor Dorr is not 
found in New York, and it is said has not been there since bis grand flourish- 
ing exit, when on his way from Washington. Tbo colonel writes me that the 
information he receives from Rhode Island is altogether of a pacific kind. 

As my retirement from my present situation approaches, and I look abroad 
upon tbe world which I am to enter without an income, and even without any 
arrangements for supporting a family, already expensive and becoming more SO, 
my spirits have become depressed when I have reflected upon the probabilitj 
that, for a season at least, I should have to struggle with pecuniary embarr 
ments resulting from the universal dera of financial concerns in the 

country. But, after all, this depression has not unmanned me. and I have bi 
to try to profit by it. On the 9th of May 1 determined to keep a memorandum 
of my resolution and purposes, and thus to strengthen myself in the proceedings 
which the present emergency seems to require. It is very doubtful whether such 
matters can be changed and corrected after one is forty years old. 1 have, how- 
ever, determined to try; and, since a fortnight has passed, I find myself so 
cessful thus far that I feel T may safely ( ommunicate with you. I am studying 
retrenchment in every form, and at the same time continuing in every way to 
make the most out of what we have, and to make preparations for a comfort- 
able settlement of my affairs with all possible dispatch after I leave the 
You will aid me all you can in thi raatti \ I knew. If I had only led your 
prudence years ago, I should now have [ess to accomplish. 

Ai.r.ANv. 6 
I wish you could be in tbe grounds here this bright morning. The chestnuts 
are in full bloom, and there is a humming of bees in their foliage, like the music 
of a distant waterfall. 



006 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

By-the-way, I am going to have an artist take a view of the place. It is not 
so pleasant in your eyes as in mine. Still, you will like to have it ; and it will 
be more valuable because, within two or three years, the groves, and even the 
fine old mansion-house, will give place to rows of dark brick walls. 

Albany, Tuesday, May Zlst. 
The blasting of the bud of treason in Rhode Island is very gratifying. Eead 
the Dorr address, and see if you do not admire his coolness and dignity under 
his disgrace. He is manifestly a superior man. Do not Avait for me in regard 
to the mineralogical cabinet. Consult your own taste where my letter is unin- 
telligible. I am impatient to see a beginning of a return to the old condition 
of things. I shall be cheerful enough if I know you are so. Hammond's second 
volume was delivered to me this morning. I will send it to Judge Miller this 

evening. 

Albany, Thursday Homing. 

So Dickens has cheated us outright. I'll punish him for it, by reading the 
last chapter of "Little Nell," and finding out how a beautiful story has been 
spoiled. A party attends him on the steamer to his ship, when he embarks on 
the 7th. 

After her long imprisonment, Jenny, the fawn, has been released into the 
yard to crop the grass with her own minute teeth, during the day. I venture 
to trust the foolish ingrate, but not without fear of her flight. 

Albany, Friday Morning. 

I had last evening a visit from Mrs. Quincy, the wife of the President of 
Harvard University, her son Josiah Quincy, Jr., the humorous President of the 
Massachusetts Senate, and of the " Boz " dinner, his wife and sister. They had 
preserved pleasant recollections of your visit at Boston, and were apparently 
gratified with their reception here, regretting your absence at home. 

It had been made known to me that the Postmaster-General, Mr. Wiekliffe, 
and his daughter, would arrive in town last evening. So I presented myself at 
the Eagle. I found him a very fine-looking, sensible, unaffected man, manifestly 
vigorous in mind, and of right judgment. I have seldom been so much pleased 
with a public man on first acquaintance. His daughter was an exceedingly in- 
teresting young lady ; but, there being no ladies in this domicile, she was not 
attracted here. Her father came with two or three other gentlemen to supper 
at ten. We had a not unpleasant, but quite unprofitable discussion, of the con- 
dition and prospects of the Whig party. 

John C. Spencer has invited me on the President's authority, or rather with 
his gracious assent, to visit Washington. Morgan had told Mr. Spencer that I 
wanted to come, but was apprehensive of an unkind reception ; and so the Sec- 
retary thought my reception would be. This he reported to the President, who 
said: " No, no, why should he not come ? I should be glad to see him." Where- 
upon the Secretary tendered to you and me a cordial invitation. I shall, of 
course, excuse myself, having no appetite for the entertainments at the Capitol, 
and undervaluing them as much as they are overvalued by those who bestow 
them. 

Bob's fame in the art of music has gone abroad, and he has set up a singing- 
school. He has one pupil, who was brought here by a bright-eyed boy, and in- 
stalled at Bob's feet to learn the gamut. He has made no effort to instruct his 



1842.] JENNY, THE FAWN. qq>j 

pupil yet, and is preparing to lay aside his flute for the season, I think. Jenny, 
though "a hind let loose," is content within the inclosure, and gives no si; r n of 
a desire to rove again. The poor creature has lost much flesh during her im- 
prisonment in the cellar. 

Ai.ii.vnv, Saturday Morning, June Uh. 
" I never nursed a dear gazelle 

To glad me with its sort black eye, 
But when it came to know me well 
And love me, it was sure to die." 

I came in yesterday from the State Hall. Harriet announced to me that 
Jenny had been exploring the cellar, and was found eating the poisonous feast 
that you had cruelly prepared, before leaving here, to diminish the rat family 
during your absence. Jenny was walking about for half an hour, then sank 
down upon the grass, and no caresses nor dainty food that we could offer 
roused her from her drooping state. There was a deep and mournful sadness 
throughout all our little household. But she is well this morning. 

Albany, June 6, 1842. 

Yesterday was so very fine a day that I spent its hours chiefly under the trees. 

Mr. Greeley has sent you a sheet containing a printed copy of his poetical 
effusions, which have not been published. It will go to you to-day, in a bundle 
of newspapers. 

Jenny revives, and I hope will henceforth eschew arsenic. In " maiden 
meditation fancy free, 1 ' she seems to be studying to give her experience of the 
medical effect of mineral poison. Bob becomes ambitious. The lady-canary 
has devoted herself, at last, with becoming assiduity to hatching the eggs she so 
long neglected. We have an addition to our aviary in the form of a blue bird, 
with golden-striped wings. My time is so precious that I must be brief. 

Albany, June 10th. 

You will find the papers to-day quite rich, in Governor King's proclamation, 
offering a reward for Governor Dorr ; in the trial of Colonel Monroe Edwards : 
and in the diplomatic dueling correspondence between Stanley and Wise. 

I am studying geology somewhat, by way of preparing to write the introduc- 
tion to the "Geological Survey." I have made free use of the specimens for a 
day or two, and become quite interested in the study. 

Albany, Jurn 16, 1842. 

What a day I have had ! I was sitting on the piazza, smoking my cigar and 

reading the news, when Mrs. M , widow of the late dyer, who had done 

many things for us in his way, came for a pardon to release her son from the 
county jail. While engaged in hearing her appeal, came a woman, eight months 
in a peculiarly interesting state, poor, and with no place to lay her head, for the 
pardon of her young husband, a watchman, who had committed burglary in NV« 
York. She was crowded away by a maiden lady, whose only brother is in the 
State-prison at Auburn for forgery. She gave place to a poor, broken-hearted 
creature, whose honey-moon was scarcely passed before her husband was dis- 
patched to Sing Sing. And when she left me, I received a grocer's w ife, « I 
husband was consigned to the penitentiary in New York, for a larceny. And to 
these appeals was soon added one for a pardon to Thomas Topping, convicted 
of the murder of his wife. From these applications for Executive clemency, 1 
have had to change to issuing warrants for the arrest of Governor Dorr. 



608 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

1842. 

End of Rhode Island Rebellion.— Dr. Vinton.—" Notes on New York."— Opening of Cro- 
ton Aqueduct. — Collapse of United States Bank.— Presidential Nominations.— Guber- 
natorial Candidates.— Extradition.— The Ashburton Treaty. 

The Rhode Island troubles were not yet entirely over. About the 
1st of June the Supreme Court in Providence had found indictments 
for treason against the members of the pretended " General Assembly." 
Meanwhile, it was announced that Dorr was in Connecticut, enlisting 
men, collecting munitions of war, and issuing scrip, preparatory to a 
second campaign. The General Assembly, toward the close of June, 
called a convention to frame the new constitution. Meanwhile, a force 
of three or four hundred insurgents was reported to be assembling at 
Chepachet, and committing various depredations and disorderly acts ; 
stopping passengers on the highways, etc. The uniformed companies 
of Newport, Providence, Warren, and Bristol, were again called under 
arms to oppose this demonstration. 

The young rector of Trinity Church, Newport, Francis Vinton, when 
the volunteers from that town were assembling to proceed to Provi- 
dence, prayed with them, and as soon as the solemn service was over, 
said, " I have prayed with you, my fellow-citizens, and now I am ready 
to fight with you ; " " and no man," remarked the Courier, " among 
them, perhaps, was so well qualified, for he was educated at West 
Point, and was in the army before he took orders in the Church." 

On the 28th came news that the Governor had proclaimed martial 
law in Providence ; that families were leaving the city. Governor 
King had issued a proclamation, calling on all the adherents of Dorr 
to throw T down their arms and disperse. " Governor " Dorr issued 
a counter-proclamation, calling out his military forces to " resist des- 
potism," and summoning his General Assembly to meet on the 4th 
of July. But this campaign was destined to be brief. It was on 
Thursday that Dorr returned to Rhode Island ; on Friday he reviewed 
and harangued his forces at Chepachet ; on Saturday he issued his 
civil and military proclamations ; on Sunday he waited the popular 
response ; on Monday he received news that the forces of the State 
government were approaching from various directions to surround his 
encampment. He issued a notice that his military force " was dis- 
persed," and then incontinently fled, accompanied, it was said, by 
about fifty men, to Connecticut. There was no conflict, though some 
individual encounters. A number of prisoners were taken, principally 
stragglers from Dorr's camp ; and so ended the " Dorr rebellion." 

Seward, during the progress of hostilities in the little State, had 



1842.] '-NOTES ON NEW YORK." (J09 

sent two members of his military staff to Providence to keep him ad- 
vised of the progress of events, and to tender to Governor King the 
assurance of such sympathy and aid by New York in the work of 
maintaining law and order as one State could properly extend to 
another. They were accompanied thither by Mr. Weed, whose letters 
to the Evening Journal gave a graphic sketch of the campaign. 

As his letters show, Seward had commenced the preparation of 
his " Notes on New York," which were to form the introduction to the 
"Geological Survey." Anxious to avail himself of the most authentic 
information of the progress of the sciences and arts in the State, 
he addressed letters to leading men, without distinction of religious 
or political opinion. The facts thus gathered enabled him to pre- 
sent a summary worthy to precede the great work. Thus, he con- 
sulted Chancellor Kent in reference to the legal profession; Dr. Horace 
B. Webster, about the history of science; Prof. Mahan, about military 
science and engineering ; the Rev. Charles Anthon, about classical lit- 
erature ; Colonel Stone, about Indian history ; Prof. Renwick, about 
mechanical science and invention ; Luther Tucker, about agriculture ; 
Gabriel Furman, about antiquities ; Rev. Dr. Hawks, about sacred 
literature and ecclesiastical history ; Mr. Crittenden, about school- 
books and female education ; Prof. Redfield, about natural philosophy ; 
the Rev. Dr. Campbell, about polemic divinity ; A. B. Johnson, of 
Utica, about philosophy and finance ; Prof. Weir, about arts of de- 
sign ; George Folsom, about the Historical Society ; Gideon Hawley, 
about colleges and academies ; B. F. Butler, about civil polity and 
codification; S. B. Ruggles, about roads and canals; M. M. Noah, 
about the drama and the stage ; Rev. Dr. Nott, about clergymen ; Dr. 
Francis, about medical science ; Edwin Croswell, about the history of 
the press ; Dr. Dekay, about zoology ; Dr. Beck, about chemistry and 
mineralogy ; Dr. Torrey, about botany ; President Charles King, about 
political history and the biography of public men ; Charles Fenno 
Hoffman, about fiction ; C. N. Bement, about cattle ; Joseph Blunt, 
about navigation ; Judge Conkling, about law and government ; Hor- 
ace Greeley, about trade, manufactures, and arts; Orville Holley, 
about geography and typography ; A. J. Downing, about horticulture ; 
Dr. Hun, about surgery and physiology ; Prof. S. F. B. Morse, about 
science and arts of design ; William Jay, about slavery ; John L. 
O'Sullivan, about the penal code and public charities. 

The summer brought, as usual, to Albany old and new friends, who 
paused in their tours of recreation to call upon the Governor. Hard- 
ing, the artist, who in summer used to lay aside the pencil and palette 
for the rod and fly, sent over by the new railroad a string of Massa- 
chusetts brook-trout. 

Stephens, the traveler, had been during the ] r explor- 

39 



G ^0 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

ing the ruins of ancient cities in Central America, accompanied by 
Mr. Catherwood, the artist, and had just returned, laden with the ma- 
terial for his two interesting volumes. 

The Vincennes, the flag-ship of the Exploring Expedition, which 
had sailed in August, 1838, and had ever since been exploring the 
Pacific Ocean and islands, arrived this summer. Among its officers 
were several with whom Seward was afterward to be brought into inti- 
mate relations — Commodore Wilkes, Lieutenant Oliver H. Perry, Lieu- 
tenant A. L. Case, Lieutenant Edwin J. De Haven, Lieutenant Alonzo 
B. Davis, Lieutenant William M. Walker, Lieutenant William M. Mau- 
ry, Titian R. Peale, naturalist ; James Alden, commander ; Joseph S. 
Sandford, acting master. 

The Croton Aqueduct, so long in progress, was now completed. The 
gates at Croton Dam were opened at five o'clock, Wednesday morning, 
and the stream, ten inches deep, commenced its flow through the 
aqueduct toward the city. Some of the commissioners and engineers 
accompanied- the water down. Part of the time they were in their 
barge inside of the aqueduct, and part of the time on the surface 
above. They arrived at Sing Sing, eight miles, in about six hours ; 
started again at noon, and so continued their gradual progress with 
the water to the Harlem River, where it arrived on Thursday morning. 

When it was known in New York that the waters of the Croton 
were actually beginning to pour into the receiving reservoir at York- 
ville, an immense crowd gathered, said to be fifteen or twenty thou- 
sand, and among them were hundreds of ladies. Every avenue reach- 
ing to the reservoir was black with vehicles. The Court of Errors, 
which was in session in the city, went up in a body to witness the 
novel spectacle. The mayor, and Common Council, of course, were 
present. There was a military display, and a salute of thirty-four guns 
was fired, one for each mile from the Croton River to the reservoir. 

The last link in the railway between Boston and Buffalo was fin- 
ished this summer, the road between Buffalo and Attica having been 
completed. 

The United States Bank had now finally collapsed. It had over- 
thrown both of the political parties : first, that which opposed, and 
afterward, that which supported it ; and then ended by destroying 
itself. 

There were many sad incidents of individual misfortune attending, 
its fall ; for, while prospering, everybody had been eager to grasp the 
stock, believing no other so safe. One man, living in Philadelphia, 
had invested his whole property, forty thousand dollars, in it. His 
wife had twenty thousand in her own right, which they also put in. 
A legacy, the next year, of ten thousand, Avas also deposited, and then 
the bank collapsed ; they lost every farthing, and he became a day- 



1842.] ■ EXTRADITION. Gil 

laborer. Two children who, in 1837, were left a fortune of eighty-two 
thousand dollars, were now living in a hovel, their guardians having 

invested the entire sum in United States Bank stock. A sea-captain, 
after fifty years' service, retired with fifty thousand dollars, which he 
invested in the bank, and ended as a pauper in the lunatic asylum. 

The German immigration, which up to this time had been but small, 
was rapidly increasing, and a story was circulated that one entire vil- 
lage in Hesse was about to come over, bringing its lawyers, doctors, 
school-master, and clergyman. 

The Clay movement continued with unabated vigor. Mr. Clay's 
portrait was in the windows of book-stores and print-shops. On the 
9th of June a great barbecue took place at Lexington in his honor, and 
his speech on that occasion was eagerly reprinted and read by the 
Whigs throughout the Union, as the key-note of the coming presi- 
dential campaign. 

Mr. Tyler was charged with the design of seeking a renomination 
from the Democrats, and also of attempts to build up, by the use of 
official patronage, a party of his own. If such was his object, it was 
attended with no success. Those who held office under him were 
called the "Tyler guard," and they comprised the bulk of his support- 
ers. The Democrats praised his independence, and defended his acts, 
in their speeches and newspapers ; but they evinced no disposition to 
swerve from their own organization or candidates. 

Writing to Christopher Morgan, Seward said : 

Ai.uany, June 10, 1842. 
You see, we have the presidential campaign already set. The nomination of 
Mr. Clay, made as it virtually is by the press, and by Congress, and several 
Legislatures, brings Mr. Van Buren forward as the opposition candidate. The 
reports from the Western States, of Mr. Van Buren's progress there, are inspir- 
ing his friends here with much hope. We must now carry this State this fall, 
or the prospect of the presidential election will he dark enough. The discus 
of the gubernatorial nomination has commenced. The three mosl prominent 
candidates are Bradish, Collier, and Fillmore. I cannot properly speculal 
that subject, being satisfied with the three alternatives. Either will conn 
all the votes, and he personally a go far as my feelings are concerned. 

The Democratic papers, in like manner, were discussing their most 
available candidate. Among the principal names mentioned were 1 1 
of William C. Bouck, Samuel Young, Michael Hoffman, George R. 
Davis, and Charles Humphrey. 

The echo of public opinion from England, in reference to the Mi 
case, now brought by the foreign mails, showed a calmer and more 
judicious temper. The . "■' rgh Review said : 

When McLeod voluntarily entered the territory of New York, he knew, 



612 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 



or must be held to have known, what were its laws ; and he tacitly engaged to 
be governed by them. England has always refused to deviate from her laws, on 
the requisition of a foreign power. She ought not to have complained that 
America followed her example. 

In reference to the extradition of fugitives from justice across the 
frontier, Seward wrote to President Tyler : 

June 2d. 

I formed an opinion, on examining the subject, that the power in such cases 
was a national one, and did not reside in the State government. The decision 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case which went from Ver- 
mont, if it did not establish that constitutional principle, at least rendered the 
right of the State so doubtful that the power could no longer safely be exer- 
cised. Nevertheless, the Canadian authorities, in pursuance of the provincial 
laws, and as acts of courtesy, have, until recently, surrendered fugitives. On 
the 21st of May last I applied to his Excellency Sir Charles Bagot, Governor- 
General of British North America, to surrender a fugitive from this State ; and 
I learn, from his reply, that doubts have arisen on the part of the Imperial 
Government whether the power can be legally exercised by the colonial au 
thorities. 

The subject is of such great importance that it seems proper to submit it for 
your consideration. I beg leave to suggest whether it would not be expedient 
to give it a place among the subjects of negotiation between the United States 
and Great Britain. 

And in writing on the same subject to Sir Charles Bagot, he said : 

The importance of a mutual surrender of fugitive criminals between the con- 
tiguous countries we represent has always been acknowledged by your Excel- 
lency's predecessors, and mine. And it is now increased by tlie greater facili- 
ties of intercourse between this State and Canada. . . . The power of demand- 
ing and surrendering fugitives, when a foreign state is concerned, is an incident 
to the General and not to the State government ; and, inasmuch as no law or 
treaty for this object has been made by the Federal Government, the question is 
in abeyance. Impressed with these convictions, I have thought it my duty to 
bring the subject to the consideration of the Government of the United States, 
under a hope that it may receive attention in the pending negotiations between 
the two Governments. 

The question about schools for colored children, to which Seward 
had referred 'in his messages, was one which, while attracting little 
attention from the public in general, excited the sympathies of the 
benevolent, among whom none were more active than the Friends. 
Writing to David S. Thomas upon the subject, he said : 

.... I heartily approve the object, and wish it abundant and complete suc- 
cess. It - is an occasion of deep regret that the prejudice of the day, which, I 
think, cannot last long, often excludes persons of African descent from our 
schools, and especially from the higher seminaries of learning ; and it would 



1842.] TYLER AND CLAY. G13 

be altogether better if the advantages of education, which all our institutions 
of learning offer, could bo rendered available to all persons without distinction 
of birth or caste. 

Under the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, the 
share now due to New York was over eighty-four thousand dollars. 
The Governor wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury on June 30th, 
designating Lewis Benedict as the agent of the State to receive the 
money. 

His letters home narrated his occupations at Albany : 

Saturday Night, July 2d. 

There is much news of extreme political interest. The President has fallen 
at last into the arras of our opponents, thus giving us a first instance of an Ex- 
ecutive Magistrate deserting the party that elected him. He has for his excuse 
the refusal of the Whig party to support him ; but he caused the desertion by 
deserting their measures. There is much speculation about a change of cabinet, 
but I have nothing authentic. His cabinet have probably, with the exception 
of the Secretary of the Treasury, gone with him, yet can they hardly commend 
themselves to the leaders of the party into which the President has gone. There 
are rumors about Mr. Spencer. I think he will not be sacrificed, but may proba- 
bly be transferred to another department of service. 

These events at Washington bring Mr. Clay prematurely and prominently 
into the canvass for the presidency, and we are now all in the campaign with 
him. Those who love him best and most wisely would have preferred delay 
until action could be effective and less liable to disappointment. 

The Rhode Island mission was very grateful to the good people of that lit- 
tle but great State. Mr. Dorr is now said to have escaped to Canada. 

July Ktli. 

Blatchford is with me. I am dictating and he writing the " Introduction of 
the Geological Survey." When this work will be done Heaven knows. It 
grows upon my hands, but it will be, I think, a very good affair when done. 

We have had a sad time with the canaries. One of the horses knocked 
their cage from its loop, on the chestnut in the grove. The structure fell and 
was crushed; the nest was scattered and the tiny eggs broken. Dick was 
stunned and deprived of speech. Jenny hopped out unharmed, and, pleased 
with liberty, flew from place to place, then to the lower limb of the tree, and 
ascended, as she became used to the exercise of her wings, to the topmost 
branch. Toward night Dick recovered his voice, and his partner, weary of 
fasting, was persuaded by him to return to his bed and board, in the temporary 
lodgment we had assigned him. 

Albany, July 15, 1^1-. 

I have floundered through a wearisome week, in which I have lost si 
everybody and remembrance of everything, except engrossing studies. 

My memoir of the progress of knowledge in the State ought to be a useful 
work, but, written in so much haste and mental perplexity, it may disgrace its 
author and the State ho so much desires to serve. However, the first pages 
(are in the press, and the labor is chiefly performed. There is relief, there- 



gj4 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

. fore, from the task, or at least a mitigation of it. I am to read a part of it 
two days hence before the commencement at Schenectady. The whole must 
be printed, pressed, and bound in the first volume of the Geological Report, 
before the Legislature assembles on the 16th of August My message for that 
occasion is almost prepared. 

Last evening I attended a very interesting exhibition. The young ladies 
who graduated last year at the Albany Female Academy formed an association 
of alumnse, and now had a semi-public, semi-private celebration of their anni- 
versary. The young ladies sat together by the side of the stage. The stage 
was occupied by the trustees and patrons of the institution. An address, writ- 
ten by one of the young ladies, and a poem, the production of another, were 
read by the officers of the academy. It seemed to me that the occasion marked 
an advance in the progress of female education. 

When the commencement at Schenectady ends, I shall take the car and pro- 
ceed thence to Auburn. 

Albany, July 17, 1842. 
It is a bright and lovely Sunday morning. I wish you and the boys were 
here, or I once more at ease with you at Auburn. My occupation here dis- 
tracts and has wearied me. I had a visit from John Greig, his wife, and sister, 
the other day, on their return homeward from the East. There are all manner 
of conspiracies at Washington, among which one is, as I learn, to expel Philo 
C. Fuller from the Post-Office Department, that one more yielding to the pur- 
I oses of the President may take his place. I am disgusted with politics, yet 
how long will I remain so ? 

Albany, July 19, 1842. 

I am in the hands of the printers, who so slowly drag along that they chain 
me here, I know not how long. I have written and printed forty quarto pages, 
and have one hundred and sixty more to print, a little more than half of which 
is ready for the compositor. 

The " book " is made, and its making is already deeply regretted. Nearly 
every one that has seen the proof has pointed out to me errors of facts, compo- 
sition, or typography ; and of this painful and irritating criticism I have already 
had so much that I think I shall never attempt, at least gratuitously, another 
enterprise of that sort. Nobody can conceive the labor and sacrifice it has cost 
me ; yet, if it could have waited for a careful revision, I should have had cause 
to be proud of it. 

At the meeting of the "alumnre" of the Female Academy, referred 
to in his letters, the Governor had been called upon for some words of 
encouragement. He said : 

Your plan is a novel one, but it is not therefore wrong. Our system of gov- 
ernment is experimental, and the progress of society is continually disclosing 
extraordinary results of that system. "We have undertaken to educate, not one 
pcx, but both sexes ; not one class or portion of society, but the whole com- 
munity ; and since we desire universal female education instead of the refine- 
ment of a portion of the sex, why should we reject the aid of those who, like 
you, have received so great a blessing, in extending its enjoyments to others? 



1842.] -THE ASHBURTOX TREATY. (515 

A letter of the 5th of July to Mr. Edwards and others, on the sub- 
ject of the observance of the Sabbath, said : 

Every clay's observation and experience confirm the opinion that the ordi- 
nances which require the observance of one day in seven, and the Christian 
faith that hallows it, aro our chief security for all civil and religious liberty, for 
temporal blessings, and spiritual hopes. I shall be most happy to cooperato in 
any proper measures which the friends of that sacred institution may adopt. 

In regard to New York citizens held as prisoners in Australia, he 
addressed Mr. Webster : 

You will recollect that, in the season of disturbances on the frontier of this 
State in 1837, a number of Americans who made inroads into Canadian terri- 
tory "were captured, some of whom were afterward executed, and others were 
transported to New Holland. 

The excitement in the Canadian provinces has subsided ; the hostile mani- 
festations and feelings on this side of tho frontier have passed away. There is 
now no ground whatever to apprehend their return. 

It has occurred to me that her Majesty's Government might think it not 
unworthy the dignity, nor inconsistent with the security of their country, to 
extend clemency and pardon to the prisoners remaining in New Holland, if 
their attention should be called to the'subject. 

I beg leave 'to submit the subject for the consideration of tho Executive, 
and to request that, if it shall be compatible with tho relations of the countries, 
some expression in behalf of the prisoners may be made to the Government of 
Great Britain. The showing of sueh clemency as I have suggested would, 1 am 
sure, have a tendency to increase the feelings of kindness and friendship which 
it is so desirable should exist between tho people of this State and her Majesty's 
subjects beyond our borders. 

Mr. Webster gave a dinner to Lord Ashburton on the occasion of 
the settlement of the Northeastern boundary question. The guests 
were the President and cabinet, Lord Ashburton and suite, Mr. Fox, 
and the other members of the British legation, the commissioners 
from Maine and Massachusetts, some leading senators, and the gentle- 
men engaged in the boundary survey. Mr. Webster toasted "( t >ueen 
Victoria," Lord Ashburton toasted " The President." The President 
gave "The commissioners, blessed are the peace-makers." The Secre- 
tary of War, when toasted, said his business had been spoiled by the 
commission. 

The Whig meetings in the various wards in Albany, to choose dele- 
gates to the State Convention, adopted resolutions denouncing Tyler, 
indorsing Clay, approving the administration of Governor Seward, and 
pronouncing in favor of the nomination of Bradish for Governor, and 
Collier for Lieutenant-Governor. Several county conventions adopted 
the same course. Mr. Clay continued to be nominated with more or 
less formality in various places. 



61 g LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

The evidences that the Administration had cut loose from Whig 
associations, or rather that the President would no longer bestow office 
upon those who no longer supported him, began to increase and multi- 
ply. The post-office advertisements were taken away from the Whig 
papers ; postmasters were removed. A Tyler General Committee was 
organized in the city of New York. ■ A Tyler State Convention was held 
at Columbus, Ohio, indorsing his course, and implying that they deemed 
his position a favorable one for a coalition with the Democrats. A 
mass Tyler meeting was also held in New York, and the " political guil- 
lotine " was said to be at work in the custom-house and the depart- 
ments at Washington. 

Congress continued in session, the tariff and land - distribution 
law occupying the principal part of the time. In the votes upon it, 
while the Democrats were nearly unanimous, the Whigs were divided. 
' The mass of them supported, but some of the Southerners opposed 
it. It was passed at last, but promptly encountered the Executive veto. 
Though the Whigs could hardly have expected anything else, they 
broke out into loud condemnation of the President, who had " betrayed 
his party and deserted his principles." 

A committee of thirteen was appointed to report upon the course 
which the House ought to take. Ex-President Adams brought in an 
elaborate report, severely reprobating the President's action. Never- 
theless the votes but too plainly indicated that the tariff could -not be 
passed over the presidential veto. The House adopted the report by 
one hundred to eighty, and the resolutions against the veto by ninety- 
eight to ninety. In the veto, the President had stated as a ground of 
objection that the bill united two objects : the one, taxation ; the other, 
land distribution. As a last hope, the Whigs struck out the land-dis- 
tribution clause, put tea and coffee among the free articles, and made 
various other amendments, in order to induce the change of individual 
votes, and in this shape passed it. 

In this amended form the bill now went to the Senate.' Finally, on 
Saturday night, the Senate passed it by one majority ; the Northern 
Whigs all voting for it, and having the help of three Democrats, Bu- 
chanan, Wright, and Sturgeon ; the Southern Democrats all voting 
against it, but the Southern Whigs dividing, Morehead and Crittenden 
going with the North. Then the land-distribution bill was also passed 
by both Houses with some modifications, and the adjournment was 
fixed for the next Wednesday. 

Lord Ashburton, having completed his diplomatic labors, was now 
about to return in the Warspite from New York. Before his de. 
parture he made a visit to Albany. The treaty having been duly signed, 
was already on its way to Great Britain by the Great Western, in the 
hands of a special messenger. The Senate at Washington had ratified 



1842.] THE EXTRA SESSION. 017 

it by a vote of thirty-nine to nine, and the next day it was published. 
It was dated August 9, 1842. Two points of especial interest to Gov- 
ernor Seward were, the tenth article, providing for the surrender of 
criminals over the frontier on requisition ; and the eighth and ninth, 
providing for combined action of the two Governments in regard to the 
slave-trade. Lord Ashburton arrived on the evening of the 29th from 
Boston, accompanied by Sir John Hay, the commander of the War- 
spite ; Seward, with Chief-Justice Spencer, spent the evening with 
him. The next day he left for New York on the morning bout. 

It was now reported from Rhode Island that some of the disbanded 
revolutionists, acting upon a chemical hint in one of the New York 
newspapers, "how to produce combustion in hay without detection," 
were setting fire to barns in the vicinity of Providence, and the name 
of " Barn-burners " was soon applied to all who sympathized, or were 
supposed to sympathize, in the Dorr movement. Seward, while giving 
his support and sympathy to the " Law-and-Order " party, warned 
them that it was unwise to allow the Dorr party to occupy high van- 
tage-ground in favor of the extension of suffrage, and advised them 
to favor a more liberal constitution. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

1842. 



The Extra Session. — Stoppage of Public "Worts. — Repudiating States. — Carlin. — The Huteh- 
insous. — The MiUerites. — Webster and Adams.— Bradish and Rouck. — Address at State 
Fair. — Education of Farmers. 

The Legislature had been called to meet on the 16th of August. 
The special purpose of this extra session was to divide the State into 
congressional districts in accordance with the new apportionment law. 
The 15th found the capital in active preparation for the session, and 
the Governor's message prepared and ready for delivery. The Legis- 
lature met at the appointed day and hour. The members of the ma- 
jority immediately proposed to confine the action of the session to the 
congressional apportionment, and thereupon arose a debate as to 
whether the customary message of the Governor should or should not 
be received. The message would be imbued with Whig doctrines, and 
recommend legislative action of some sort. The Democratic leaders 
neither wished to listen to the doctrines nor to take any action, except 
that for which they had been specifically called. 

In this debate Michael Hoffman, McMurray, and Swackhamer, 
took prominent part. Meanwhile, the proceedings of the New York 



gl5 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

& Erie Railroad Convention at Owego were presented. The Senate 
laid them on the table by a party vote. Then the committee on appor- 
tionment of districts presented their report. Then followed debate on 
the request to receive a petition for aid to the Erie Railroad. If they 
refused to receive it, they would be charged with denial of the " rights 
of petition." If they commenced receiving petitions, they would 
have begun legislative business. It Avas found before long impossible 
to hold a legislative session at the State capital, and at the same time 
refuse to hold the customary communication with the other branches 
of the government and with their constituents. 

Besides, wise as it might be in the leaders of the party to make 
the session brief, party discipline was hardly strong enough to induce 
members to vote for that polic}' - when each of them had a constituency 
behind him, who were expecting him to act and speak in their behalf 
on a variety of subjects. 

Seward, in his letters to Auburn, noted the progress of these events: 

Executive Ckamber, Tuesday Avon. 

Here I am, once more in controversy with the Legislature. The Assembly 
has sent me a message that they have convened to transact the business for which 
they adjourned. By annexing this qualifying clause, it is supposed they do not 
mean to receive, or perhaps that they will refuse to read, a message. To that 
communication I answered that I would transmit a message to both Houses 
when I sbould be informed that the Senate was convened. In the Senate, a 
motion was made to raise a committee to announce to me that the Senate was 
convened. Mr. Strong moved to amend the resolution so as to state that they 
had convened for the special object of adjournment. Upon this a debate has 
arisen, and it is not likely to end in some time. In the mean time the printers 
have the message. 

Quarter before one: the committee are coming, and the message goes in. 
They read it, and so the petty oppugnation ends. 

When the Governor's message was delivered and read, it was found 
to be short, but explicit in its recommendations of public policy, 
which were based upon the same principles as those which had gov- 
erned his preceding messages. 

In regard to the suspension of the public works he said : 

For the first time in the quarter of a century which has elapsed since the 
ground was broken for the Erie Canal, a Governor of the State of New York, 
in meeting the Legislature, finds himself unable to announce the continued prog- 
ress of improvement. The officers charged with tbe care of the public works 
have arrested all proceedings in the enlargement of the Erie Canal and the con- 
struction of the auxiliary works. 

The New York & Erie Railroad, with the exception of forty-six miles from 
tbe eastern termination, lies in unfinished fragments throughout the long line of 
southern counties, stretching four hundred miles from the Walkill to Lake Erie. 



1842.] THE LAST MESSAGE. . (519 

The Genesee Valley Canal, excepting the portion between Danville and Roches- 
ter, also lies in a state of hopeless abandonment. The Black River Canal, which 
was more than two-thirds completed during the last year, lias been left wholly 
unavailable. As if this were not enough, two railroads, toward the- construc- 
tion of which the State had contributed half a million dollars, and public- 
spirited citizens large sums in addition, have been brought to a forced sale, and 
sacrificed at an almost total loss to the Treasury. 

The objects which the Legislature had in view in directing the suspension of 
the public works were declared to be, to pay the debts of the State and preserve 
its credit. The means of paying the debts are derived from revenues and taxes; 
but the State, so far from diminishing, has increased its indebtedness by becom- 
ing liable to contractors for heavy damages, while, by discontinuing the neces- 
sary enlargement of the Erio Canal, the increase of revenues hitherto so con- 
stant and so confidently relied upon for the reimbursement of the debts, is 
checked, and must ultimately cease. 

The fiscal officers of the State are not now able to negotiate loans, even at 
seven per cent. Previously to the present session of Congress, when as yet 
only one State had omitted to pay tho interest on its debt, I called the attention 
of the Federal Government to alarming indications of a general failure l>y the 
indebted States, and invoked the constitutional efforts which that Government 
might effectually make to avoid such a catastrophe. . . . 

State after State, some with unavailing struggles, but others without any, 
have neglected to perforin their fiscal engagements, and thus a dark stain is dif- 
fusing itself over the escutcheon of our country. Under these circumstances 1 
must adhere to the views before submitted, and invite their reconsideration ; 
and, to avoid any misapprehension, I recommend that tho Legislature rescind 
the law directing the discontinuance of the public works. 

Referring to the Virginia search and seizure law, he renewed his re- 
quest for authority to test its validity in the courts. The case of 
Prigg vs. Pennsylvania, he was aware, was cited as favoring the cap- 
ture, even without legal proofs, of persons claimed as slaves, but he 
said : 

The authority of the decision cannot be extended to cases presenting facts 
materially varying from those which marked the case thus adjudicated. It is, 
therefore, believed that the privileges of habeas corpus and the right of trial by 
jury as yet remain unimpaired in this State, and that we are not obliged to 
retrace what is justly regarded as an important advance toward that complete 
political and legal equality which, being conformable to divine laws, and e 
tial to the best interests of mankind, will ultimately constitute the perfection of 
our republican institutions. 

Finally, he added : 

In closing this, my last general communication to the Legislature, it would 
evince singular insensibility not to anticipate my retiremenl from the- trust which 
I have received from my fellow-citizens. Far from indulging a belief that er- 
rors have not occurred in conducting the civil administration of a State embrac- 
ing such great and various interests, I am, nevertheless, solaced by the refiee- 



620 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 



tion that no motive has ever influenced me inconsistent with the highest regard 
for the interests and honor of the State, and with the equality justly due to all 
its citizens. It may he that, in seeking to perfect the differences of knowledge, 
or in desiring to raise from degradation or wretchedness less favored classes, 
unjustly depressed by the operation of unequal laws or adventitious circum- 
stances or in aiming to carry into remote and sequestered regions the physical 
and commercial advantages already afforded to more fortunate and prosperous 
districts I have urged too earnestly what seemed to me the claims of humanity, 
justice, and equity ; yet, remembering the generous appreciation which those 
efforts have met, I shall carry with me into retirement a profound sense of obli- 
gation and a spirit of enduring gratitude. 

In the Senate, the Whigs lost no time in introducing measures to 
compel their opponents to give up their project of restricting the busi- 
ness of the session to the apportionment. Tariff resolutions were in- 
troduced by Dickinson, distribution resolutions were introduced by- 
Root. Resolutions were moved for the relief of the Erie Railroad. 
The question of apportionment was referred to a committee composed 
of one Senator from each district. The Assembly referred it to a select 
committee of sixteen. 

In the Senate Mr. Faulkner introduced a resolution that the Comp- 
troller should bid in the New York & Erie Railroad at the sale adver- 
tised to take place at the Capitol, on the 1st of December, at an amount 
not exceeding the State mortgage. Mr. Ely moved to postpone the sale 
till the first Tuesday in May, which was adopted by a party vote of 
fifteen to twelve. Having thus voted on the Erie Railroad, it became 
difficult for the Senate to refuse to vote on other subjects. The Assem- 
bly, however, continued a few days longer the restriction against any 
other business but the apportionment, and this restriction itself occu- 
pied many hours of tedious debate. Finally, on the 27th, the Assembly 
opened the restriction, and decided to consider the household-exemp- 
tion act. The apportionment debate continued throughout the month. 

Mr. Carlin" the artist, a deaf-mute, after having had instruction 
abroad, was now in Albany. He had just completed his illustrations 
of Irving's " Sketch-Book." He spent some time at Governor Seward's 
while painting his portrait. His talents and estimable character and 
disposition won the affection of the household, and the friendship thus 
formed was long continued. 

This summer, a family, consisting of three brothers and one sister, 
gave a concert in Albany, at Knickerbocker Hall, where they attracted 
special interest by the harmony of their voices and the judicious and 
patriotic taste of their selections. These were the Hutchinsons, who 
subsequently had a long and brilliant musical career. 

A gathering which excited more public attention was that of the 
believers in the Second Advent. It was held at a great tent on Arbor 



1842.] THE PRISONERS IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. G21 

Hill, and lasted a week ; Miller himself was expected to be present. 
Elder J. V. Hines and others said that the object of the meeting was 
to arouse the Church and the world to a sense of their peril, by sound- 
ing the midnight cry. There was no room for debate on any subject ; 
time was growing shorter and shorter every moment. " All who love 
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ are requested to rally at this 
feast of tabernacles, where there will be preaching at ten, two, and 
seven o'clock." 

The Senate and Assembly continued their debates on the details of 
the apportionment, each party desirous, as they usually are at such 
times, to secure such arrangement of districts as would help to obtain 
as many representatives as possible. On the 1st of September "the 
Senate again voted down the proposal to relieve the Erie Railroad. 
On the 6th the two Houses finally concurred in a conference report 
upon the apportionment. This closed the principal business of the 
session, which came to an end by an adjournment on the 7th. 

Writing to Sir Charles Bagot in regard to extradition cases and 
the treaty, Governor Seward said : 

I have to return you my thanks for your persevering attention to the requests 
for the surrender of fugitives from justice. 

I deem it a matter of congratulation that the new treaty will happily place 
this important suhject on a hasis which will he advantageous to both countries. 

The misguided Americans who had taken part in the " Patriot 
War," and were now prisoners at Van Diemen's Land, had been a fre- 
quent subject of Seward's correspondence with the Government at 
Washington. Moved by his representations, and by various consider- 
ations which showed the present to be a favorable opportunity for 
obtaining their release, Webster urged it in a letter to Lord Ashburton. 

Early in September the House of Representatives received a mes- 
sage from the President, saying that he had signed the revenue bill. 
The land -distribution bill he still retained in his pocket. He also sent 
a protest, based on the report of the committee on the subject of his 
last veto. It recalled the similar case in 1834, when General Jackson 
sent in a protest, and the House had passed resolutions against receiv- 
ing it, and for these resolutions Tyler had voted. Botts now moved 
the readoption of the resolutions of 1834, which was carried ; then the 
Congress adjourned. 

A committee of a hundred Whigs from Philadelphia met the mem- 
bers at Wilmington with a steamboat, on which there was a dinner, 
followed by congratulatory speeches, as they proceeded up the Dela- 
ware. 

At Elizabethport the next day several were received on a boat sent 
to bring them in triumph to New York. At Albany on the following 



G22 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 



day the Whigs assembled to give the Whig members a fresh greeting. 
They arrived by the boat from New York, and amid salutes, music, 
and ringing of bells, were escorted to Congress Hall. In the evening 
they went to the Capitol, where a meeting was organized ; but, the 
Capitol proving too small, the meeting adjourned to the park. There 
Willis Hall welcomed them ; Fillmore, Caruthers, Thompson, and oth- 
ers, made speeches in reply. 

The Whigs generally exulted in the belief that they had at last, 
and definitely, settled the national policy, on the basis of protection to 
American manufactures — the policy so long and eloquently advocated 
by their leader, Henry Clay. Seward, while sharing in their satisfac- 
tion, did not fully share in their hopes. In a letter to S. Newton Dex- 
ter he wrote : 

.... I congratulate you upon the passage of a tariff bill. Although confi- 
dence cannot rapidly revive while public credit is prostrate and we continue to 
suffer the evils of a want of currency, I nevertheless look to see a speedy im- 
provement in trade, and the commencement of a rise in the value of lands, in 
consequence of the impulse which manufacturing industry will receive. 

Mr. Webster had also his ovations on his return home to Massachu- 
setts, for a season of rest, after closing his labors on the English treaty. 

But perhaps the most enthusiastic reception of all was that of John 
Quincy Adams by his constituents. A great concourse at Weymouth 
thronged to the church to greet the " old man eloquent " with a pro- 
cession, with music, and speeches of welcome. 

Mr. Adams, in his address, referred to Webster's continuance in 
Tyler's cabinet. Pointing to his success in dealing with the great for- 
eign questions, the boundary, extradition, etc., Mr. Adams added : 

Upon being consulted by the Secretary of State as to the course he ought to 
pursue, I advised him to remain in his position, and I have never had cause to 
regret that he bad done so." 

On the 7th the State Conventions of both parties assembled at Syra- 
cuse. That of the Whigs nominated Luther Braclish for Governor, and 
Gabriel Furman, of Kings County, for Lieutenant-Governor. While 
the convention was in session, General Root moved the nomination of 
Clay for President, and it was made by unanimous acclamation. Reso- 
lutions were adopted indorsing the public course of Seward ; they said 
that he " had proved himself worthy of the suffrages and confidence 
of the people whose interests he had labored with great assiduity and 
ability to promote." 

At the Democratic Convention, the candidates of 1840, Messrs. 
Bouck and Dickinson, were again nominated for Governor and Lieu- 
tenant-Governor. Political meetings and conventions and the organ- 
ization of Clay clubs went on actively throughout the State. 



1842.] AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. Cr23 

Toward the close of September a long-promised military review took 
place at Troy of the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth regiment, commanded 
by Colonel Darius Allen. The Governor arrived about twelve o'clock, 
accompanied by his staff and a numerous military party, among whom 
were Generals Viele, Cooper, Ten Eyck, Townsend, and Richardson, 
with their respective staffs. The review was preceded by a collation 
at the house of Le Grand Cannon, and followed by a military dinner at 
the Troy House. 

The State Agricultural Fair was to open toward the close of the 
month, and its chief feature was to be an address by Daniel Webster. 
The steamboats Swallow and Columbus had come from New York 
loaded with fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Great preparations were 
making at the grounds for the trial of agricultural implements. A 
ploughing-match was to take place in the spacious field attached to the 
Bull's Head Tavern, on the Troy road. Two days before the appointed 
time, the managers learned that Mr. "Webster would be prevented by 
indisjDOsition from coming ; so that there would be no address. In 
their perplexity they came to Seward to ask his help. There was no 
time for careful thought or study, but he cheerfully promised to deliver 
such hasty written and desultory remarks as he could have in readiness, 
rather than permit the Agricultural Society to have the mortification 
of a public disappointment. He went immediately to work at it. 

On the 29th it was duly delivered at the Capitol. In it he re- 
marked : 

.... Thirty years before the Revolutionary War, at a celebration in Massachu- 
setts, the matrons and maidens of Boston appeared on the Mall, each industriously 
plying the busy spinning-wheel. Need it, then, excite surprise that our sister State 
now excels with the shuttle, and extorts wealth from the floods, the ice, and the 
rocks? The character of a people maybe studied in their amusements. The 
warlike Greeks fixed their epochs on the recurrence of the Olympic games. Tho 
husbandmen of Switzerland at stated periods celebrate the introduction of tho 
vine. Well may we, tben, continue ovations in honor of agriculture, which, 
while they give expression to national rejoicing, promote the welfare of our 
country and the good of mankind. 

In the course of the address he adverted to some of the popular 
fallacies current at the period, especially among the farmers. Thus in 
regard to the education of the rural population : 

.... There is not, as is often supposed, a certain amount of knowledge which 
it is profitable for the farmer to possess and dangerous to exceed. Learned men 
sometimes fail in this honorable pursuit, hut not in consequence of their acquire- 
ments; and the number of such is vastly less than of those who fail through 
ignorance. It is a fact which, however mortifying, cannot be too freely con- 
fessed or too often published, that an inferior education is held sufficient for 
those who are destined to the occupation of agriculture. . . . The domestic, so- 



Q2± LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

cial, and civil responsibilities of the farmer are precisely the same with those 
of every other citizen, while the political power of his class is irresistible. 

Let it be the task of individual effort to awaken the attention of 
our fellow-citizens to the importance of keeping the common schools open dur- 
ing a greater portion of every year ; of a more careful regard to the qualifica- 
tions of teachers ; of the introduction of the natural sciences into the schools ; 
of allowing the children of the State, at whatever cost, to persevere in the 
course of education commenced ; and, above all, of removing every impediment 
and every prejudice which keeps the future citizen without the pale of the pub- 
lic schools. . . . 



CHAPTER XLV. 

1842. 



The Croton "Water Celebration. — Spencer and Tyler. — Election. — A "Whig Overthrow. — Phi- 
losophy of Defeat. — The Murder of Samuel Adams. — Case of John C. Colt. 

The citizens of New York determined to celebrate with imposing 
ceremonies the introduction of the Croton water, the reservoirs and 
pipes for its distribution throughout the city being now complete. 
Seward accepted the invitation to be present, and became the guest 
of Mr. Ruggles, at his house on Union Square. On the morning of 
the 14th, the day appointed for the celebration, the new fountain in 
the square began throwing up a copious jet of water, and was sur- 
rounded by an admiring crowd to witness the novel spectacle. That 
in the City Hall Park was similarly attended. It was a gala-day in 
Broadway. The procession marching down occupied two hours and a 
half in passing. The military portion of it was reviewed by the Gov- 
ernor at Union Square ; then followed the fire companies, in apparent- 
ly interminable succession, having engines decorated with flags and 
ribbons ; then came platforms with workmen carrying on their various 
trades, hammering, sawing, pipe-laying, etc. The printers, carrying 
Franklin's press, were presided over by Colonel Stone, as one of the 
oldest members of the craft, seated in Franklin's arm-chair, while the 
journeymen were striking off an ode written for the occasion by 
George P. Morris. The devices were varied and ingenious. There 
was a boat with children, representing the water-sprites of Croton 
Lake. There was a car with the miller and his men in dusty white 
coats surrounding the hopper, with a boy on horseback carrying the 
grist to mill. There were iron-workers constructing steam-engines ; 
butchers in great numbers on horseback, with sleeves and aprons ; tem- 
perance societies innumerable, one with a banner on which was painted 
an upset decanter, with the inscription, " Right side up ! " 

One large car had an old-fashioned well-sweep and bucket, with 



1842.] * CROTON WATER CELEBRATION. 625 

which a farmer was drawing up cold water and distributing' it t< 
crowd. On another was a model of a Hudson River steamer, followed 
by Captains Brainard, of the South America ; McLean, of the Swallow ; 
Roe, of the Do Witt Clinton ; Schultz, of the Utica ; and Vail, of 
Albany. On one car the Croton workmen were in uniform, wearing- hat- 
Is inscribed " Pipe-layers." All day long bells were ringing, cam 
firing, fountains playing - , and balloons going up. In the evening 
Astor House was illuminated, with a candle to each pane. A bad was 
given at Washington Hall, which was attended by the Governor and 
the mayor. There were toasts and speeches, of course. In v his re- 
marks Seward said : 

\ 
.... A new feature ha tamped upon the face of our mctr 

But yesterday it was die dusty trading-mart, unattractive and unadorned; to- 
day the pure mountain-stream gushes through its streets and sparkles in its 
s piares. To the noble rivers with which i1 ircled by Nature, is now 

added the limpid stream, brought hither by art, until in the words of tl 
poet, alike descriptive and prophetic, her citizens exult — 

" Inter lluiiiitia. nota, 
a ;ros ." 

.... This stupendous aqueduct, and these splendid fountains, so worthy of 
■ enjoyed, are equally worthy of being paid for. They owe their existence 
ine of modern civilization, public credit. Is there one at 
us li with smd so dead" i doubt that this debt will be paid to the ul 

farthing? Is there one among this assembled multitude who would enjo; 
benefit, yet basely si len? 

I give you, "The city of New York: one Am tnmunity which, 

through a trying crisis, and amid discouraging embarrassment, has prosecuted 
the system of physical improvement, at the same time maintaining its credit 
and completing its wo 

The Whigs were destined this year to alternations of hope and 
fear. After their crushing disappointment at "V ton, following 

Harrison's death and Tyler's vetoes, they had, nevertheless, under the 
inspiriting influence of Ci , mass-meetings, and congressional 

oratory, come to ! that all was not yet lost; that they might 

yet retain their sway in the Stale and in Congress, until, in two years 
more, the triumphal election of " Harry of the Wesl " would restore 
them to their former power. 

Mr. Webster, on reaching Boston, had made a great speech at 
Faneuil Hall, in which he announced that he would not leave the i 
net at present ; that he opposed Tyler's vetoes, and claimed to be as 
good a Whig as any in Massachusetts. lie urged his friends to sup- 
port Tyler's measures so far as they were consistent with Whig prin- 
ciples. " Where am I to go ? " was his cpuestion then, so often echoed 
and quoted since. 
40 



qoq T LlFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Clay was writing letters to various Whig conven- 
tions all graceful and clear, enforcing the well-known Whig principles 
with new illustrations, especially adapted to each region. 

It was a serious damper to enthusiasm when, a few days later, news 
came that, notwithstanding all their magnificent demonstrations, the 
Ohio State election had gone against the Whigs. 

About the 20th of October John C. Spencer, the Secretary of War, 
arrived in Albany. He was on an official tour, had been visiting West 
Point, and was on his way to the Watervliet Arsenal. Stopping over- 
night at Congress Hall, he was visited by some of his old associates, 
with whom his personal relations were as yet undisturbed, although 
events seemed to menace their political ones. That night the Capitol 
was resounding with political music and oratory ; its halls illuminated, 
the streets blazing with fire-balls, and cannon echoing from the distance, 
for the Democrats were holding a mass-meeting there. The next night 
Horace Greeley was to speak there before a Whig gathering. The 
Secretary of War declined to participate in the demonstrations of either 
party ; though one felt that it had a claim upon his pact, and the other 
upon his future. A day or two later a letter from him appeared, de- 
fending the measures of President Tyler's Administration. Whig 
newspapers denounced it as an abandonment of his party. Mr. Web- 
ster's speech at Faneuil Hall had not been received with favor, yet it 
had given the Whigs some comfort. But, while they half approved 
the Secretary of State, they had only condemnation for the Secretary 
of War. 

Washington Hunt was nominated for Congress in the Niagara dis- 
trict, Christopher Morgan in the Cayuga one. Among the senatorial 
nominations of the Whigs were Willis Hall, in the Third District ; 
Thomas A. Johnson, in the Sixth District ; William K. Strong, in the 
Seventh ; and Harvey Putnam, in the Eighth. 

On the evening of the 7th, the night before the election, the streets 
in Albany swarmed with torch-light processions. Meetings and speeches 
lasted till midnight. Handbills were distributed in huge black letters, 
calling the attention of voters to the fact that this year the election 
was for one day only. 

The election came and passed off quietly. By the evening of 
Wednesday the Whigs found that they had carried Albany City and 
County, and were elated with their triumph; but the next morning told 
another tale. Returns poured in, and nearly every report brought 
news of defeat in the various counties. The Whigs were beaten in the 
State, not by a meagre majority, but by an avalanche. They had 
saved only about thirty members of the Assembly and one Senator; 
possibly nine or ten Congressmen. The Whig counties had given 
greatly-reduced majorities, and doubtful ones had gone Democratic. 



1842.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF DEFEAT. (507 

Even the Eighth District showed a great falling off. The official re- 
turns showed that Bouck's majority was 21,982, although he had re- 
ceived less votes than in 1840. This showed a falling off of forty thou- 
sand in the Whig vote. 

To Christopher Morgan, a few days later, Seward wrote : 

Albany, November 12, 1842. 

Well, my dear Morgan, you are beaten, although your efforts, not less than 
your high qualities, deserved a better result. I hope that you did not succeed 
in raising your confidence as high as you did mine, or rather as my affection did. 

It is not a bad thing to be left out of Congress. You will soon be wanted 
in the State, and that is a better held. I would have had you escape a defeat, 
not for its effect on your permanent success, hut for your pride. But do not 
mind that ; one defeat hurts nobody, if the knight bore himself generously dur- 
ing the combat, as you did. Jefferson and Jackson, Adams the elder and 
younger, had one defeat. 

Defeats are bad for the end of a political life, but not bad in the beginning. 

November 15th. 
Your letter of the 14th was received this evening. I am very glad to know 
that you are recovering from the depression which a defeat in a popular elec- 
tion produces, notwithstanding all our philosophy. Fortunately, you have not 
the mortification of having exposed unreasonable solicitude, but, on the con- 
trary, was a candidate on compulsion. 

One of the vivid pictures given by Dickens, in his " Notes," was 
the description of his visit to the New York House of Detention. The 
keeper, who, like everybody else, had done his best to be courteous to 
the distinguished author, was distressed to find himself presented in 
quite another light. 

A friend wrote to Seward, and he replied : 

Albany, November 18, 1842. 
I have looked over Dickens's " Notes " of his visit to the IN'ew York House 
of Detention, and am satisfied that, while the faults in the conduct of that 
prison are not exaggerated, nor the dialogue untrue, it nevertheless tends to 
give unintentionally a wrong idea of the keeper. I do not doubt that Colonel 
Jones was his guide. lie is one of the most candid of men, so you see he de- 
nied nothing and concealed nothing ; nor did he prevaricate, but told the truth 
in a homely way. I recognize some of his customary expressions. But Dick- 
ens so turns the dialogue as to make Jones appear bold, swaggering, and row- 
dyish. On the contrary, notwithstanding his vulgar forms of speech, he is 
gentle, modest, and respectful, and it would be easy for one who knew him to 
discover, by his answers, that he was abashed. 

Thanksgiving-time had again arrived, and he issued his usual procla- 
mation. In it he adverted to national grounds for gratitude : 

Commotions which threatened to involve a sister State, and even the whole 
American family, in the calamities of civil war, and thus repress the growing 



628 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [184S 



confidence of mankind in their capacity for self-government, have peacefully 
subsided, and our controversies with a European nation have been adjusted by 
a treaty securing reciprocal advantages, and directing the efforts of both states 
to the removal of a great reproach of Christendom, by the extirpation of the 
slave-trade. 

Replying- to a note of apology from an invited guest, he said: 

When Nicholas was told who were to be my guests on Thursday, he selected 
a nice sirloin, ample for a judge, and delicate enough for you, my most fastid- 
ious friend. On that day you did not come, nor did the Hon. William Kent, 
circuit judge, nor any other circuit judge, the Chief-Justice, nor any justice 
of the Supreme Court, by whom as well the said sirloin, etc., or certain 
pumpkin-pies, etc., and other etc., could then and there be tried by you, as be- 
fore said ; whereupon the process between the parties is continued until the 
next Thursday, at the said dinner-table, etc. 

A few months before, the community had been horrified by the 
bloody details of a great crime in New York. Samuel Adams, a job- 
printer, had mysteriously disappeared. He had been traced as far as 
the business-office of John C. Colt, for whom he had been executing 
some work, and there trace of him was lost. Colt was a man of re- 
spectable character and connections ; no quarrel was known to have 
existed between them, and suspicion of him seemed to have been pre- 
cluded. After long, unavailing search, a box was found in the hold of 
a ship about to sail for New Orleans, from which a noisome odor pro- 
ceeded. It was opened, and found to contain human remains, which 
were identified as those of the missing Adams. 

Step by step, and link by link, the clew thus found was pursued, 
until it was proved beyond possibility of doubt that Adams had gone to 
Colt's office, and, for some reason unknown, had been killed by him ; 
that his remains had been carefully packed in a box which Colt had 
addressed to some real or pretended persons in New Orleans, and had 
endeavored to send off by the ship. Arrested and indicted, he was 
brought to trial in New York, in January, Judge Kent presiding. He 
was defended by Dudley Selden and Robert Emmet. The dramatic 
incidents of the affair engaged universal attention. The newspapers 
teemed with facts and speculations. It was an absorbing theme of 
conversation. Medical experts were called to testify to the nature of 
the wounds, and the instrument by which Adams's skull had been re- 
peatedly and horribly fractured. 

After his conviction and sentence to death, Colt's own version of 
the affair was given, describing the quarrel which was about an account 
of a few dollars, the murder, and his subsequent proceedings ; how he 
had thought of going to his brother, of going to the magistrate, of 
escaping, of firing the building, and finally of adopting the box as the 
surest and speediest method of concealing the deed. 



1842.] CASE OF JOHN C. COLT. 02!) 

Colt was described as being- about five feet eleven inches in height, 
firmly built, though slender, fine-looking, with light-brown, richly-curl- 
ing hair, thirty-two years old, of courteous manners, gentle voice, dark- 
in-own hazel eyes, and mild expression. He was a man of education, 
had many friends, and during his imprisonment had excited greal p< p- 
ular sympathy. His life and his letters during his imprisonment \ 
published. In this sketch it was stated that he had publish* d works 
on book-keeping, as a teacher of which he had some celebrity. 

And now began to come appeals to the Governor for his pardon, 
or the commutation of his sentence. In answer to one of them, Sew- 
ard observed : 

The sympathy for convicl is is not unnatur I hose who indulge 

it forget the danger to which it leads. When blood I -lied the \ 

community is alarmed; every citizen rushes forward to apprehend the fugitive, 
and bring him to justice. The vindicatory spirit continues its work until the 
offender is convieted and sentenced, and then that spirit reposes and i 

The opposite or antagonist spirit rise-; then, and, at first, timidly and appre- 
hensively, approaches the Executive power, but, gaining confidence, becomes 
more and more importunate, until it happens in most cases that the Governor 
who conscientiously declines to pardon murder judicially established, and per- 
haps unrepented of , com ss to be regarded as himself th tanslayer in the 
transaction. 

My table groans with letters from gentlemen and ladies of acknovs I 
respectability and influence; among the former are gentlemen of the | 
of every profession, recommending, urging, and soliciting the pardon of 
C. Colt. 

Colt had been sentenced to be hanged on the 18th of] 
As soon as the sentence was made known, the letters and petitions 
began to pour in upon the Governor. Nearly every morning's boat 
from New York brought visitors who had come to urge the same re- 
quest. The pressure increased as it became manifest that the Gov- 
ernor was indisposed to interfere with the due course of law. 

Alluding to the case in one of his letters home, Seward said : 

Albany, . 

This has been a day of consuming anxiety. It seems that the fates hav 
bined against Colt to pervert his own mind and those of his counsel. His con- 
fession, which it appears he prepared immediately after his arrest, and which 
was evasive and unsatisfactory, was suppressed until th . and 

then read to the jury. 

His counsel have been first before the Circuit Judge, then before all the 
judges of the Supreme Court at Rochester, and, defeated there, they applied to 
the Chancellor. Refused by him, they applied to me thirteen days only before 
the day of his execution, and the papers he submits show him a depraved man. 
His friends have been before me most of the day. and the rest has been spent in 
examining the papers submitted. 



C 3Q LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

A week later he wrote : 

Aleaxy, Saturday. 

You can have no idea of the fatiguing weariness of the week spent in bear- 
ing every form of application for pardon to Colt, and in studying the voluminous 
papers submitted. It is over now. and I have just time to give you a hasty note 
before the mail closes. 

You will find the decision in Colt's case in the Journal. 

In this decision the Governor said : 

The proof on the trial left no doubt that Adams suffered death at about three 
o'clock in the afternoon, on the 17th of September, by the hands of the accused 
in his apartments, in the second story of a spacious granite edifice on the corner 
of Broadway and Chambers Street, no other person being then present. It was 
rendered quite certain that the meeting of the parties on that occasion was 
neither preconcerted by them, nor anticipated by the accused. It was equally 
clear that he had made no preparation for so dreadful a deed ; and that until 
that time the parties had maintained amicable relations, and the accused had 
manifested no malice nor even unkindness toward the deceased. These circum- 
stances bore strongly in favor of the accused. But, on the contrary, the deceased 
was a meek and inoffensive man. lie was unarmed, and visited the prisoner, 
although under some excitement, yet without any hostile purpose; and when 
the remains of the deceased were found, the head, fractured, with certainly live, 
and probably more, wounds, no longer retained the human form. . . . These 
wounds were manifestly the result of blows inflicted with a hatchet. 

A hatchet, which was one of the usual form, and in weight exceeded seven- 
teen ounces, was found in the apartment, and identified as belonging to the ac- 
cused. Each of the wounds would have been mortal, and whichever of them 
was first inflicted must have instantly deprived the deceased of consciousness and 
all power of resistance. Such a homicide could not have been accidental, or 
necessary for self-defense. It was committed with a deadly weapon in a cruel 
and inhuman manner, upon a defenseless and powerless man. Reason and law 
agree that the homicide could not have been innocent, justifiable, or excusable. 
Society could never exist if human life could be destroyed in such a manner 
with impunity. It was, then, a felonious homicide, and the jury had only to 
ascertain the degree of crime which had been perpetrated. 

By a presumption of law, that crime was murder, and it remained for the 
manslayer to show that the deed would bear a milder designation. 

The accused coidd show this only by proving that Adams was perpetrating 
or attempting to perpetrate a crime or misdemeanor, or that the wounds were 
inflicted without a design to effect death, in a heat of passion, in an attempt to 
resist murder, or self-defense against some great personal injury, of which the 
accused was in immediate danger. Xo such proof was given or offered. But 
since no other human eye witnessed the deed, nor human ear heard anything 
but a ron fused sound and a heavy fall, the jury w ere required to suppose it 
possible that Adams had assailed the accused, and that the crime was committed 
Even if this could have been assumed, it must also have been 
assumed, not only that there were an assault and an affray, but that the accused 
was in imminent danger, and in the heat of passion, suddenly excited, intense, 
uncontrollable, and allowing no time for reflection, and that he did not design 



1842.] THE EXECUTIVE DECISION". (531 

to produce death, and was unconscious that such a consequence might follow his 
violence. 

But Adams was unarmed. lie had never heen known to menace the ac- 
cused or assail any other person. In strength, Adams at most did not excel the 
accused. If there was an affray, there would probably have heen an outcry by 
one of the parties, unless the first blow terminated the strife by rendering our 
of them speechless as well as defenseless. If the accused had been in immi 
danger, he could possibly have shown wounds or marks of an assault ; but he 
exhibited none. On the contrary, he carefully concealed a small and unimpor- 
tant discoloration of the skin, accidentally discovered by Caroline M. Henshaw on 
his neck on the merning after the deed was committed. And even if an affray 
had been proved, could it be supposed that the passion of the accused had no 
time to abate, and his mind no time to relent, when the first blow bad relieved 
him from the assailant, and each subsequent blow fell upon an unconscious and 
unresisting victim ? 

Whatever was the degree of crime, it was complete when life was extin- 
guished, and could not be changed by the subsequent conduct of the accused. 
Yet his subsequent conduct was legitimately opened to the jury, for the light 
it might reflect on the deed he had consummated. The house was filled with 
tenants from the base to the roof. The narrow room of the accused was sepa- 
rated only by thin folding-doors from an occupied apartment, and looked out on 
the corner of the streets. Even without leaving the presence of the dying or 
dead man, the accused could have instantly summoned a multitude; but he in- 
voked no witnesses. On the contrary, according to Ins own acknowledgment, 
he closed the only aperture through which he might be observed, stripped the 
deceased of the clothing by which the person might be identified, and without 
aid, and almost with superhuman efforts, wrapped the body in canvas, con- 
tracted it with a rope, and deposited it in a box three and a half feet in length, 
and, standing upon the protruding knees, pressed them down by dislocating the 
limbs, until the box could be closed. After this was done, and night had come, 
the accused, with hands unaccustomed to such labor, washed the floor, and 
carefully stained it with oil, and ink, and tobacco, to conceal blood which had 
been shed. He clandestinely cast the clothing and articles of property found 
on the person of the deceased, except his watch, into a sink, repaired to a 
bathing-house and washed the stains from his own dress, and then retired to 
his lodgings. Early next morning, before the usual hour for going abroad, he 
returned to the apartment and resumed bis efforts to remove the evidence^ of 
the fatal transaction. He carefully fastened the box, labeled it with the ad- 
dress of an imaginary person in St. Louis, to the care of imaginary persons in 
New Orleans, and carefully removed it from his apartment, and caused it to 
be conveyed to the ship which was expected to depart immediately to that, 
port, and delivered it to the master, and took a receipt for it as for a parcel of 
merchandise. He had many associates in this city. To none of these persons 
did he reveal what had happened or what he had done. On the contrary, upon 
mature reflection, as he says, he avoided his brother, and took counsel only 
with himself. He gave Caroline M. Henshaw a false explanation of the reasons 
of his late return on the nighl succeeding the crime, and of his early absence on 
the next morning. To the persons who occupied the adjoining rooms he at first 
denied, and afterward falsely explained, circumstances which had excited sus- 



g32 LIFE A ^ D LETTERS. [1842. 

picions, and day after day, while the friends of the deceased and his fellow- 
citizens were engaged in anxious inquiries concerning his fate, the accused 
visited the place where the deceased was accustomed to transact business, and 
remarked on his mysterious absence like a sympathizing friend. 

Nature suggests a mode of proceeding in every exigency, hut not th< 
mode in exigencies so entirely dissimilar as those of guilt of murder, and con- 
sciousness of having committed other forms of homicide. Guilt seeks conceal- 
ment, misfortune sympathy, and innocence vindication. If the homicide had 
not been felonious, the first impulse of the accused, when he discovered the 
fatal consequences of his violence, would have been to invoke aid to the 
sufferer if living, or at least advice or sympathy for himself. If the blood 
which had been spilled did not accuse the prisoner, he would not have endeav- 
ored to remove the stains it left. It seems impossible to suppose that an indi- 
vidual guilty of only such a crime, and exposed to only such hazards, would go 
i- hours and days accumulating for his own destruction such a mass of the 
peculiar evidences of murder. . . . 

Society lias been deeply shocked and justly alarmed for the security of life 
in the metropolis. A deliverance of the prisoner by Executive clemency would 
be an encouragement to atrocious crime. 

He wrote to Mrs. Seward : 

,-;y, Kovembi * 17, 

Now that the last act is 1 i nly the event remains to be cc 

plated, I find myself suddenly sinking fn of excitement. It will never 

be known, and cannot be conceived, how much I have heard, read, the 
and felt, on that painful subject ; and ad blind are human sym- 

pathies ! In the jail at Lockport there is lyim mned malefactor waiting 

Ins death, yet incapable of distinguishing day from night, and thus counting the 
hours as they carry him along toward an inevitable doom, and no one thinks of 
or, a stranger, and : '. Colt ha tions, relations, 

and associations, with the educated i I 

I believe you know the substance of his application tome. "When the judges 
refused him a new trial, his friends came with Willis Hall and delivered me 
oral letters. I detained Hall, and spoke freely with him as a friend and former 
counselor. The next day T learned th.it he was acting as an advocate. Then 
Judge Spencer came into town, and called to inform me that Colt was unjustly 
condemned. Dudley Selden and others met here Lewis Gaylord Clark, and three 
surgeons from New York, who brought a head and a hatchet, and demonstrated 
preparatively before the medical faculty of Albany ; after which rehearsal they 
demonstrated to me how Adai ed to be murdered. The next 

day Robert Emmet, David Graham, Willis I! tmuel Stevens, appej 

with witnesses newly discovered. The decision was promulgated" on Friday. 
On Sunday I heard and denied an application for a respite. On Monday I lis- 
tened to appeals from wandering philanthropists without knowledge ; and with 

dal attention to a phrenological professor who demonstrated that Colt was 
a murderer, but he was so because society had cultivated the wrong bumps ; and 
therefore society ought to be hanged, not he ! Yesterday came the application 
from a -editions meeting of the bar in New York, which was decided and of 
course overruled. This morning it appears that Colt's counsel have endeavored 



1842.] SEQUEL OF THE COLT CASE. 033 

to intimidate the sheriff, and that all manner of inflammatory appeals have been 
made to the populace. I think the sheriff will perform his duty ; but he has 
long since entered his protest with mc against the execution of the sentence on 
the ground of the injustice of the verdict. If he refuses, I shall have further and 
painful duty. 

Among the mass of letters appealing in Colt's behalf were many 
anonymous and some threatening ones. One ran as follows : 

You have time to grant a pardon to him whom your prejudices are about 
to deprive of a life as dear to him as yours is to you. Yes, you have full time, 
but not the disposition ; you thirst for the blood of a fellow-being, and you may 
drink it to the last drop ; but, by tbe Almighty God, into whose presence you 
usher a poor soul with a load of sin upon his head, by the hopes I entertain of 
immortality hereafter, I swear that one who has lived for him, and will at any 
time die for him, holds you responsible to the very tittle for what may happen 
to him ! Should he suffer an ignominious death, his corpse shall not be interred 
before your life pays the forfeit, and you follow him to an eternal hell! 

You may disbelieve me now, but too soon, perhaps, will death cause you to 

regret the past. As for Kent, his fate is sealed, provided John C. Colt is hanged. 

I say beware ! 

November 19^. 

I must still continue the tragic story that ran through my last. The day 
after I had refused to depart from the course of the law, an application was 
made to the Chancellor to reconsider. He denied the same. Colt spent that 
day (Thursday) in writing, some say a review of my opinion ; others say a paper 
to remain sealed until his child arrives at age. He was particularly disappointed in 
my second decision. The counsel had procured, strangely enough, the insertion 
of their protest in the Tribune of Thursday morning; but when it was discov- 
ered that public feeling was excited by this dangerous attempt to overawe the 
sheriff, they suppressed the paper in their city edition, and sent it only into the 
country. It came back upon them from the country yesterday morning, and 
roused a very hostile feeling against the Tribune. The warrant directed the 
execution to take place " between sunrise and sunset." Colt asked that it might 
be postponed until four o'clock, and the request was acceded to. At twelve 
o'clock Caroline M. Henshaw visited him, and they were married. A few 
minutes before four, he asked to be left alone fifteen minutes, and— 

Saturday Night. 
I was interrupted in my narrative, which I wrote from verbal intelligence. 
My letter is delayed, and the newspapers will now tell you the whole. It is a 
wild and fearful tragedy calculated to disgust us with humanity. 

' The morning boat had brought the sequel of the tale. Up to eight 
o'clock on Friday morning, Colt and his friends had been confident 
that the respite would be obtained ; but the sheriff, notwithstanding 
the protest of Colt's counsel, was reluctantly proceeding with the prep- 
arations for the execution. During the morning, Colt's brother and 
his counsel had passed some time in his cell. In accordance with his 



(J34: LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842. 

request, the execution had been deferred until the last moment ; and 
at noon he was married to Caroline M. Henshaw, by the Rev. Mr. An- 
thon, who remained with him till two o'clock. Colt, having taken leave 
of his friends, then requested to be left alone. Just before four o'olock, 
the sheriff, with his deputy and the clergyman, went to the cell. They 
found Colt on his bed, with a dirk thrust between his ribs into his 
heart. 

The doctors pronounced him dead. At that moment the cupola of 
the prison was discovered to be on fire. The cry went out, " Colt has 
committed suicide, and the Tombs are on fire ! " Speedily thousands 
were added to the thousands already surrounding the prison, whose 
dome was in flames, Soon the fire was extinguished, and a coroner's 
inquest was held over the body. The fire was believed to be designed 
to create such alarm and confusion, at the hour appointed for the exe- 
cution, as would allow the prisoner's rescue or escape. There was 
great excitement throughout the city, many theories and stories, that 
an attempt had been made to bribe the keepers to let Colt escape in 
female attire ; that he had so escaped, and that the body found was 
one of a dead convict substituted for his own. Great suspicion was, 
not unreasonably, created at the conduct of the keepers in leaving him 
alone for an hour and a half. 

A day or two later came additional details. When the volume of 
smoke and flame burst from the cupola, there was a tremendous rush 
of those inside to get out, and of those outside to get in. The City- 
Hall bell struck the alarm at precisely the hour of execution. The 
engines Avere on the ground, but could not reach the cupola, and it 
burned until the whole was consumed down to the roof. There seemed 
no good ground for believing it the work of an incendiary. The watch- 
man was in the habit of keeping a fire there, and, on that day, had 
made a large one, and then went out to see the execution ; the stove- 
pipe had become red-hot and set fire to the roof. 

The coroner's inquest elicited nothing as to how Colt obtained the 
knife with which he killed himself. At the inquest, the clergymen, 
doctors, turnkeys, and the brother and wife of the deceased, were ex- 
amined; but there was no clew to the knife. The jury rendered a ver- 
dict accordingly. The body was given to the friends for interment, 
and the tragedy closed. 

For months afterward, perhaps even for years, there were many 
who were incredulous of the suicide, and believed Colt to be still living 
in some foreign land. The Rev. Dr. Anthon published a statement of 
his interview with Colt ; and said he had left him impressed, by his 
language and behavior, that he was repentant, was prepared for death, 
and would submit to the sentence. He had believed him when he said 
that " he wished to be left alone in order that he might pray." Sheriff 



1842.] NEW YORK AND THE PUBLIC LANDS. 635 

Hart submitted to the Board of Aldermen an anonymous letter re- 
ceived by him on the 17th, signed W. W. W., inclosing ten one-hun- 
dred-dollar bills, asking him to refuse to hang Colt, and saying that 
an equal amount would be sent to him afterward. 

Dr. Hosack, who conducted the post-mortem examination, found 
that the suicide had been premeditated and arranged with mathe- 
matical accuracy. A circle two inches in diameter had been cut out 
through his clothing, so that nothing might interfere with the knife, 
and its point penetrated the heart in its centre. 

Albany, ^otember 25, 1S4-J. 

You need have no concern about the right in Colt's case. Had he died after 
the manner of a Christian, he could not have raised the least distrust on my 
part of his being a murderer. After all my efforts to study the case thorough- 
ly, I did not fully realize the size and depth of the wounds. Five mortal 
wounds with such an instrument, when the first must have deprived his victim 
of the power to defend or supplicate ! Yet I think that, with some reserva- 
tions, he made himself believe that he was not a murderer, making a definition 
of murder to suit himself, and in no respect conforming to the law. So he said 
that he inflicted the death in self-defense ; but he was unable to show any form 
of attack which rendered such a defense necessary. Bead his statement to Mr. 
Anthon ; you will see that he spoke only in general terms. He has never given 
any history of the affray in detail, as an innocent man might. 

It is horrible, but not more so for me than to resist the importunities of a 
poor, forsaken wretch with whom none sympathized, and for whom no efforts 
were made. But, thank Heaven, I am through with those painful duties ! 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

1842-184:3. 



Last Month in Office. — Dr. Sprague. — Colonel Webb. — A Christmas Pardon. — Lewi.-: Tap- 
pan. — Half a Cord of Papers.— Case of Philip Spencer and Mackenzie. — A "Week at the 
Eagle Tavern. — Governor Bouck. 

Congress met on the 5th of December. The exchequer scheme, 
the bankrupt laws, the relations between Congress and the President, 
the British treaty, and the hostilities between Texas and Mexico, ail 
continued to engross attention at Washington, and consequently 
throughout the country. 

Lewis Benedict, who had been appointed by the Governor to pro- 
ceed, as the agent of the State, to Washington, to receive New York's 
share of the proceeds of the public lands, returned from the national 
capital with eighty-four thousand nine hundred and seventy-four dol- 
lars, the first fruits of that measure, and the money was paid over to 
Comptroller Flagg, to be deposited in the Treasury. 



£3(5 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842-'43. 

Writing to Lewis Tappan in regard to the reclamation of a kid- 
napped person, Seward said : 

I know no one who would more willingly undertake, or more perseveringly 
pursue, the labor of benevolence asked in the inclosed letter, than yourself. 

Since my coming into office a law has been passed which authorizes the 
Governor to appoint agents to reclaim citizens of this State sold into slavery 
in other States. I do hereby appoint you agent for the purpose of restoring 
the person described in the letter to his freedom, if you shall find satisfactory 
evidence that he is a citizen of this State. This appointment will secure your 
indemnity for your necessary expenses. 

George W. Patterson, the former Speaker of the Assembly, had 
now taken up his residence at Westfield, Chautauqua County, and had 
consented to accept the charge and management of the Chautauqua 
purchase. He had entered upon the duties of the agency, and was 
gradually but steadily winding up its business, receiving the final pay- 
ments from the purchasers of the lands, and giving them conveyances 
of title. The American Life and Trust Company, having become em- 
barrassed, and forced to go into liquidation, had made an assignment 
of its property. The securities it held, payable by the owners of the 
Chautauqua purchase, were now transferred to its English bondholders. 

The Rev. Dr. Sprague, of Albany, had a fondness for collecting 
autographs, and the Governor's extended and promiscuous correspond- 
ence offered an ample field for such researches. In answer to a note 
from him, Seward said : 

I am too much of a philosopher to suppose any human passion is extirpated 
by resistance, or by experience of injurious consequences. My correspondence 
shall be open to you as "melting charity." You will find no exploding guns 
concealed in bundles ; and you may be assured that, whatever errors you may 
commit, you will never find my autograph in the shape of a hostile communi- 
cation. Just now, and until the close of the year, I shall be engaged in arrang- 
ing my papers. I shall remain here a few days after that, and thus you must 
come and spend a quiet day with me, and I shall be able to extract more of 
sweet philosophy from your conversation than you will derive from all the au- 
tographs of all the politicians in the country. 

Colonel "Webb had not fully recovered from the wound received in his 
duel with Marshall, before he was indicted for accepting the challenge. 
The indictment was based upon an old and very stringent statute, 
enacted after the death of Alexander Hamilton by the hand of Aaron 
Burr. That event had, more than any law, contributed to the revul- 
sion of popular sentiment in the State against the practice of dueling, 
and the law had slumbered, nearly forgotten, for over thirty years. 

Colonel Webb having pleaded guilty, the next phase in the case 
was the appearance, one morning, of a couple of gentlemen who came 



I 



1842-'43.] LAST MONTH IN OFFICE. (337 

up from the steamboat to the Governor's office, accompanied by a cart 
bringing a barrel. This, when unloaded and opened, was found to con- 
tain a mammoth petition for Webb's pardon, with many thousand sig- 
natures, headed by the name of ex-Governor Morgan Lewis, who, as 
the occupant of the Executive chair, had signed the law under which 
Webb was now convicted. For convenience in carrying, and as tin- 
only practicable mode of reading it, the petition was mounted on two 
rollers in a frame, and by turning a crank each sheet was passed in 
succession under the eye. Mr. Hoskins, the assistant editor of the 
Courier and Enquirer, who came with it, said that the names were 
gathered hastily, nearly everybody signing to whom it was presented, 
political opponents, as well as friends and even the judge and jurors ; 
and he had no doubt that if there had been more time many other 
thousands would have appended their names. Similar petitions, large, 
though of less dimensions, were brought from Hudson, Troy, Cherry 
Valley, Geneva, and elsewhere. The Governor issued the pardon on 
the following Wednesday. It wns based upon the condition that he 
should not again violate any of the laws designed to prevent dueling. 
The pardon recited its reasons, viz. : 

Because lie was not the challenger: because the challenger, though holding 
a high representative trust, has not been brought to justice, and is not ami: 

■ laws of this State: because the combat was not mortal, and the chal- 
1 party sincerely manifested a determination to avoid depriving his adver- 
sary of life, and he was unharmed : because the said James Watson Webb vol- 
untarily submitted himself to justice, waving all advantage of legal defense, 
etc., etc. : wherefore, it is represented to us that it would be partial and unequal 
to enforce in the present case penalties which may have been regarded as ob- 
solete. 

Two or three days later, the Courier and Enquirer contained a card 
from Colonel Webb, publishing the pardon, expressing his grateful ap- 
preciation of the sympathies exhibited by his friends and fellow-citizens, 
and his acknowledgments to the press. 

The Evening Post, a few days afterward, contained a poetical 
travesty of the pardon, attributed to the pen of Bryant, whose humor- 
ous points none appreciated more heartily than the Governor at whom 
it was aimed. 

Few pardon cases could now be disposed of. While not desirous 
to throw upon his successor any responsibility which more pro] 
devolved upon himself, Seward could not take premature action. Ap- 
plicants for pardon, like those for office, turn their faces toward the 
"next Governor," of whom they know little, and therefore hope for 
much. 

The last pardon that he issued while in office was one accompanied 
by a letter to the daughter who had solicited it, in which he said : 



G3S 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842-43. 



I have directed your mother to he released from the prison on Christmas-day. 
If you shall be able to visit Sing Sing on that day, you will have the pleasure of 
conducting her to her home. She will be indebted to you for a great mitigation 
of her punishment. I hope she will prove herself, hereafter, to be worthy of 
the respect and affection of her children, and they may never again be subjected 
to so severe a trial as that through which they have passed. 

Seward now commenced preparations for leaving Alban}-. His 
family had already preceded him to Auburn, except one of his sons. 
His private secretary was busily aiding him to close his correspondence, 
to arrange his papers, and turn over the business of the department 
to Governor Bouck. 

His letters to Auburn described the occupations of his closing 

month of official service : 

Albany, December 1st. 

"Webb is pardoned, for reasons and on conditions which, I doubt not, will 
soon appear in the public prints. He writes in a grateful spirit. 

I will send you to-morrow a pamphlet containing real or pretended conver- 
sation of Colt's, in which he attributes my action to pique and resentment for 
political abuse of me four years ago, when I was a candidate. This is the first 
I ever heard of it. 

Albany, Dea mh< r 2d. 

Yesterday I met Governor Marcy at the Court of Errors. Feeling drawn 

toward him by recollections not unworthy of either, I was courteous to him. 

He mentioned that I procured the degree of LL. D. for him in 1839, and I have 

invited him to sit for his bust in 1842. 

December bill. 

I am at work busily, though quietly, preparing to leave this place in the first 
week in January. "We are all buried in the snow, as of course you are. 

Prof. Eeed, of Schenectady, came over on Saturday night. I attended him 
to Troy yesterday, and heard him preach twice. W T e dined at George "Warren's. 

Jenny has gone, and we are all sad. She had become so gentle, and since 
the grass withered and the twigs dried up she has been so domestic, that I 
loved her more than ever. I got two crockery crates this morning, inverted 
one over the other, lashed them together, supplied the cage with a floor and 
soft bed, furnished her with a loaf of bread in pieces adapted to her teeth, and 
she went off eating and unconcerned to the boat. She goes to a kind master. 

Albany, December *7t7i. 

I am much occupied. As I told you, it was necessary to examine, arrange, 
and preserve, all my papers. This is no slight affair. "When closely filed, they 
will be almost as lai-ge as half a cord of wood. These duties, with the ordinary 
official labors, confine me very closely, and will extend into January, perhaps. 

A new view of the subject of my future occupation has occurred to me to- 
day. The staying about Albany seems now more disagreeable to me than the 
discomforts of business at Auburn. I now think that I shall be content to go 
into my old office at Auburn, and take direct hold of such law-business as shall 
come to me. To supply myself with occupation of a higher order than the prac- 
tice of the law, for such spare time as I may find, I think I can employ myself 



1842-'43.] GOVERNOR BOUCK. G39 

in writing a commentary upon American government, politics, and law, which 
would be a work not unworthy of the consideration I have acquired. I have 
consulted nobody about this plan, and may change it tomorrow. I need not 
say that I shall cling to it fondly, because it will leave me liberty to remain with 
you and such of the boys as we can keep with us. 

Weed has gone to Saratoga, to defend himself in one of Cooper's libel-suits. 
He returned only on Monday night. It is among the pleasing reflections upon 
my retirement from public life that 1 shall ho able to he useful to him. i 
generous, faithful friendship as his deserves not to be always taxed. 

Mr. Mooney has completed his picture for the City Hall. I am not sorry 
that you cannot see it ; you would not like it ; it is as stern as " Old Hickory." 
Fred, Henry, and Rogers, all were surprised to see a presentment of me in such 
a character; but Rogers undertook to ascertain whether the picture was just. 
He was with me when a man insisted on a pardon that I thought it wrong to 
grant, and Rogers acknowledged that the picture was just to my official appear- 
ance. 

The artist has made for you a picture presenting a more gen' . v, hich 

1 think you will he pleased with. 

Albany, December 17. 1842. 

The staff gave me a dinner on Thursday. To-day I have, strange t<> tell, 
resolutions most laudatory and enthusiastic from the Whig Young Men's Gen- 
eral Committee in New York, the same body which elected their chairman out 
of spite against me, and last summer turned my poor bust out-of-doors. It 
seems to be working so, and I am like to have atonement for the unkindness I 
have heretofore suffered from those who owed me better feelings. 

I am at work more busily than ever, and still looking with impatience to 
the end, when I shall go straight to Auburn, and make my home there in con- 
tent. 

Governor Bouck has not yet come to town. He will find trouble enough 
before he gets through his first term. 

Albany, December -''J. 

The signs of the change that the New-Year brings in multiply. Governor 
Bouck arrived here on Saturday ; on Tuesday he called upon me. His manners 
are easy and fascinating, and I think that he lacks neither dignity nor grace; 
hut my taste, you know, differs from the prevailing one. He is evidently a 
kind, honest, amiable, and sagacious man. He was at first quiet, reserved, and 
manifested a sense of restraint. I told him much that it was important to 
know, tendered to him every explanation and aid, and assured him that, do as 
he might, I would never write at him in the newspapers as my predecessor had 
written against me. The good man relaxed, went with me to the Geological 
Museum and the several departments, where Colonel YouDg and Mr. Flagg dis- 
cussed political questions in my presence, and with such del • my '-pin- 
ion that my successor forgot 1 was an opponent. His house is neatly furnished 
with Mrs. Dix's furniture. Mrs. Bouck came to town a day or two since ; I 
call upon her to-morrow. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor Dickinson 
called here to-day while I was calling on Governor Many. We all mel there ; 
and, having killed off so many Governors, I conchuh <1 to give no quarter; so I, 
to-night, called at Congress Hall to return Dickinson's visil : thence I paid my 
visit to Mrs. Bradish, and to him that should have been the Governor. 



G40 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842-'43. 

We are doing great execution in the moving line ; books, maps, papers, etc., 
are going into boxes. The carriage-bouse at Auburn will receive all tbat is 
valuable next Saturday or Monday week, and the auctioneer will have the rest. 
1 shall be able to follow my affairs in a few days at farthest. 

Seward was always averse to lingering near the capital after the 
expiration of his term of office. He compared the public men, who re- 
mained at the seat of government when their functions had ceased, to 
actors " lagging superfluous on the stage," or ghosts revisiting old 
haunts, where they can accomplish nothing, and are in the way of the 
survivors. He was impatient to start at once for Auburn at the close 
of his official term. 

About the middle of December, the United States brig Somers 
arrived at New York, and immediately the startling news was spread 
that, soon after her departure from the African coast, a mutiny had 
broken out on board, headed by Midshipman Spencer, a son of the Sec- 
retary of War, which had drawn off forty or fifty of the crew. Spencer 
and two others were sentenced to death and hanged, by Captain Mac- 
kenzie's order, at the yard-arm. It was further stated that solemn 
oaths had been entered into by the conspirators, who signed papers 
drawn up by Spencer, partly in Greek letters. Spencer was only nine- 
teen years old, had received iris warrant as midshipman in November of 
the year before, and was in the spring attached to the Brazilian squad- 
ron. The commanding officer of the Somers was Alexander Slidell 
Mackenzie, a brother of John Slidell. The first-lieutenant was Ganse- 
voort, of Albany, and there were five or six midshipmen — among them 
two sons of Commodore Perry, and a nephew of Commodore Rodgers. 
For a week the papers were filled witli details and conflicting opinions ; 
some accepting with credulity the story of Spencer's guilt, others 
severely denouncing the captain, charging him with having yielded to 
absurd fears, and having committed unnecessary and wanton murder, 
when he might have brought the accused home for trial. A long and 
scathing article in the Madisonian in regard to the case, signed " S.," 
was attributed to the pen of the agonized father himself. As further 
intelligence came out, most of the stories first put in circulation were 
found to be grossly inaccurate. The Government ordered a court of 
inquiry, consisting of Commodores Stewart, Jones, and Dallas, with 
Ogden Hoffman as judge-advocate, to commence their sittings on 
nesday the 28th, on board the North Carolina at Brooklyn. 

Albany, December 23<2. 
You have read all that has transpired concerning the awful calamity that 
befallen tho Spencers. Was ever a blow more appalling? I, of course, 
knew Philip only as friends know our children. I should as soon have ex- 
pected a deer to ravage a sheepfold. Thero are all manner of reports from 
"Washington concerning the manner in which the parents receive this last sad 



1842-'43.] END OF OFFICIAL TEEM. (541 

blow, but I have no curiosity on the subject. I know that Nature has given no 
firmness to resist the immediate shock to the mother, but time may heal and 
obliterate the wound. The card which Mr. Spencer has published (or rather 
his communication) shows that his iron nerves were proof. Mr. "Weed is at 
Washington, but I have no information from him. 

Albany, Sunday, December 25t7i. 

Weed writes from Washington that Mrs. Spencer is heart-broken, and her 
husband scarcely less. That article in the Madisonian was his. Weed says that 
the papers sent to Washington do not show a necessity for the execution, and 
that the conduct of Mackenzie, as ascertained from these papers, appears to 
have been cowardly and murderous. This may all be, and yet the name and 
fame of Spencer be as irretrievable as his life. Mackenzie married a daughter 
of Morris Robinson, one of my Chautauqua associates, and brother-in-law of 
John Duer. 

I called yesterday on Mrs. Bouck. She has a daughter who was educated at 
the Crittenden School here, and who will soon be a belle. 

The nearer I come to Auburn, the more I foresee the necessity for a library 
and study in the house. I will keep a law-office in connection with somebody ; 
but nights and mornings and Sundays I must have a place. I would not have 
clients there, nor clerks ; but only desire it for a private study. 

To-morrow morning I remove to the Eagle Tavern. 

Eagle Tavern, Albany, December 21tk. 
We are so far on our way to Auburn. The mansion is deserted by all but 
Nicholas and Harriet, little Harriet and the mice. The furniture will leave 
here on Monday next ; we follow as soon as we can. 

At the Eagle Tavern, with writing-chair and papers, he occupied 
a parlor as his office for the remaining days of his term. It was 
thronged with visitors, but not unwelcome ones. Those who visit 
Governors from motives of interest or selfishness no longer troubled 
him, for their attention was turned to the " rising sun." Instead, his 
visitors now were friends or strangers who came, not to solicit favors, 
but to give assurances of esteem, express regrets for his retirement, or 
good wishes for his future. " On the whole," he remarked, " I have 
never found my official position so endurable, or received so many gen- 
erous and kindly words, in the whole four years that preceded, as I 
have in the last four weeks." 

Mr. Underwood, his private secretary, had carefully filed in alpha- 
betical order, or bound in volumes, his private correspondence and 
documents, and all was arranged for shipment to Auburn. 

At such times the absence of missing volumes from the library is 
noted, and the Governor asked General King to put a paragraph in 
the Evening Journal, saying that he had lent a folio volume from his 
set of Michel Chevalier to some friend, but to whom he had forgotten, 
and requesting such friend, if the paragraph should meet his eye, to 
return it. The next evening General King walked in witn the volume 
41 



642 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842-'43. 



under his arm, saying : " Here, Governor, you see the benefits of the 
advertising system. After I had written and published the notice in 
the Journal yesterday, I went home, and, looking over my book- 
shelves, found I had borrowed your volume myself." 

The Whio- newspapers now came to him by every mail, with grace- 
ful and kindly editorial tributes. A farewell letter to Weed closed 

the vear : 

Albany, December 31, 1842. 

The end has come at last. My successor and the New- Year come together. 
He has the keys and the seal, and I have only recollections and reflections. 
Those which crowd upon me are different from what I anticipated ; I looked 
for ennui, if not for regret ; but there is nothing of these. The thousand 
perils through which I have passed, the thousand enemies by whom I have been 
opposed, the hundreds by whom I have been causelessly hated, and the many 
whom I have unavoidably or imprudently offended, rise up before me ; and yet 
I am safe ; and if friends who never flattered when I had power are not false 
now when I am powerless, I am more than safe. My public career is success- 
fully and honorably closed, and I am yet young enough, if a reasonable age is 
allotted to me, to repair all the waste of private fortune it has cost. Gratitude 
to God, and gratitude and affection toward my friends, and most of all to you, 
my first and most efficient and devoted friend, oppress me. Without your aid 
how could I have sustained myself there ; how have avoided the assaults to 
which I have been exposed ; how have secured the joyous reflections of this 
hour? 

But I did not mean to say any of these things. I felt that I could not leave 
you to suppose what, after all, you would not suppose, that I did not feel as I 
ought. 

When Seward descended to breakfast on Sunday morning, it was 
with an unmistakable air of cheerfulness, almost of exultation, at find- 
ing himself once more a private citizen. The guests at the table of 
the Eagle were most of them Whigs ; they had therefore deemed the 
day not one to be rejoiced over, and, until he entered, were silent and 
dull ; but long before the meal was over he had infused his own good 
spirits into the company, and was humorously imitating the querulous 
tone in regard to public officers that had been adopted so often toward 
himself. He occupied his accustomed seat at St. Peter's, and passed 
the remainder of the day quietly in his room. 

The next morning, Monday, was to be celebrated as New-Year's-day. 
At ten o'clock Nicholas brought the horses to the door, and drove the 
ex-Governor to the side-door of the Capitol for the last time, accom- 
panied by his adjutant-general and private secretary. The hall was 
thronged with people to witness the inauguration. Rogers was still 
at the door of the Executive chamber, and going in they found 
there Governor Bouck with his personal friends, Lieutenant-Govern- 
or Dickinson, the Secretary of State, the Chief -Justice, and others. 
After a brief exchange of greetings, both parties proceeded to the 



1842-'43.] THE NEW GOVERNOR. 643 

head of the staircase in the great hall, where the Chancellor adminis- 
tered to Governor Bouck the oath of office. As he laid down the book, 
Seward stepped forward, and, shaking him by the hand, congratulated 
him upon the high distinction conferred on him by the people, and ex- 
pressed the hope that his administration might redound as well to his 
own honor as to the prosperity and happiness of the State. Governor 
Bouck thanked him for his courtesy and good wishes, and, exchanging 
bows, they separated. So unusual had any such proceeding hitherto 
been, that the audience, taken aback, stood in open-mouthed surprise 
at the spectacle of such an exchange of courtesies betweeen a Whig 
and a Democratic Governor. The custom thus introduced, however, 
commended itself at once to popular good taste; and since then the in- 
coming and the outgoing Governor exchange brief salutatory speeches. 

Governor Bouck and Lieutenant-Governor Dickinson went over to 
the gubernatorial residence on Washington Street, where a concourse of 
visitors was already awaiting them ; and the reception of citizens and 
strangers, civic and military, with its hand-shaking and compliments, 
continued through the day. 

At the Eagle, the ex-Governor's parlor, on the first floor, was also 
thronged throughout the morning. Personal and political friends, 
strangers and opponents curious to see how he took the loss of power, 
helped to make up the crowd. Many interesting and some pathetic 
scenes occurred, for with many it was their farewell interview with a 
friend they had learned to esteem and admire. The Burgesses Corps 
and the Military Association came, to visit their ex-commander-in-chief. 

The Legislature met on Tuesday morning. The Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor took the chair in the Senate. The Assembly organized by the 
election of George R. Davis, of Troy, as SjDeaker ; the Whig minority 
voting for Willis Hall. The Argus of the morning announced the 
Governor's staff and other appointments. The evening usually brought 
Weed, Benedict, King, and other prominent Whigs, together in the 
parlor at the Eagle. These evening hours were devoted, as Seward used 
to say, "very largely to smoking and scandalum magnatwn." During 
the day he passed such intervals as occurred between visits in answer- 
ing letters and preparing for final departure from town. 

The prevailing topic in political circles was the message of the now 
Governor, and the action of the dominant party in the Legislature. 
The opinions of Whigs and Democrats were, of course, irreconcilable on 
the subject of the suspension of the public works ; but it very soon be- 
came manifest that opinions, even among the Democrats themselves, 
were not entirely harmonious. A considerable portion of the party 
had begun to doubt whether the stoppage was not an unwise step. 

Governor Bouck, in his message, endeavored, as judiciously as pos- 
sible, to ward off conflict of views, while adhering to the platform laid 



644 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1842-'43. 

down by the convention which nominated him. He said : " That the 
State has the ability eventually to complete all her works which have 
been commenced, cannot be questioned. But great caution should be 
observed in increasing the State debt, already too large." 

Much interest had been felt in what Governor Bouck- would say 
about the delicate and difficult questions of the Virginia controversy, 
the antislavery laws, trial by jury, etc. But on these he took un- 
equivocal party ground, that such laws were repugnant to a faithful 
discharge of constitutional obligations ; adding, " I submit whether 
these laws ought, any longer, to have a place upon the statute-book." 
Adverting to the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the 
case of Prigg vs. Pennsylvania, he expressed his concurrence in the 
opinion that stealing a slave in Virginia was a crime for which the 
offenders ought to be delivered up by New York. So, on all questions 
involving State rights and Democratic doctrines, he went with his 
party. On those which were not the subject of party controversy, he 
recommended wise and proper legislation. No reference was made to 
the Virginia search-law. 

The colored citizens of Albany held a meeting in the vestry of the 
Hamilton Street church. Among them were Primus Robinson, the Pauls, 
V. Latimore, Stephen Myers, and W. M. Topp. A well-written address 
accompanied their feeling resolutions, in which they remarked that it 
was " not for vain ostentation, but that they deemed it their duty to 
thank their benefactor in behalf of those who cannot speak for them- 
selves, and who have so few advocates to speak for them." 

Seward, in his acknowledgment, said : 

Only time can determine between those who have upheld and those who 
have opposed the measures to which you have adverted. But I feel encouraged 
to await that decision ; since, in the moment when, if ever, reproaches for in- 
justice should come, the exile does not reproach me, the prisoner does not exult 
in my departure, and the disfranchised and the slave greet me with their salu- 
tations. 

In reply to a similar letter from colored men in New York, J. Mc- 
Cune Smith and others, he remarked : 

I may say, without egotism, that I shall cherish among the pleasing recollec- 
tions of my public life the remembrance that I received the thanks of those 
whose protection required a sacrifice of some personal advantage, and a conflict 
with prejudices matured by age, and sustained by political combinations. 

The JZvening Post and some other Democratic papers dissented 
from several points in Governor Bouck's message. It was becoming 
evident that the slavery question, as well as the canal question, might 
be a source of future discord in the Democratic ranks. 



1843.] AT HOME AGAIN. 045 

Some of the leading citizens of Albany tendered a public dinner 
to Seward. The list of signers was headed by H. G. Wheaton and 
Samuel Stevens. Among the others were, Friend Humphrey, Rufus 
H. King, Archibald Mclntyre, James Horner, J. L. Schoolcraft, Teunis 
Van Vechten, Robert Hunter, Henry L. Webb, William Parmelee, 
Herman Pumpelly, Visscher Ten Eyck, James and John Taylor. 

A day or two were now spent in a round of farewell visits on foot 
to some of the many families in Albany to whom he was indebted for 
hospitality. When Lewis Benedict came one evening to the Eagle, 
he related with some indignation how he had met an acquaintance in 
the street, who asked him, " What is that old Seward doing here so 
long ? " to which he had retorted that Governor Seward had as good 
a right to be in Albany as any other citizen, and that he was attend- 
ing to his private affairs. The ex-Governor laughed, and said : " No, 
your friend was right about it. A public officer when he goes out of 
office ought to go home, and not linger around the capital. The peo- 
ple have willed that some one else should attend to public business, 
and they do not want him to be meddling or appearing to meddle. I 
think, as your friend did, it's time that old Seward went home ! " 



CHAPTER XLYII. 

1843. 



At Home again. — The Law-Office. — A Struggle for Independence. — The Mackenzie Inquiry. 
— The Virginia Question. — The City-Hall Portrait. 

" William H. Sewakd, Esq., left the city this morning for Auburn, 
his former and future residence, carrying with him the unfeigned and 
heart-felt wishes of thousands of our citizens for his happiness and 
prosperity." So chronicled the evening paper the departure of the ex- 
Governor. 

Arriving at Auburn on Saturday night, he at once began talking of 
projects for resuming his profession. He converted one of the rooms 
into a study, and arranged his books and papers for business. He 
had brought with him in the train some of the first numbers of Ali- 
son's " History of Europe," of which an American edition was in 
press, and he remarked that it was a pleasure to be able to read again 
in the evening. He had found no time at Albany even for history or 
philosophy ; as for novels, he had not looked into one in four years. 
He left off when he laid down " Nicholas Nickleby," in 1838, and he 
now took up " The Neighbors," a translation of which had just been 
published by Mary Howitt who thus introduced Miss Bremer to the 



q±q LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

American reading public. Books, papers, and pamphlets, were placed 
on the shelves and in the cases of the new library, and it Avas found 
necessary to create another " little library " before all could be stowed 
away. It was never his habit to destroy letters or papers, though 
they were frequently allowed to accumulate without systematic ar- 
rangement. 

Old friends and neighbors dropped in to visit and welcome him. 
Among those from a distance were Trumbull Cary and Judge Sackett ; 
and, after a Saturday evening conference with them, he settled the 
question about his law-office, by sajdng that he should resume busi- 
ness in the old place on Monday morning. 

On Monday the old tin sign, " Win. H. Seward," was nailed up at 
the foot of the stairway in the Exchange Building, and the Auburn 
Journal contained this : "Notice. — The subscriber will attend to any 
business which may be confided to him in the courts of law and in 
the Court of Chancery." He sat down to wait for clients. During 
the morning an occasional visitor looked in, usually a Whig friend. 
But no business offered until, the next day, a farmer came in, who, 
having heard that he w T as going to practise law, had brought to him 
his case, which was a suit in regard to a broken fence and " breachy 
oxen," the whole sum involved in which would amount to perhaps five 
or ten dollars. 

As he looked over the bills and notices of protest wmich lay scat- 
tered on his table, and thought of the interest on his notes for the 
Chautauqua purchase, his huge debt of four hundred thousand dollars, 
he involuntarily paused to calculate how many breachy oxen per diem 
it would take to meet the problem that was staring him in the face. 
However, everything must have a beginning, and he would begin 
with the suit in the justice's court, in the hope that there might some 
day be an end of the financial embarrassment which four years had 
gathered around him. 

The mail from Washington brought the National Intelligencer, 
with a kindly notice from Mr. Seaton. In the same mail came a letter 
with a black seal from John C. Spencer, in reply to one written to him. 

I ought sooner to have acknowledged your kind and feeling note of sympa- 
thy in the horrible calamity which has overtaken me and my family. I now 
do so, with my grateful assurances of the consolation it has afforded ; but Mrs. 

S and myself are well aware that we must look to a higher than human 

source for that balm which only can heal the wounds of our bleeding hearts. 

From the State capital came news of warm debate over the public 
printing bill, ending on the 20th, with the passage of the law taking 
the State printing away from Weed ; and on the following day the 
two Houses, in joint ballot, elected Edwin Croswell to be State Print- 



1843.] THE DEMOCRATS IK POWER, G4-7 

er, the Whig minority giving a complimentary vote for Horace 
Greeley. 

A bill had also been introduced to repeal the " trial- by-jury law," 
by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly. The 
Richmond Inquirer ', Richmond Whig, Charleston Mercury, and other 
Southern papers, had received with decided approbation Governor 
Bouck's message in regard to the Virginia controversy, and contrasted 
it with that of his predecessor with much satisfaction. 

Seward's letters to Weed now described his life at Auburn : 

Auburn, January 13, 1843. 

All excesses leave a train of penances. Sad as the times are, and huge the 
undertaking, I will try to meet all debts, with as long a time to work in as 
Walter Scott had to pay his creditors. I feel especially bold, now that I prom- 
ise to keep the accounts of my dilapidated estate myself. 

I have spent the whole time since my arrival here in unpacking and arrang- 
ing my books and papers. From present indications I shall not need an office 
in the village to attract business, as heretofore, as my success will depend on 
how well I prepare my briefs. For that purpose my old arm-chair and my quiet 
home are indispensable to me. Greeley has notified me that he is to be prose- 
cuted by Cooper. I shall make it my business, at an early day, to prepare my- 
self for that contest. 

January 19, 18-43. 
'"" One would think from reading your letters that we had led a life of dissipa- 
tion and profligacy while I lived at Albany. You have " eschewed champagne, 
and oysters, and deserted taverns," you tell me. I think it is less my absence 
than that of Hawkins and Hunt that is entitled to the merit of your reforma- 
tion. Whatever the cause may be, I hope it may continue. You will be sur- 
prised to find what a comfortable place I have made for myself here. You are 
welcome to sign a release for me of public life. I shall get acclimated to retire- 
ment, so that I shall be no burden to political friends ; but I warn you that you 
will find no suppers and no cards when you visit my Tusculum : we are all 
reformed. 

The Democrats here begin to manifest knowledge of the feud at the capital, 
and to divide into factions. What will be the end of it is uncertain. The 
Whigs, since the commencement of the new order of things at Albany, are 
weak enough to believe that they can succeed here next fall, even with the pres- 
ent organization. Nothing could be more absurd. 

This schism will strengthen Van Buren in 1844, but exhaust and disturb 
their party immensely after, I think. Being now free from responsibility, he 
will be able to rise above the contentions of his supporters. 

A fine article that, of King's, on the life of General Arcularius. I see it 
traveling around the country, and hear many persons speak of it. 

Auburn, January 21, 1843. 
I have just been reading Fillmore's report. It is clear and able. How 

strangely our friends at Washington forget that John Tyler was elected by 



qaq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

Whigs, and that proving him a knave or a fool does not answer any desirahle 

purpose ! 

I have just received a very clear letter from Benedict, giving me the key to 
the recent proceedings concerning the State Printer, which I needed. Has Gov- 
ernor Bouck no reliable and disinterested adviser ? I think he has not. I shall 
he mistaken if the party do not eschew the first agricultural Governor sooner 
than the Whigs fell out with his unlucky predecessor. 

I have opened my old office, and am for the present alone; hut have 
arranged with young Beach and Underwood to join them in April or May. As 
yet I have no business ; but my friends are around me so warm-hearted and 
affectionate that I have no fears about the future. 

I have done little since I came here but make alterations and repairs indis- 
pensable to my family and myself, under our present circumstances. To-day I 
have spent like a lawyer in my office — engaged, however, as most lawyers are, 
in giving gratuitous advice. 

Mr. Croswell, for once, has lost something of his coolness. He should have 
been content with bis triumph, without reproaching his opponents. Van Dyck 
might have been left alone, and Bryant won back ; but both, with all who have 
aided them, will war upon the victor, because he has struck them after they 
were down. This, however, will not render you nor me unhappy. 

With affectionate regard to Mrs. Weed and the young ladies, 

I remain yours, 

W. II. Seward, 
Attorney, in propria persona. 

To Thuelow Weed, Esq., 

Late Printer to the State ; late Dictator, etc., etc. 

Auburn, January 24, 1843. 

I hope that no supercilious creature bought my carriage, and that the horses 
have found a humane master. I am glad to know tho loss, for I am seeking to 
get at the aggregate of that commodity. I shall yet be able to balance it, I hope, 
if Providence shall be only half as kind as heretofore. 

Whittlesey has written me a letter that cheers and delights me. It is full of 
generous sentiments and kind and affectionate feelings, delicately and beautifully 
expressed. I could not acknowledge it as he deserved. 

I fear that unlucky, ill-starred Congress will make short work. Morgan 
writes that there is no hope of resisting the appeal in the Senate, and I suppose, 
moreover, that, in their madness, two-thirds of both Houses will even pass the 
bill, if it shall be vetoed. Heaven be praised, we are near the end of hope; 
and in two months we shall be in the hands of our enemies, safe from further 
loss by the folly of friends ! 

It is as I supposed : our friends in the Legislature, noble and in the main dis- 
creet, will present an organized front. I shall not suggest a thought to the con- 
trary. Yet, I regret that we should do anything to bind a mass of opponents 
so ready to fall asunder. 

Aubuen, Saturday. 
I received this morning your letter, simultaneously with a half -bushel of let- 
ters about that unfortunate subject, the New York artist. 

The question cannot be delayed ; the postage on letters from friends of the 



1843.] RESUMING LAW PRACTICE. 649 

artist would ruin me; besides, delay would operate as it always does in .such 
cases. Neither Mr. "Weir nor any other artist would volunteer or consent to 
stand between me and the profession. I had better decide here and without 
more information than in New York with all the aid I could get. My private 
opinion is most favorable to Inman. I have seen his pictures. I am told that 
Harding is pronounced superior ; but I never saw his pictures. Let the right, 
real right, prevail. If Harding is the superior artist, let him have his right. I 
send you the paper, that you may record your vote in it, and send it to Minturn 
if it suit you. 

So much for that. I answer your inquiries very generally. I spend my days 
in my law-office : I charge reasonable counsel-fees, and they are thus far cheer- 
fully paid. Everything is gratifying, so far as the public feeling and sentiment 
are known to me. My earnings, thus far, have been equal to the salary for an 
equal period while in office. My expenses are vastly diminished. I do not 
work hard, and especially devote myself as counsel ; have no partner, and only 
one clerk. I may earn five thousand dollars this year, in this way, if business 
continues as it has begun. I have commenced paying interest on all my debts. 
The principal is too great to be affected by my sinking-fund, unless I shall earn 
more. 

I spend my evenings in gathering those state papers. They are richer and 
better than I thought. King wants a review of the Virginia critic. It seems 
to me that the very best review that can be, is my second letter to Rutherford 
(in documents accompanying the Governor's message, 1842). I think it is the 
second. At all events, it is the letter which contains the passage that is some- 
times quoted. I make this blind reference because the documents are not within 
my present reach. 

I am happy enough, much more so than while I was in Albany, because I 
have recovered a sense of pecuniary independence ; and I suffered more from 
the privation of that than anybody knew while I was in Albany. 

For the future I am thoughtless. If forgotten, I shall still be content. My 
ambition has reached beyond the lines of my contemporaries as well as my own. 
All present praise cannot secure me that which would be posthumous; and 
oblivion now could not deprive me of a hope that I should be remembered for 
some good as time and truth roll on. So give yourself no thought for me. 
Only, when you have nothing else to do, take a railway-car, and spend a Sunday 
with us. 

Auburn, February Ittli. 

The hurly-burly of a circuit week, even though you have very little business, 
is exciting and distracting. 

Thus far, by advising parties to compromise unfortunate suits, I have kept 
out of court, and am trying to do so, for, having no fear that I shall not ulti- 
mately have business enough, I wish to get into the display exercises of the 
profession with modesty and moderation. 

I wish I had been incog, at "Washington while you were there. Bowen 
wrote some amusing things about the despotism reigning there concerning a 
great question. That book makes up very slowly. I spend the whole day in 
my office on the main street giving advice, sometimes for pay, and oftentimes 
gratuitously, and entertaining as well as I am able the quidnuncs whose curi- 
osity is reasonable, and who have claims upon me for old friendship's sake. 



65 L1FE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

At night I make briefs, or draw bills in chancery ; but, since Mr. Blake holds 
on, I must return to the book, leaving law with the canine race, where some- 
body proposed to " throw physic." I will send the prospectus to Whittlesey, 
as it is time to let him decide whether he will be willing to be printed there. 
He spent two days with me. You ought to have met him here. You seldom 
see him at Albany when botb of you are enough at ease. A visit here is quite 
another affair. He has acquired great learning in his judicial studies and prac- 
tice. I seldom meet a lawyer who makes me feel insignificant, or a judge 
either ; but I found him so profound, so extensively learned, that I felt alto- 
gether incompetent in discussion with him. I should have forsworn political 
ambition as a seductive jade, if he had not shown me his lecture. 

You ask me when I am going east. Heaven bless you, I do not think of 
such a thing ! I am resolving myself into a village lawyer ; the thought of the 
expense of time and money which a visit would require appalls me. Why, I am 
wearing out old clothes, burning tallow-candles, smoking a pipe instead of 
cigars, economizing fuel, and balancing my cash-book, night and morning. 
Don't think of asking me to travel on the railroad until the canal opens and the 
second-class cars are on the road. If I have occasion to visit Albany, as I may 
by-and-by, I think I shall strike across the country on foot to Goshen, and 
arrive at Albany by one of Newton's steamboats, which always convey me 
gratis. 

Our opponents here are much divided and alienated concerning their ap- 
pointments ; it would not interest you, however, to know the effervescence of 
the teapot, so let it pass. 

The business at the law-office gradually began to revive and in- 
crease. Soon the days, instead of seeming long, had not hours 
enough for the work. Seward threw himself earnestly into the labors 
of his profession, was as much confined to his office as in former 
years, and hardly gave himself time for his meals and sleep. His pe- 
cuniary affairs, indeed, demanded extraordinary effort, if they were 
ever to be relieved from embarrassment. The heavy debt for the 
Chautauqua property brought incessant calls for interest. His mod- 
erate personal estate had nearly melted away in the four years' guber- 
natorial life at Albany, which had involved lavish expense. Friends 
suggested that the easiest, perhaps the only practicable, way was to 
accept the bankruptcy that seemed inevitable ; to wipe out all old ac- 
counts and begin again. But to this suggestion he would not listen. 
He would rather struggle to pay off the debt, whatever amount of work 
it might involve. Indeed, the amount of work in any case rather 
seemed to stimulate than to discourage him. It was to be a hard strug- 
gle and a long one; but he believed that, if his health should be spared, 
he would, by zealous attention to his profession, and the practice of 
strict economy, meet every demand for interest, and in due time cancel 
every obligation for principal. This was the task now before him. 

It was a favorite saying of his that, in human affairs, nothing is so 
bad but that there is some way out of it. It illustrated the habit of 



1843.] HABITS IN MONEY MATTERS. G51 

his mind never to give way to despondency, but, accepting the worst, 
to endeavor to find some cheer or consolation. 

He had left Auburn in 1839 in easy circumstances ; he came back 
in 1843 in debt. He had almost consumed his property, and had made 
no new investments. 

His advocacy of internal improvements was always based on the 
ground of the benefits they would confer on the community at large. 
His own interest in such enterprises was that of the citizen, not that 
of stockholder or bondholder. It is doubtful if he ever owned a hun- 
dred shares of railroad stock in his life. When he had saved a few 
hundred dollars out of his professional earnings, he would generally 
invest them in improving house or land. The exceptions to this habit 
were when he joined his neighbors in subscribing to some work of 
local improvement ; and this class of investments, however they might 
benefit the town, seldom brought any pecuniary return. 

Though he never lived extravagantly, he loved to live hospitably, 
to spend and give freely. When out of office, he usually lived up to 
his income ; when in office, he made it a rule to always spend more 
than his salary, determined, as ho used to say, that " the public should 
never put a dollar in his pocket." 

Habits of thrift and economy in regard to details were not natural 
to him ; they could only be acquired by an effort. He used to remark 
that it was not until middle life that he ever took any pains in regard 
to the calculation of interest on accounts due to himself, although he 
was scrupulous in the payment of it to his creditors. He had been 
accustomed to deem it a matter of trivial importance, and, instead of 
claiming it from his debtors, was glad enough to get the simple prin- 
cipal. However, in the effort now making to regain pecuniary inde- 
pendence, he adopted rather more systematic habits in regard to ac- 
counts and investments. 

He had no taste for bargains, or chaffering about prices. He would 
not pay extravagant prices if he knew them to be so, but would mere- 
ly decline to buy. In like manner, when offering anything for sale, 
he did not have an " asking price " and a " selling one." On one 
occasion, when about to be absent from Auburn for some time, he 
undertook to dispose of a horse, an unusually good animal for family 
use. A neighbor learned in horses came round to look and buy. The 
horse was brought out of the stable, and Peter put him through his 
paces. Thereupon the wculd-be purchaser began to point out defects, 
and to show, after the manner of horse-dealers, that something was 
wrong about the poor animal's flesh, wind, speed, bottom, gait, hoofs, 
hocks, pasterns, shoulders, etc., with a view to a reduction of price. 
Seward answered nothing, but quietly told Peter to take the horse 
back to the stable, which was done. The neighbor looked astonished, 



q~2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

and asked what that was for. " If he has half the faults you say he 
has," replied Seward, " he is not worth your buying nor my selling, so 
let that be an end of the business." The horse-dealer pondered a few 
moments, and finally said he guessed he'd take the horse at Seward's 
price, but he'd never seen anybody sell a horse that way before. 

Seward had dropped his title of office, and reminded his friends, 
when they continued to use it, that it no longer belonged to him. But 
the old habit was too strong upon them. He found himself still ad- 
dressed as " Governor Seward " in his letters, referred to as " Govern- 
or " in the newspapers, and accosted by the familiar title of " Govern- 
or " by his friends in conversation. In the State of New York at least, 
he was always called so. No other title ever seemed to come so readily 
or appropriately ; and for thirty years after he went out of the Execu- 
tive chamber he was " Governor Seward " still. 

From Albany now came news of especial interest for him. The As- 
sembly, on taking up the Virginia question, showed an evident desire 
to avoid the discussion of the search-law. When the question of print- 
ing a report in favor of acceding to Virginia's demand came up, there 
was a division of opinion among the Democrats. Finally the report 
of the Judiciary Committee was published. They said nothing about 
the Virginia search-law, but recommended the repeal of the " trial-by- 
jury law," because the United States Supreme Court had, in the Prigg 
case, decided all such laws to be unconstitutional. 

At Auburn, the engrossing topics of the time, apart from politics, 
were the Mackenzie trial, the silk-manufacture in the prison, and the 
Millerite or " Second- Advent " meetings, which were proceeding with 
much earnestness. The court of inquiry on Mackenzie, after a long 
sitting, and voluminous testimony, came at last to a decision in favor 
of the commander, practically accepting his version of the events on 
the Somers. The opinion was approved by the President ; but, not- 
withstanding, a court-martial was ordered. Public opinion divided in 
regard to this governmental action, which it was freely charged was 
taken to screen Mackenzie from just punishment, and was the fruit 
either of favoritism shown to him, or of strong influence at work in his 
behalf. 

The agent of the Auburn Prison, Henry Polhemus, reported this 
winter about the silk-manufacture, which was commenced there in 
1841, on the suggestion of Governor Seward. As it was experimental, 
only a limited number of convicts were employed at it. Up to Janu- 
ary, 1843, the net result had been a profit. The manufacture had 
reached such success that thirty-six yards of gros de Naples silk was 
exhibited, heavy, lustrous, and of fine texture, which had been made at 
the prison. And, as a further illustration of the ease with which silk 
might be made in Central New York, it was stated that one lady in 



1843.] THE CITY HALL PORTRAIT. (553 

Ontario County dressed in silk which had passed, in all its changes, 
from the leaf to the loom, through her own hands. 

At the " Millerite " meetings the lecturers demonstrated, by elabo- 
rate pictures of "the beast" described in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and 
by careful computation of the periods symbolized by his horns, that the 
end of the world was at hand. The column of figures thus set down, 
when added up, always amounted to 1843, which was deemed by the 
lecturer, if not by his audience, to be conclusive. A newspaper pub- 
lished in Albany, called the Midnight Cry, and a pamphlet entitled 
" The Warning Voice," called upon all sinners to abandon world- 
ly avocations, and betake themselves, during the brief period remain- 
ing, to repentance and preparation for the last day. The 13th of 
March was fixed upon as the day when the world would end. But "a 
sign in the heavens " appeared. This was a comet, of extreme brill- 
iancy, visible by night and even by day. Thereupon Miller fixed the 
23d of April as the day for the final consummation. Some of the de- 
luded even went so far as to give away their property, and others were 
employed in preparing white " ascension-robes," to be put on when the 
end should approach. As not unfrequently happens in a time of re- 
ligious excitement, some of the believers lost their intellect, and were 
sent to the lunatic asylum ; and others, in momentary frenzy, committed 
suicide. Even those who were incredulous about the judgment-day 
were exercised in spirit about the rapidly-approaching comet, the 
probabilities of its striking the earth, and the question, "What then?" 
Scientific observers made calculations of its movements with accuracy 
while it was visible. But who could tell whence it came, or whither it 
was going ? 

Business affairs called Seward to New York for a few days, at the 
close of February. One of the subjects demanding his attention there 
was the question of art referred to in his letters. The Common Coun- 
cil desired a full-length portrait of him, to hang in the Governor's Room 
at the City Hall with those of his predecessors. But no artist had 
been designated. His friends were divided in opinion. So, when Sew- 
ard came down, he was invited to visit many different studios to look 
at pictures of men, women, and children, innumerable. Messrs. Min- 
turn, Draper, Ruggles, Grinnell, Blatchford, and others, finally con- 
cluded to gratify all the conflicting preferences by inviting five artists 
— Inman, Harding, Huntington, Page, and Gray — each to paint a por- 
trait of the ex-Governor. The Common Council might select which- 
ever it chose, and his personal friends would themselves take the others. 
In accordance with this arrangement, Harding was to begin, and would 
be at Auburn early in March. 

On his return home, Seward brought also the news that Governor 
Bouck had appointed a new set of State-prison Inspectors, at Auburn, 



C54 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 



to replace the Whig ones ; that Mr. Forward had resigned the Treasury 
Department, and John C. Spencer was to succeed him ; and that the 
National Intelligencer announced a Whig National Convention to 
meet at Baltimore, on Wednesday, May 3, 1844. While the Whigs 
were united for Clay, the Democrats seemed to be dividing between 
several candidates. From Virginia, Michigan, Maryland, and other 
States, came intelligence of movements against Van Buren and in favor 
of Calhoun, Johnson, and others. Members of Congress were return- 
ing home, the Whigs in full belief of coming success with Henry Clay. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

1843. 



War at Albany. — "Old Hunkers" and "Barnburners." — Harding. — Abolition Nomination. 
— Greeley and Fourier. — Law and Gardening. — Proposed Constitutional Convention. — 
Sydney Smith on Repudiation. — O'Connell on Slavery. 

At Albany the threatened war in the Democratic camp broke out. 
The new faction represented by the Atlas, and opposing the State 
Printer, was composed of the more radical and progressive members of 
the party. They stigmatized their opponents as " Old Hunkers," in 
view of their ultra-conservatism. The "Old Hunkers" retorted by 
calling their opponents " Barnburners," a name perhaps borrowed 
from that of the revolutionary destructives in Rhode Island. 

Lieutenant-Governor Dickinson was leading the " Old Hunkers," 
and Colonel Young, the Secretary of State, was at the head of the 
"Barnburners." As the floor of the Legislature was not open to them 
for debate, they resorted to the press ; Governor Dickinson assailing 
Young's financial theories, and Young defending his " strict construc- 
tion" and "rigid economy." Dickinson accused Young of favoring 
the doctrine of repudiation. Young retorted by charging him with 
extravagance. Dickinson claimed that he was defending the public 
faith ; Young that he was guarding the public Treasury. Foster, the 
Democratic leader in the Senate, took ground with Dickinson. Michael 
Hoffman, the confessed leader in the Assembly, sided with Young, say- 
ing he was not able to discover anything in his doctrines which could 
tend to impair the faith or credit of the State. Young, in a communi- 
cation to the Legislature, said there was not "the shadow of a moral 
obligation " on the people to redeem the four millions of public stocks 
loaned to incorporated companies. The debate waxed hot in the Senate 
and Assembly. There were quarrels and recriminations between Dem- 
ocrats, which lasted throughout the session, and bade fair to last con- 
siderably longer. 



1843.] HARDING. 655 

Silas Wright was strong- enough with his party, notwithstanding 
its incipient distractions, to be reelected United States Senator without 
serious opposition ; the Whigs dividing their votes between several 
candidates — Fillmore, Collier, Simmons, Patterson, Bradish, and Ver- 
planck. 

There was also dispute as to what should be done with New York's 
share of the proceeds of the public lands. Virginia had rejected her 
share, because she deemed the measure unconstitutional. Some of the 
leading Democrats wanted New York to do the same ; others concurred 
with the Whigs in desiring to use it for the schools or for the canals. 

Meanwhile, Seward's relation to all these matters was now that of a 
distant spectator — interested, but without power to control. He spent 
his days in his law-office or in the courts, sparing an hour or so for a 
sitting to Harding, who was a guest at his house, and a genial and 
hearty companion. Harding's studio became a favorite resort for the 
little circle at Auburn who were interested in art. His pictures and 
his conversation won the esteem of the villagers, and parties were 
made in his honor. 

Harding's massive figure seemed as if fitted for athletic exercise. 
It was what would have befitted a commanding general. He Avas six 
feet three inches high, with large face, hands too large for ordinary 
gloves, eyes too broadly separated for ordinary spectacles, a fine-looking 
man, of evident vigor and energy, but the last person a casual observer 
would suspect of delicate handling of palette and pencil. Seward had 
come to esteem him highly. " One cannot help liking him," he said, 
"even when he is declaring his prejudices ; he is so honest in enter- 
taining them, and so manly in defending them." 

After his brief visit to Albany Seward resumed his correspondence 
with Weed : 

Auburn, March 25, 1843. 

I received your letter of the 17th, but my little law business has so engrossed 
me that I have been unable to respond Mil now. It is about as well, for there 
has been no intercourse between our town and the great world. Three mails 
from Albany are now due. 

I regret your disappointment in losing the melancholy pleasure of following 
poor Hunter's remains to their resting-place. One can have so few such friends, 
that he may safely do the utmost of the last offices of friendship, when one is 
removed. I, too, had I known that the remains were passing through the place 
where I lived, would have paid, to those who bore them, the tribute of my 
respect and sympathy. 

Harding left me on Tuesday. He has what all my neighbors say is a good 
picture. I thought so. He will have shown you his " Conkling," which is ad- 
mirable; and the portrait of Judge Miller is even better. He was bore just Ion;,' 
enough to receive and give such assurances of personal interest and regard as 
one might know he would deserve and make. 



£5g LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

Auburn, April Oth, Sunday. 

The last ten days have been to me a season of confusion. My excursion to 
Eochester ; Harding's visit and Webb's, and their leave-takings ; my trudging 
through snow-drifts and mud to Port Byron, to try a cause there ; A. B. Dick- 
inson's hurried visit here last night — all these things made the week seem more 
like the life I led at Albany than the calm and steady course I am desiring to 
lead here. 

You are mistaken, I think, in supposing that Van Buren is losing the party 
in this State, at least so far as your inferences are drawn from observation in 
the country. There is indeed no enthusiasm for him ; but there is certainly no 
sign of infidelity. Possibly the breach between the new factions may become so 
wide, that he will be left on one or the other side. But the indications of that 
must be found in Albany, not here. 

Mr. Greeley wrote me, by no means discouragingly, of Connecticut, before 
the election, although he lamented that the Whigs would not make the tariff an 
issue. The result is sufficiently disastrous for every purpose, except to induce an 
examination of the cause. He laments your despondency, and wishes opportu- 
nity to convince you that the prospects for 1844 are cheering. Your pupils, like 
some of mine, soon grow wiser than their teacher. George Dawson still pre- 
serves practicability ; but he is alone. 

Dickinson wanted me to write the address. I scarcely know how to do it 
here, and I cannot afford to go to Albany for the purpose. If I must do it, 
notes must be sent me. An address, this year, is not important, otherwise than 
to render just praise to our members who have conducted so well and wisely. 

After reading Senator Ruger's exposure of the " dictation " to the Governor 
by Ely, Foster, and Scoville, do you not congratulate yourself that your opera- 
tions in that way during the last four years escaped legislative investigation ? 

Auburn, April 14, 1843. 

What has become of you ? You have been lost, I suppose, between the 
excitement of public events and the increase of private cares, in view of your 
European excursion. 

The result of the election in Albany shows a triumph ; but the manner of 
the contest proves that our only citadel cannot long hold out. 

I have formed my connection in business, got my counsel- chamber in a good 
condition, and, though we have had but three or four days of spring, my garden 
and grounds exhibit abundant evidence of reform ■ and improvement. By de- 
grees these humble labors and cares become " attractions]," as the Fourierists 
say ; and the political excitement of the last four years is leaving me rapidly 
enough. 

^ r - N the other day, conscious that this is the season of Lent, and there- 
fore similar to that in which the devil showed our Saviour all the kingdoms of the 
earth and offered them to him, tendered me the Abolition nomination for Presi- 
dent by letter, which I respectfully declined upon the ground, generally, that I 
have gone to the end of my ambition and sense of duty, not to speak of my 
obligations to that portion of the people to whom I am indebted for all honors. 

Pray, tell me what day you fix for your departure from this " Loco-foco "- 
ridden country. I must see you out of the bay, though you need not fear that 
I shall want to attend you any farther. 



1843.] THE LOCUST BORER. 657 

Mrs. Seward was now at Rochester. Letters to her contained fre- 
quent reference to the garden : 

Aubukn, April 22, 1843. 

I am tempted to visit you to-night, but so many cares have fastened upon 
me that I fear I shall be unable to execute my half-formed purpose. Things 
in the house are much as they were, except that the birds are delivered from 
their long imprisonment in the basement, and are unbounded in their joyousness. 

You will scarcely recognize the place when you see it with so many of the 
trees cut down. I am making wild havoc in the court-yard. But it has an 
end. The slower and more toilsome work of renewal proceeds with diligence. 

I took Augustus with me and two laborers into the woods, and brought 
home fifteen fine, thrifty elms, which have supplied a part of the chasm the 
worms had made by destroying the locusts. I have engaged also fifty ever- 
greens and a few mountain-ash trees. I am laboriously fertilizing the grass 
plats and cultivating the fruit-trees. We have also set out choice gooseberries 
and raspberries in large quantities. The hot-beds already exhibit promise of 
precious fruit. While these congenial labors are carried on so zealously, I have 
necessarily neglected my law-business, but it grows withal. On the 25th I am 
to be at Albany, and thence shall go to New York to attend the Supreme Court. 

Auburn, April 25, 1843. 
The crocus has flourished its bright-yellow flowers, and is drooping beneath 
the gaudy rivalry of the daffodils, which burst upon us in full splendor with 
the rising sun this morning. The little border-flower, with the pretty name 
that I cannot remember, disclosed its petals at the same time. The lilac-buds 
are bursting, and the gooseberries almost in leaf. Spring advances so fast that 
I can scarcely keep even with her in my gardening operations. You will find 
unsightly stumps when you return, but there will be muoh to compensate for all 
the ravages of the locust-worm and my saw. So I shall not tell Mrs. Bowen 
that our little retreat is despoiled. The fruit-trees which I set out-four or five 
years ago have been totally neglected. More than one-third are lost. I am 
supplying their place with choice trees, and am cultivating what remain. 

Auburn, April 27, 1843. 
I was expecting my parents, but uncertain when they would come. After 
breakfast this morning I received a card, " Samuel S. Seward, at the Ameri- 
can." There, this cold, northwesterly, blowing, and rainy morning, I found them. 
My dear mother is comfortably bestowed in our little nursery-parlor. My 
father seems quite vigorous and cheerful. 

The locust had been a favorite tree in Western New York. Its 
rapid growth, beautiful foliage and flowers, commended it for orna- 
mental purposes ; and its hard, valuable timber seemed to farmers a 
probable source of profit. Many acres in Cayuga County were planted 
with it. But there now appeared a destructive insect, black and horny, 
which bored into the heart of the trees, and all the locusts began to 
droop and die. Various expedients to check the pest were tried and 
found futile. Dead trees, when cut down, were found riddled and 
honey-combed. Seward tried to save some of the stately old locusts 
42 



ggg LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

that surrounded the house by cutting the tops and branches. One 
day he saw from his window that an unexpected ally had arrived. 
This was a red-headed woodpecker, hitherto rarely seen at Auburn. 
Fond of the study of natural laws and the habits of animal life, he spent 
an hour in watching the bird, who was thrusting his long bill into the 
trees, and ferreting out the " borers " by tfce score. At dinner he 
announced that the war in defense of the locusts was over. Nature 
had interposed a check, and henceforth the " borers," instead of the 
locusts, would be exterminated. The prediction was verified, for, be- 
fore the season was over, woodpeckers were almost as plentiful as rob- 
ins. The trees which had been spared grew and throve undisturbed, 
and the " borer " became a thing of the past. The woodpeckers grad- 
ually diminished in number as their food gave out, and the locust 
probably might have been successfully replanted. But its popularity 
had ceased, and only a few stragglers remained to recall the memory 
of the conflict of natural forces. 

Seward's ordinary hour for rising at Auburn was six o'clock, and he 
spent the interval before breakfast in walking in the garden. When 
he came in to the table he would announce that the hyacinths were in 
bloom, or that the bluebirds had come, or whatever other change the 
morning had brought. He wrote to Weed : 

■ 

Atjbubn, May 13, 1843. 

I lead a busy life. - I have been in the woods to-day dragging up huge trees 
and transplanting them around the house. The worms destroyed a hundred 
trees, and the sun and floods many more, during my four years' dissipation at 
Albany. To-night I sum up one hundred and seventy which I have replaced. I 
am making myself a bed to repose in, and mean to have a long sleep. My father 
aud mother are with us for the summer ; they are very infirm, but cheerful. 

Atjbtkn, Sunday, May 14, 1843. 

I went with my parents to church this morning, and, when I left them to 
come to the office, my mother reminded me that I was required to do all my 
work in sis days. Even she, however, would allow me the indulgence of writ- 
ing to you on the seventh ; but you keep up such a tramping up and down the 
river that one has no good chance to arrest you at any place. I wish your 
garden was bigger, but not your debts. If either had half the magnitude of 
mine, you would be more domestic. Do not forget to tell me, imprimis, what 
luck you had in getting contributions for your unlucky editorial friend. The 
judicial abuses and the bigotry of the profession are quite enough to make one 
a " Loco-foco." We want a social reform ; and I am sorry that Greeley can- 
not contrive a better one than Fourier's plan by joint-stock companies. Lawyers 
are always necessary for such associations. 

u Nextly," what does Blatchford tell you about Webster's resignation ? Have 
you seen Bowen in any of your visits at New York ? I am quite desirous to 
know what he is doing with the railroad. The times are unexpectedly becom- 
ing propitious. 



1843.] • THE "TYLER GRIPPE." G59 

AuBiiix, May 19, 1843. 

I do not know which to envy most, Schoolcraft or yourself, in your Euro- 
pean trip ; and I rejoice that, like Blatchford on his late Southern excur- 
sion, Schoolcraft will have an opportunity to see how, by reading my lessons 
abroad contrariwise, I contracted some of those heresies which have marked me 
out as an object for attack. ( But you say nothing of Harding. How is that? 
I do justice to your sententious style ; but, after all, you never explain. A dash 
or a stroke tells the presently material thing, but circumstances and details are 
never hatched under your incubation. You won't want my letters ; but I will 
bring you Mrs. Seward's book thereof ; also Carter's ; also all my guide-books, 
which are many, and my traveling-map. I will shotr how you must study 
French ; but I fear you have so long played the part of magister, that you will 
prove a dull scholar. 

"When shall I go down with Morgan to see you? If you write to Morgan, 
you must address him by title, " M. C." Every postmaster does not know that 
Morgan is yet, and some of them wish he never had been, a member of Con- 
gress ; hence, for the want of the magic words, he is liable to suffer loss. 

Armr.x, May 28, 1843. 

Your two letters were put in my hand last night on my return from Ovid. 
I went to try an action for breach of promise. Sibley was the defendant's coun- 
sel ; but he determined to put off the trial. I found Maynard there, supreme 
in the confidence of the bar and the people, as he deserved. I was employed 
in every cause of importance after my arrival. Popular feeing was with my 
clients, and there was kindness toward me; so I succeeded in all my cause-, 
and came home weary, but cheered with good auspices. My feelings have 
chiefly been excited against the ingratitude of our own friends, who have 
thought it their duty to assail and injure you, while suffering so much for no 
cause but eminent service. Well, well, it is out of such persecution that strength 
and power are to be acquired. 

I shall go down with Morgan, or anticipate him. I will prepare a letter tc 
O'Connell, which you will use or not at your discretion. Harding is with us, 
and will finish his picture in two days. 

Already the supporters of Van Buren and Calhoun were taking an 
attitude of rivalry. The Van Buren men proposed to hold a conven- 
tion in December, 1843 ; the Calhoun men wanted one called in May, 
1844. 

It had been reported from Washington, some weeks before, that a 
species of influenza had become epidemic. Shortly after it appeared 
in New York, and later it spread throughout the country. It was 
not fatal, but very persistent, troublesome, and sometimes alarming. 
Few escaped it ; nearly everybody was coughing or snuffling. It dif- 
fered from the ordinary influenza in degree rather than in character. 
Borrowing a name from France, it was called the " grippe ; " and as it 
was the custom to associate the name of the President with things that 
were unpopular, it very soon acquired the title of the " Tyler grippe." 
It has never since recurred as an epidemic to the same extent among 



qqq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843 

the human race, but it, or something like it, has occasionally afflicted 
all the horses or all the dogs. 

Endeavoring to dispel some unfounded apprehensions of a friend in 
regard to his health, Seward said : 

Do not be unduly alarmed about what the doctor thinks may be possible. 
It is characteristic of the profession, and especially so of him, to magnify all 
such symptoms. They give hard names and bestow long descriptions upon 
them, and, if we suffer our fears to take complexion from their prognostics, we 
should never be well nor cheerful. With the best intentions in the world, he 
will keep you subjocted to medical treatment all the rest of your life. 

As his father was at one period a physician of large practice, Sew- 
ard came very early to have, like the children of most doctors, an under- 
standing of the vis medicatrix naturce, and a modified faith in the ma- 
teria medica. Some knowledge of drugs, and of the effects often pro- 
duced by their ignorant and mistaken use, aided to confirm his opinion 
that care, nursing, and encouragement, were more indispensable in 
sickness than prescriptions. " Sleep and starvation," he used to say, 
he had found " the best of all remedies in ordinary maladies." When 
attacked by a disease, he would refuse to eat or drink, and, retiring 
to his room, would sleep as many hours as he found practicable. The 
result seemed to vindicate his judgment, for in most instances the dis- 
order would succumb to such treatment. However, so far from having 
any bigoted attachment to his theory, he always made it a point to call 
in a medical adviser promptly whenever any of the household were ill. 
Tn the judgment of his old friend and family physician at Albany, Dr. 
Williams, he had much confidence. 

A letter from William Jay, May 7th, announced his removal from 
office as first judge of Westchester County, which he had held for a 
quarter of a century, having been appointed by Tompkins, Clinton, 
Throop, and Marcy. He had been removed for his avowal of anti- 
slavery opinions. He said the reason assigned was, " my reappointment 
would be calculated to prejudice the Democratic party in the eyes of 
our Southern brethren." 

The Virginia search-law was now in operation in regard to all 
New York vessels. A Norfolk paper announced, with some disgust, 
that, "although Virginia had passed an efficient law, Yankee ingenuity 
has discovered a way to evade it. New York vessels now clear from 
Jersey City, go to Virginia, discharge their cargoes, and, returning, 
clear again for Jersey City." 

An address was published by John Quincy Adams and other mem- 
bers of the House, in regard to the annexation of Texas. Opinions 
adverse to slavery extension began to gain favor in the minds of many 
at the North who had hitherto kept aloof from discussion of the sla- 
very question. If they were bound to tolerate the existence of slavery 



1843.] O'CONNELL AND SLAVERY. 661 

in the States, where it was already, no principle required them to sanc- 
tion its extension into new Territories, the common property of all the 
States. 

The Bunker Hill monument was to be completed and dedicated on 
the anniversary of the battle, the 17th of June. Mr. Webster was to 
deliver the oration. Great preparations were in progress at Boston for 
an imposing celebration. 

The new common-school law, so long advocated by Seward, was 
now published, and went into effect. It proved in operation so wise 
and beneficent that opposition to the system began to die away almost 
immediately; and no portion of the community have since been willing 
to avow the wish to see it abrogated. A State Convention of Deputy- 
Superintendents of Common Schools was in session at Albany in May, 
in which S. S. Randall, the State Superintendent,, took the leading part, 
and read a letter from Seward. 

The "Barnburners" now made an important move. After due con- 
ference had been held among their leaders, their organ, the Albany 
Atlas, advocated a convention to revise the constitution of the State 
of New York. The "Barnburners" took the bold ground that radical 
changes were needed, and needed at once ; and that the whole people 
were as competent to say whether they wanted changes this year as 
their representatives could be year after next. It was revolutionary; 
but it was peaceful revolution, and nothing would be done except in 
accordance with the fundamental republican principle that the majority 
should rule. The proposition gradually gained adherents among the 
Whigs and even among the " Old Hunkers." The latter's chief objec- 
tion to it was the source whence it originated. 

From Ireland came news that proposed constitutional changes were 
not proceeding so peaceably. The movement for the repeal of the 
union with England, and for the restoration of an Irish Parliament, had 
aroused an excitable people to enthusiastic demonstrations. O'Con- 
nell, its leader, addressed meetings, where thousands were gathered. 
Though he avowed his loyalty to the crown, his denunciations of Sir 
Robert Peel's ministry gave ground for charging him with treason. 
Troops were sent to disperse the gatherings, and to check apprehended 
riots. O'Connell and his son were removed from office as magistrates. 
Between seventy and eighty thousand people were computed to have 
assembled at the Curragh of Kildare. 

The repeal movement was watched with interest and sympathy in 
America. Many meetings were held in the cities. At the Washington 
Hotel, in New York, early in June, a crowded meeting assembled. 
Seward, who was in the city to take leave of Mr. Weed on his depart- 
ure for Europe, was urgently solicited to attend, and when he entered 
the room was loudly called to the chair. 



662 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 



It did not contribute to lessen the popular feeling against England 
when news came from the Pacific that the British flag was floating at 
Oahu which was understood to signify the provisional cession of the 
Sandwich Islands to the British crown. 

Mr. Weed sailed on the 7th of June for Europe, in the packet-ship 
George Washington. Isaac Newton had placed a steamboat at the 
disposal of his friends to accompany him to Sandy Hook. Among the 
other passengers were Bishop Hughes, Bishop Purcell, Father De Smet, 
John L. Schoolcraft, of Albany, and George Leitch, of Auburn. 

The Evening Journal of that day contained Weed's farewell to his 
readers. As Seward was reading it at the breakfast-table on the fol- 
lowing morning, his eye fell upon a tersely-expressed paragraph in the 
same paper, which he read aloud, remarking that it was just and de- 
served. This was Sydney Smith's " humble petition to the Houses of 
Congress," drawn out by Pennsylvania's refusal to pay the interest on 
her bonds, some of which he was unfortunate enough to hold. 

Probably none of the censures of repudiation touched the American 
heart so closely as these words of Sydney Smith. To rebukes from po- 
litical opponents, denunciations by foreign newspapers and statesmen, 
many had grown indifferent; but these plain, simple words of a rural 
clergyman, an honest man, who had put his little savings into the care 
of a great republic, with undoubting faith that it would keep its prom- 
ises, showed the American people that to repudiate such a debt was 
not only a disgrace, but a crime. 

Soon after came another startling rebuke. O'Connell, in a letter to 
the Irishmen of America, said : 

Americans attempt to palliate their iniquity by the excuse of personal inter- 
est ; but the Irish, who have not even that excuse, and yet justify slavery, are 
utterly indefensible. Once again, and for the last time, we call upon you to come 
out of the councils of the slaveholders, and to free yourselves from participating 
in their guilt. Irishmen ! I call upon you to join in crushing slavery, and in 
giving liberty to every man, of every caste, creed, or color. 

. This was signed by O'Connell, as chairman of the committee of the 
Dublin Repeal Association, and was in reply to a Cincinnati associa- 
tion, who had written justifying " the Irish support of the pro-slavery 
party," alluded to by Lord Morpeth. 



1843.] WEED IN EUROPE. GG3 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

1843. 

Weed in Europe. — Letters from America. — Bunker Hill Monument. — Death of Legar6. — 
Van Buren, Cass, and Calhoun. — Change of Professional Employment. — Patent Cases. 
—The End of the World. 

Returned to Auburn, Seward wrote to Weed : 

Auburn, Friday, June 9, 1843. 

Here I am, nearly four hundred miles distant from the place where I parted 
from you ; and you have probably added an equal space to our distance in so 
brief a time. Mrs. Weed and Harriet repressed their feelings quite well, and 
left me for home under kind care. I followed yesterday morning. 

Benedict came in from the parting scene deeply affected, and bestowed him- 
self at once upon his neglected correspondents. I stopped only an hour in Al- 
bany, and failed to see King. I am glad I went to New York. I had not con- 
ceived such general yet delicate kindness. I came home loving mankind in 
general better than ever. 

Your farewell in the Journal subdued many stubborn prejudices, and revived 
much the affection of friends. It was admired by all, and most by the most 
intelligent. 

Mrs. Seward and my father and mother make me tell the story all over again 
every time I enter the house, about the imperturbable seamanship, the clinging 
steamers on either side, the collation, and the parting. When Judge Miller comes 
home, and Harding, it must be done again for them. Mr. Oroswell was on the 
steamboat when I came up. He spoke of you with respect and kindness. 

The True Sun noticed your departure in words of simple truth ; I cannot 
send it. The article said that you had gone for health and pleasure; that you 
were attended to the wharf by many and distinguished friends ; that the public 
mind was greatly divided about you, many cherishing devoted affection and re- 
spect for you, and others, especially since the effort to nominate Scott in 1839, 
regarding you as an evil and dangerous man. But your absence will remove 
these prejudices, and if the public interests do not require you to offend existing 
combinations on your return, you will enjoy a popularity that would be danger- 
ous to any other than a moderate man. 

But I must not bore you with politics. Our State affairs will soon sink in 
importance, and even our own national questions lose their exciting interest; 
and an old abbey or desolated castle, or long-ago battle-field, will excite senti- 
ments more overpowering than the succession in our republican dynasty. 

Be sure to look on the sea, to study it carefully when it is lashed into storms, 
making it resemble a wintry snow-scene; when it is so calm that you can realize 
the beauty of the superstition that Venus was born of it ; in the morning when 
the rising sun kindles its waters with effulgence; at evening when lie leaves you 
to its depressing gloom. The sea and the sun, the sublimest creations of God, 
you can never be satisfied with the contemplation of either, after you have been 
accustomed to see both together. 

You left some valuable letters. I committed them to Blatchford, who said 
they should be sent by the steamer. Thus we have discovered that sailing-ves- 



qq± LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

sels are better than steamships— for passengers who wish to leave their letters 
or baggage behind them. 

The corporation, the military, etc., are making arrangements for the recep- 
tion of the President and his suite. Assuredly there is a boldness in this deter- 
mination to enjoy the homage of the people when they have so much reluctance 
in rendering it. The Bostonians are very ambitious, and the personal friends 
of Mr. Webster anticipate an effort on his part which will regain for him the 
affections of New England. They manifest no reluctance to the aid of the Presi- 
dent's visit in that respect. 

England is glorious in June, is it not? You see, I am imaging this letter 
arrived. But you will be in danger of forgetting the loveliness of June every- 
where else. Even here, these dark forests which overhang the canal, the free 
and broad lawns of the Mohawk Valley, are beautiful. Take care that you for- 
get not their loveliness, if you value our affection. Then for the moral scenery. 
Who so poor that he may not own land, trees, flowers here? or, if he own them 
not, is not every man a commoner of them ? But where you are men are worth 
less than acres, and the trees of the rich deny their shade to the children of the 

poor. 

Auburn, June 12, 1843. 

Since I wrote you on Friday, there is notbing new. Benedict is engaged al- 
ready in administering your political as well as fiscal estate. He appeals to 
Morgan and Hawley to rouse themselves for the great work he has assumed. 

Whittlesey passed through Auburn last night on his way to Rochester, leav- 
ing a kind and generous letter for me, chiefly saying that, while the storm my 
repeal demonstration made was not less than he had foreseen, yet on the whole, 
after reading the speech and hearing comments, he had become almost satisfied 
that the proceeding was judicious, and would result well. I would not weary 
you with politics, since I know how glad you will have become to forget them 
long before this will reach you. Patterson accompanied me from Albany thus 
far on his route homeward ; J. B. Nott as far ; and we had Colonel Barnard 
from Syracuse. Harding is yet at Seneca Falls, where he had spent a week 
painting Sackett. ne received your farewell epistle. I write to him to-day. 

Auburn, June 18, 1843. 

By this time you have wearied the steward, and tried the patience of 
the captain, with repeating the silly interrogations which he hears from every 
landsman on every voyage. You have become wearied of nine-tenths of the 
passengers, and more out of patience with yourself than with them. Even the 
sea has showed all its phases and phenomena which it reveals to fair-weather 
passengers ; and you would rejoice to be assured that your printing-office had not 
stopped its operations, your family were yet in health, and your bosom friends 
were steadfast. But it will be a week yet before you can receive any tidings, 
and then a world new to you and whose novelty consists in the antiquity you 
have venerated, without ever seeing it, will, for a time, banish all solicitude con- 
cerning all you left behind. 

I know not the times and seasons of the packets, and, if I did, I could not 
conform. So you must take my letters written at my convenience, not theirs. 
If they ever find you, and if they assure you that I am still faithful, they will 
accomplish all that I expect, though they may not convey to you the early 
intelligence you would be glad to receive. 



1843.] THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 065 

That repeal meeting operated as every effort of a similar kind has done. 
Greeley went manfully in, and manifestly with much advantage. In the coun- 
try, the Whigs were amazed, rubbed their eyes, asked what I was after now, 
and went to sleep again. Eufus King had, as I hope you will see, a gallant de- 
fense ; after which I wrote him to drop all notice of me in the matter. I 
think tbat in New York there is a general expression that the savings of four 
years have been lost by my indiscretion. In the country there is a doubt 
whether it is not probable that my sentiments are just, and action wise. Mean- 
time, the Whig Mayor of TJtica has presided at a meeting, and some Whigs, 
united with many more influential men of the other party, feave called a meet- 
ing in Albany. The subject will soon rest, unless fresh excitement is raised by 
intelligence from the other side of the Atlantic. 

The 17th of June has passed. Judging from the number of pilgrims I have 
met, the holy shrine of Mecca never witnessed more ardent worship. The 
world has all gone to Bunker Hill ; and, since Webster spoke, there could be no 
disappointment. IIow enviable is his power ! How absolute it would be, if 
combined with discretion ! 

Blatchford, I suppose, has spent the week at Marshiield. Frank Granger 
is in Ohio on his annual visit; A. P. Granger in the West. There are no signs 
of political life, although there is abundant faith. Greeley is confident; but 
even the triumph of " Association " seems as improbable, and likely to be as 
speedy. John Davis has been wise ; Briggs's nomination was made in a spirit 
that seems auspicious. Vivus W. Smith, who has returned from Ohio, is con- 
fident of much success for our Congress ticket there. 

We number the days of your voyage, and measure your progress — a subject 
upon which I exhibit astonishing knowledge. Indeed, I am quite an oracle 
among your friends since I discourse profoundly of the northern passage, the 
Gulf Stream, the banks, and the rates per hour of navigation. 

If this finds you in London, or indeed in Great Britain, and you shall have 
marked out the programme of your travels, do not omit to give it me. It will 
enable me to keep Mrs. Weed's and Harriet's eyes on the route, following your 
progress before your letters arrive. 

You will see by the papers that there is an epidemic influenza. It has 
thrown me upon my back three times, but I am now wearing it out. Scarcely 
any one escapes. 

It seems quite certain that the President is to visit Niagara as well as the 
Springs. Since the day of railroads has readied its meridian, our little town of 
Auburn is too obscure to detain such distinguished tourists. In passing through 
France, I used to inquire of the conductor, when wo approached or were passing 
a place which seemed to contain five or six thousand people, what town that 
was. (" Quelle mile est-cc Id ? ") " Ce li'est pas une mile, settlement un village,'''' 
lie would reply. ("It is not a town, only a village.") Ineffable was the con- 
tempt hV felt for villages. John Tyler will find villages as unendurable, since 
they will furnish him no parasites. I promise you, by-the-way, no more French 
anecdotes until you have commenced your studies on the Continent. 

The President and cabinet went to Bunker Hill to attend the cele- 
bration. People flocked toward Boston from all parts of New England, 
and even from the West and South. Revolutionary soldiers, military 



qqq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

companies, and " Boston boys," were especially welcome. In different 
cities, all over the country, salutes of twenty-six guns were fired at 
noon, one for each State, calling up before the " mind's eye " of those 
who heard them the vast concourse at Charlestown, gathered around 
the towering shaft, listening to Webster's matchless oratory. These 
glowing feelings received a check by the intelligence of the death at 
Boston of Hugh S. Legare, the Attorney-General. The President and 
the remaining members of the cabinet gave up their tour, and returned 
with the body to* Washington. 

June was cold and rainy, and the influenza showed no sign of abate- 
ment. On the contrary, it seemed to be spreading. In the cities whole 
families were suffering with it at once. Occasionally, shops would be 
shut because there was nobody to attend them. The country news- 
papers were all talking of it, for it had spread even into rural localities. 
Ships came into port having the captain and half the crew laid up 
with it. 

Auburn, June 24, 1843. 

It is Saturday night once more. I have indulged myself in the luxury of 
even a regalia, and thrown aside special pleas and meaner lahors to give you a 
narration of the week. How much more cheerfully should I do this if my letter 
could leap into your hand just as you reach the wharf at Liverpool, instead of 
being weeks, perhaps months, lying by in some banker's counting-room, waiting 
your arrival at a stopping-place ! 

I have a mournful story to begin with. I rejoiced this morning in the gather- 
ing clouds, for the earth was parched, and my young trees and shrubbery were 
drooping. A hurricane preceded the rain. When I went home to dine, two 
noble shade-trees of my neighbor's had been upturned, and lay in all their glori- 
ous foliage stretched upon the ground. I had lost only what the worms had 
spared of a sickly acacia. Another storm came on, and still another. When I 
went home in the evening, there was mourning over Jenny, our canary, who was 
drowned in her nest, having protected her eggs until the last. The male canary, 
and Bob the mocking-bird, had been exposed in the rain-storms, and were 
drooping. 

Now, a canary-bird of either sex is easily supplied, but that bird was one of 
many beautiful remembrances of our pleasures and enjoyments at Albany ; and 
now that the responsibilities, cares, and griefs of that residence have passed 
away, and thick fancies of other accidents and troubles crowd upon me, my so- 
journ at Albany seems like all former periods of life, bright and happy. But 
this is enough for an obituary of a canary-bird, to be sent to a gentleman who, 
for his sight-seeing and wonder-hearing in foreign lands, forgets the glories of 
his native mountains, the music of the forests, and all save the love and affection 
of wife, children, and friends. 

I went last Friday to Canandaigua, and there argued a cause in the United 
States Circuit Court, before Judge Thompson of the Supreme Court. Granger 
returned from Ohio while I was in Canandaigua. I called at his house, but missed 
him. Sibley is building a fine house, and preparing for the marriage of his 
daughter. 



1843.] ENGLISH ART AND WEALTH. (3(37 

I have spent three days in preparing special pleas for Greeley, in two libel 
oases brought by Cooper. I tempt the Supreme Court somewhat ; but, if I do 
not overrate my work, I shall, by means of it, acquire an opportunity to get an 
adjudication, by the Court of Errors, upon the law of libel, as it affects the free- 
dom of the press. 

You will have seen accounts of the death of the late Attorney-General and Sec- 
retary of State ad interim, Mr. Legare. He had so conducted as not to become 
particularly obnoxious for the measures and policy of the Administration. It is 
evident that his loss will not be felt in the cabinet, though such were his talents 
and acquirements that the country holds his memory in high respect. The 
President and survivors of the cabinet returned immediately to Washington. 
The Democrats did all that was needful to make their progress splendid and 
agreeable. The Whigs kept aloof. 

Mr. Webster's speech at Bunker Hill is called and regarded as a great produc- 
tion ; yet it is inferior to the mighty efforts he has heretofore made. It will, 
nevertheless, revive his personal popularity in New England. How strange that 
such a man should not know that generous appeals to the patriotism, national 
pride, and sympathies of the people, like this, and his former Bunker Hill speech, 
tell upon them with a thousand-fold greater effect than discussions of financial 
schemes and commercial treaties! These embarrass and enfeeble him. Those 
renew his strength, and rekindle the affection and gratitude of the country. 

John M. Clayton, of Delaware, has published a letter declining to be a can- 
didate for the vice-presidency. It is wisely done ; but, after all, there are likely 
to be as many for him as for anybody. 

The repeal question has gone as all its predecessors of the same kind did. 
The city press of the Whigs came out earnestly against it. The Democratic 
press are strongly in favor; and now our indiscreet friends are defending them- 
selves against accusations of distrust of the capacity of man for self-government, 
and anti-national sympathies with the English. This was to be so in any event. 
O'Connell has made a noble speech against the pro-slavery proclivities and as- 
sociations of his countrymen here. It does him infinite honor; but existing 
prejudices and connections are too strong to be broken by even his mighty spell. 

Sujulay, 25th. 
Seven and eighteen are twenty-five. To-day, perhaps, you are looking with 
disappointment at the narrow flood of the Mersey, and contrasting its muddy 
beach at low tide with the glorious bay, flush and full, pouring its waters against 
the islands of New York ; and turning from the contrast, so agreeable to Ameri- 
can pride, you are admiring the villas and gardens, groves and cottages, which 
surround Liverpool. Well, English art and English wealth will amaze you ; 
but not so much as the grandeur of Nature, here, astounds the children of the 
petty island that rules the world. But the greatest disappointment is yet to 
come. You are a politician, and have swayed the councils of your native State, 
and put forth an influence that has been felt in the national Government. When 
you come to see the abode of royalty, the halls of Parliament, the commercial 
marine, and the navy and the army of Great Britain, the monuments of national 
triumph, and the trophies of conquest, you will for a time, though most unjustly, 
feel as if the powers of government you have seen in exercise here, the interests 
affected by them, and the destinies which they were fulfilling, were mean and 



flgg LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

unworthy of a high ambition. After this mistake has been corrected by just re- 
flections upon the character and destinies of the American people, you will come 
home more than ever in love with your native land, more than ever proud 
that you are an American citizen, and deemed not unworthy a voice in the coun- 
sels of your country. 

Auburn, July 1, 1S43. 

A wearisome week draws to its close ; and one more exciting will follow it. 
You are happily free from the cares that will grow up around one where his 
family and his treasure are. May you enjoy it ! 

Blatchford has taken a six-years' lease of the country-seat of the late Mr. 
Prime, at Hell Gate — a magnificent dwelling. He writes a glowing account of 
his visit to Marshfield. His affections, and those of his intimate associates, cling 
as close as ever to Mr. "Webster. Blatchford says that the New England speech 
will bring back to him two-thirds of his alienated friends in that region. In- 
man writes me that he is coming up, in the next fortnight, to take his chance 
for that picture. I spent last evening pleasantly with General Granger and 
Raynor, at Syracuse. 

The Maine Democrats have appointed State delegates to their National Con- 
vention, and nominated " the Sage of Lindenwald." My business grows lux- 
uriantly, and my garden likewise. 

In the humid atmosphere of England you can scarcely conceive the intensity 
of the sun that ushers in the month. 

Aubukn, July 9, 1843. 

President Tyler has returned to Washington, and appointed Mr. Upshur 
Secretary of State ; Mr. Henshaw, of Boston, to the Navy ; and John Nelson, 
of Maryland, Attorney-General. The two latter were always Yan Buren men ; 
the former you know. Eumors are rife that the Secretary of the Treasury has 
had a falling out with the President. But I know no grounds for believing it 
authentic. It is whispered, also, that the Postmaster-General is in collision with 
, the financial premier. All these things are probable, and must happen some 
day ; yet I doubt their reality now. 

On the other hand, the Whigs pursue steadily their course. Delegates have 
been appointed in Illinois, favorable and instructed to vote for the Kentuckian. 

The great subject of the week has been the new incident in regard to the 
question of Irish repeal. The action of our city friends, and the arts of our op- 
ponents, were operating effectually to turn that excitement to the account of 
Van Buren. ButO'Connell's great speech on slavery has exasperated the South, 
and the Democrats have for once lost their temper. Denunciations of O'Con- 
nell necessarily chill their ardor for the repeal ; and the Whigs being right and 
sound on the question of slavery, and therefore unmoved by sympathy with the 
South, have, by peculiar good-fortune, retained their position. The effects of 
this cannot but be beneficial to Ireland and to America. You will see that in 
Philadelphia and Baltimore the Democrats have denounced O'Connell; while 
the Repeal Association in Charleston has dissolved itself, and appropriated its 
funds to domestic charities. 

The Supreme Court at Utica convened on Monday. I was there, but did not 
reach my causes. I return this week. On the 4th of July I went with the 
Chief-Justice to Trenton Falls, and we had a very nice time, talked everything, 
and enjoyed the communion of free and generous spirit. 



1843.] CALHOUN AND THE PRESIDENCY. 669 

There is, I think, a great pleasure in taking care of one's shrubbery and trees 
in this delightful month of July. My own flourish, and will surprise you when 
you visit us next spring, which I sincerely hope will be the period of your return 
to America. Do not become impatient. A premature return will always be re- 
gretted. 

Utioa, July 14, 1843. 

As you see, I am hero again. To-day I made my debut in the Supreme Court. 
My cause has no special interest or importance, and I endeavored to avoid pre- 
tension. So it seemed to pass oft' well enough. The clique who congregaf.il 
here at the July term, so much to your annoyance and mine, are here now; but 
the scene is altogether different, and it shall not be my fault if jealousies are ever 
permitted to do so much mischief hereafter. The Attorney- Genera] is here, 
kind, friendly, and communicative, as ever. Dr. Nott came up yesterday and 
spent a day with me. We conversed much, but you can imagine all. 

John Quincy Adams is at Saratoga. I am almost tempted to steal away from 
this dull place to commune with the sage. But it would not be lawyer-like, and 
I suppose it would cost some money, so I return to the wheel and sigh not. 
Dr. Nott had a conversation with J. C. S , in which he gave full confirma- 
tion of all our speculations. He does not expect to be the candidate at the next 
election; but he does trust in his present policy to defeat Van Buren and pro- 
mote the election of Calhoun, a Southern man, whose counsels will tie swayed 
by the same bold course now pursued by the Secretary. Indeed, the Secretary 
will be premier. The South, having had another President, will be satisfied ; 

and, in the regular course of things, S will be the Democratic candidate five 

years hence. How singular this delusion is! 

Our good friends, having done up the presidency for a certainty, are looking 
for a second. The debate waxes earnest. 

N. P. T is in Wisconsin. Fillmore has been in Detroit. Both excite 

some interest in the West. Thero seems to be repose in Alhany. The good peo- 
ple are, however, well employed in breaking up the inclined planes between 
their city and Schenectady. One is already replaced by a plane feasible for 
locomotives, and the other will be. 

The Barnburner Central Committee have formally assented to postpone the 
National Convention ; and the Argus is soothing the Charleston Mercury, so as 
to secure the cooperation of the South in the support of Van Buren after he shall 
he nominated. How I ramble through the news of a week! And yet it is not 
quite certain that the details will not be tedious. Certainly, if other correspond- 
ents are as prolix, you will not willingly read all the letters you receive. And 
then, how old this news will be! Before tins finds her Majesty's post-office, you 
will probably have shaken the dust from your feet, and bidden adieu to London. 
Well, if you have not practised some French or Dutch, you will on the Continent 
be glad to find something you can read. 

Auburn, July 22, 

The Caledonian has arrived. Your letters are distributed, and your friends 
are full of enthusiasm. Your letter from the sea, Cork, and Dublin, reached me 
first. Next day came a letter from King, rejoicing with exceeding greal joy, and 
announcing the forthcoming of your letters in the Journal, and to-day Andrews 
displays your letter to him in the Rochester Democrat. 

Tii ise letters are all like yourself, and will elevate you much among tho 



gY() LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

statesmen as well as editors of the country. Go on with them in entire confi- 
dence. They will do much good to our country, and to the emigrant from 
other lands. Even the Argus is softened, and invites attention to your "inter- 
esting letter " in the Journal. 

Do not trouble yourself to write to me. Bestow all your time on the Jour- 
nal and other correspondents. Your letters for the public eye will be interest- 
ing to me. Let me be neglected, if anybody must. 

By-the-way, Taylor Hall has signalized his originality by making a dead set 
to convert the Journal of Commerce to love you and me. There is enterprise 
for you ! 

The election in Louisiana is a total rout of the "Whigs. But the Whig papers 
assure us that it is all right ; that our time is not to come until 1844. They 
even read homilies to all who they think are impatient. "Well, I shall be glad 
to see the Whigs' victories when they come. Indiana comes next ; and I sup- 
pose that Mr. Mendenhall will reply audibly through the ballot-boxes, then, to 
that most effective speech addressed to him last year. 

The Governor has completed his Eastern pilgrimage, but I think has softened 
none of the asperities of the two contending factions. The Democratic Con- 
vention comes off in September. It will appoint delegates to the National Con- 
vention, and they will all be Van Buren men. Governor Cass is said to have 
made a very effective speech at the Miami celebration about the war, patriotism, 
and hostility to the English. He has, moreover, become a repealer, and an 
advocate for the immediate occupation of Oregon. 

I am working under a large mass of professional business, which increases 
daily. 

James G. Wilson was at this time the owner of the patent-right of 
a planing-machine. Happening to be in the United States court-room 
at Albany, he hear.d Seward arguing a cause which he brought to a 
successful result. Wilson, who had not before met him, was much 
pleased with his argument and his manner of conducting the case. As 
soon as he came out, Wilson introduced himself, and offered him a 
retainer in a patent cause. Seward explained that he was not familiar 
with that class of cases, and that the sciences of mechanics and mathe- 
matics had never been among his favorite studies, so that he doubted 
his ability. 

" I'll take the risk of that," said Wilson ; " if you'll only argue my 
case as well as the one I have just heard, I shall be satisfied." Seward 
still hesitating to accept the retainer, Wilson laughed, and said, "You'd 
better take two hundred dollars. You will earn all that, and more too, 
for there is plenty of work to be done." The business relation, thus 
accidentally opened, continued through several years. 

The planing-machine was so popular and profitable an invention 
that there were many infringements on Wilson's rights, and contestants 
of his claims. It led ultimately to a change in the character of Sew- 
ard's practice. Before, he had been engaged almost wholly in the 
State courts of law and chancery. The tact and success with which he 



1843.] JOHN Q. ADAMS AT AUBURN. 071 

managed Wilson's suits brought to him inventors, or holders of patent- 
rights, of steam-engines, valves, car-wheels, etc., all of which were tried 
in the United States courts, not only at Albany, Canandaigua, and 
Utica, but in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and 
even Cincinnati, St. Louis, and other Western cities. Henceforth, his 
practice, instead of confining him to his office at Auburn, took him 
away from it, involving long journeys and frequent absences from home. 
Knowledge of the law of patents, and familiarity with the principles of 
machinery, soon came with study and experience. Pie found, rather to 
his own surprise, that mechanical science, which he had doubted his 
ability to deal with, was a study for which his keen perception and 
logical habit of mind gave him a peculiar aptitude. 

Not the least important consideration was, that it was a far more 
profitable branch of the profession than those he had hitherto been en- 
gaged in. With industry and perseverance, it offered a ready escape 
from the " sea of debts." 

Among the army and navy news from Washington was a long list 
of promotions, mentioning, among others, Cadet W. S. Rosecrans, to be 
second-lieutenant ; Cadats J. J. Reynolds, Peck, and Hardy, assigned 
to the artillery ; Cadets Augur, U. S. Grant, Steele, and Dent, to the 
infantry ; Rufus Ingalls to the riflemen ; Cadet Wm. B. Franklin, the 
head of the class, was assigned to the Topographical Engineers. 

Meanwhile the time appointed for the end of the world had come 
and gone, but the world continued to roll on. 



CHAPTER L. 

1843. 

John Quincy Adams at Auburn. — Prediction about Slavery. — Inman and Harding. — A 
Friendly Contest. — Father Mathcw. — Chancellor Kent. — Opinions vs. Commentaries. — 
Weed's Letters. — " Hunkers " and " Barnburners " in Convention. 

John Quincy Adam-;, who had been traveling to Albany, Saratoga, 
Montreal, and Niagara, was returning eastward. Seward wrote to his 
friends in regard to suitable public demonstrations of welcome. No 
hint was needed, however, for the western part of the State was full of 
his admirers, some dating back to the time when he was a presidential 
candidate ; others more recently enlisted under his banner as defender 
of the right of petition. At Buffalo he was received with a public 
demonstration, and an address by Mr. Fillmore ; at Rochester with 
another demonstration, and another at Canandaigua, and an address by 
Mr. Granger. On Friday, July 28th, Seward and Judge Miller went to 



g72 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

Canandaigua to meet him. Arriving at Auburn in the evening, he was 
met by a torch-light procession, which escorted him to Seward's resi- 
dence. 

Ascending the steps, Seward introduced him to the people, and Mr. 
Adams addressed a few words to them before entering the house. Much 
fatigued, he declined eating, drank a glass of wine, and retired to his 
room as soon as it was prepared. At five o'clock in the morning, he 
rose, and at six went over to visit the State-prison, returning to break- 
fast at eight. The conversation turned naturally upon the condition of 
public affairs, and the political outlook. The question of slavery hav- 
ing been broached, the customary opinion of the times was expressed 
by one of the guests, that the institution was a colonial inheritance from 
Great Britain, incongruous with our republican system, which must 
eventually disappear. To this Mr. Adams seemed to assent. One of 
the gentlemen said: " But do you not think, Mr. Adams, that it will be 
peacefully and legally abolished — perhaps twenty, perhaps fifty years 
hence ? " Mr. Adams had sat with head bent forward, apparently in 
reverie. The inquiry roused him in a moment. With a keen glance at 
the speaker, and unusual animation of voice and manner, he said : " I 
used to think so, but I do not now. I am satisfied that it will not go 
down until it goes doicn in. blood.'''' A pause ensued, and then some- 
body remembered that it was time to proceed to the church, where Mr. 
Adams was to have a formal public reception at nine o'clock. The 
citizens of Auburn and their families had already filled the edifice to 
overflowing. 

When the distinguished guest arrived, Seward addressed him in 
their behalf, saying : 

A change has come over the spirit of your journey since your steps have 
turned toward your ancestral sea-side home. Rumors of your advance escape 
before you, and a happy and grateful community rise up in their clustering 
cities, towns, and villages, impede your way with demonstrations of respect and 
kindness, and convert your unpretending journey into a triumphal progress. 
The homage paid you, dear sir, is sincere, for it has its sources in the just senti- 
ments and irrepressible affections of a free people, their love of truth, their 
admiration of wisdom, their reverence for virtue, and their gratitude for benefi- 
cence. 

We seem in this interview with you to come into the presence of our de- 
parted chiefs. The majestic shade of Washington looks down upon us ; we hear 
the bold and manly eloquence of the elder Adams ; and we listen to the voices 
of the philosophic and sagacious Jefferson, the refined and modest Madison, and 
the generous and faithful Monroe. 

The praises we bestow are already echoed back to us by voices which come, 
rich and full, across the Atlantic, hailing you as the indefatigable champion of 
humanity— not that humanity which embraces a single race or clime, but that 
humanity which regards the whole family of man. Such salutations as these 



w- 




/£&*■: 



_^ifl 



g 




cJ, 



. J A 



kJi cl glss~t\J> 



1843.] HENRY INMAN. GT3 

cannot be mistaken. They come not from your contemporaries, for they are gone. 
You are not of this generation, but of the past, spared to hear the voice of pos- 
terity. The greetings you receive come up from the dark and uncertain future. 
They are the whisperings of posthumous fame." 

Mr. Adams replied, expressing- his thanks for the courtesy shown 
him, his good wishes for the future of the village and its citizens, but 
without touching upon any of the public questions of the day. A short 
time was then spent in introductions, shaking hands, and conversation. 
The hour iixed for his departure drew near, and at eleven he left the 
railroad-station in a special train amid the acclamations of the gathered 
crowd. " Governor," said a friend to Seward, a short time afterward, 
when some allusion was made to the startling remark in regard to 
slavery, " Mr. Adams is a very great man, but he is growing old. Don't 
you think he is rather despondent, discouraged, perhaps, by what he 
sees at "Washington?" " I think," answered Seward, "that he is wiser 
than any of us on that subject ; but I shall not give up my hope of a 
peaceful solution so long as any such solution is possible. At any rate, 
it is our duty to labor for such a one." 

Mr. Adams, after leaving Auburn, was received with ovations along 
the whole route. The Whigs hoisted flags in honor of his coming, and 
had special ceremonies of reception at Herkimer, Little Falls, and 
Schenectady. He reached Boston three or four days later. A charac- 
teristic expression of a steamboat captain, with whom he traveled, illus- 
trated the popular feeling. He said, " Oh, if you could only take the 
engine out of the old Adams, and put it into a new hull ! " 

Harding, who had now completed his painting, took his leave. A 
few days later, Henry Inman arrived to enter upon his work. Both 
were high in public esteem, occupying the first rank among American 
artists ; yet they were in strong contrast. The new-comer, Mr. Inman, 
showed in every look and action the fruits of a life of artistic culture, 
ease, and taste. Graceful and engaging in his manners, fluent and im- 
aginative in his conversation, he had almost a boyish fondness for fun, 
and a keen eye for the beauties of Nature. He had not been an hour 
in the house before it seemed as if he were an old acquaintance. He 
told one of the boys that he would go out with him into the Morello 
cherry-trees, whose fruit was just hanging red and ripe, and promised 
the other that he would go with him to the Owasco Lake for boating 
and perch-fishing ; both of which promises he fulfilled before the week 
was out. 

"Music, Mrs. Seward," said he, as he was sketching the outlines of 
Seward's face in crayon — " music, I think, must be the vernacular in 
heaven. They may have some other language there for grave intel- 
lectual and religious topics ; but, for the small-talk, I think they prob- 
ably use music. — Now, Mr. Seward, wait one moment before you an- 
43 



074 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

swer. I want to catch that expression I see on your face, before you 
move a muscle." 

In accordance with promise, Seward continued to write once a 
week to Mr. Weed, during the latter's European tour, noting the salient 
points of passing public events, with occasional allusion to the scenes 
in the Old World through which his friends were passing. Weed's first 
letters to the Evening Journal described his passage over. The George 
Washington had made a tolerably quick run, having been only twenty- 
one days at sea. His next letter was from Dublin, describing his visit 
to and dinner with Daniel O'Connell, and his attending a great repeal 
meeting, addressed by the " Liberator " at Donnybrook Green. 

Auburn, July 31, 1843. 

Although the Journal gives us two or three letters, and glorious ones they 
are too, every week, yet they do little to advise us of your progress. It is like 
firing at vacancy, to write to a man in universal Europe. But you must he 
indulged. The business of writing up for you the record of the week has gone 
over to Sunday, instead of heing done up on Saturday, according to the com- 
mandment. 

The newspapers, if you see them, will advise you that some of our clergy 
have brought about a sebism in the Episcopal Church, that affords aliment to 
the many classes of religious people who wait, not patiently, for a cause of cen- 
sure against her. Puseyism has discovered itself in the Eastern Diocese of this 
State. Two clergymen hero protested, and the popular side is waging war with 
the ecclesiastics. Louisiana has gone ; and Greeley writes me to look for defeat 
in North Carolina, probably in Tennessee, and perhaps in Indiana. Warning we 
gave a year ago, but it fell unheeded. 

The week has been signalized by demonstrations to John Quincy Adams, 
which will gladden your heart. lie set off a month ago on an excursion to 
Lebanon Springs, then made his w T ay to Saratoga, and to Montreal, and returned 
by the way of Niagara. "When he reached the old "infected district," the spirit 
revived and hailed him with enthusiasm. He has had a triumphal progress. 
But you will see all this in the newspapers. I had him at my house, but not 
alone. It was a pageant. 

Saturday, August 5th. 

This sheet has lain by unfinished until now; but I believe no packet lias been 
lost. I have now the pleasure of acknowledging your second letter, which 
shows you domiciliated in the capital, and abated in glory by necessary econ- 
omy. This is perhaps wise, though I would delight if you were able to enlighten 
me about the high political circles in Great Britain, 

King writes me that your letters from Dublin have excited much ire among 
some of your subscribers ; all this is natural. But you will not regard it. The 
same kind of people have cursed John Quincy Adams bitterly for being an 
antimason, and have " pitied him " for his " madness " on the subject of sla- 
very. Now, they bring laurels in such profusion as almost to exclude the offer- 
ings of those who shared his trials and abided his fortunes. , 

By this time you will have got out of the vicinity of O'Connell, and your 
letters will be acceptable to your fastidious friends. Do not indulge the least 



1S43.] WEED'S TRAVELS. (575 

misgiving about yonr letters in the Journal. They are all that your best friends 
could desire ; and they are eagerly copied by various very respectable papers. 

Auburn, August \\(h. 

Well, uncle, so you write Mrs. Weed that you are coming home in Septem- 
ber. If so, I trow your face must be already turned toward the setting *un. 
But I won't believe a word of it. Stay until spring, I enjoin and entreat you. 
Do not be flattered, nor vain. We have learned to do without you. We man- 
age newspapers, politics, and other matters, very well without your help. When 
I told Mrs. Seward that you proposed so speedy a return, she expressed her great 
surprise and regret. Do not hasten. You are doing in Europe for the paper 
what you could not do at home, and are wearing out jealousies by absence, which 
your presence would increase. 

My journal of the past week is barren. There has been a circuit court here, 
and I have been the chief pugilist in the melee. Weary of it am I. But my 
courage is not abated. 

Inman has been a week With me, taking his sketch for his prize-picture. He 
is admitted on all hands to have a strong likeness ; but it is generally said that it 
is not a pleasing one. On the other hand, it is conceded that Harding lias a 
most grateful picture, while its fidelity is questioned. But such a picture as I 
have of Mrs. Seward it would surprise your imagination to conceive. 

George Weed says he is most heartily glad that you have got out of Ireland ; 
that your friends in Albany are nearly overborne on account of your letters from 
Dublin. Greeley droops in the fear of an unwelcome result of the next cam- 
paign. The Journal, I hope, gratifies you by its increasing zeal and confidence. 

Where will this letter find you? I guess at Geneva. You see the Rhine, of 
course, the beautiful and glorious Rhine. I stole away yesterday afternoon Avith 
wife and bairns, and auntie, to the shores of the Owasco. We sailed, and fished, 
and bathed, and I dreamed of being with you in that long, exciting, and delight- 
ful excursion through the Rheingau to Basle, and held converse with you in the 
valley of Chamouni. Do not come homo until you have seen Switzerland and 
Italy. 

Auburn, August 20, 1843. 

The Ilibernia is here, and though two mails have dispersed the news she 
brought, I have no letter from you. So I must address myself to you, as defend- 
ants are summoned to the Court of Chancery, " wheresoever you may then be." 

You can scarcely imagine the occupation I leave to write a letter to you. 
Behold, my pen yet contains a portion of the ink with which it was filled to 
write the vindication of the Rev. Washington Van Zandt, against the verdict of 
a jury and the censures of the Evening Journal ! "To such base uses do we 
come at last, Horatio." Before this letter shall have set out on the long trans- 
atlantic voyage I shall be at Lyons, maintaining that tenants induced by their 
landlord to settle lands, under expectation of purchase, are entitled to. notice to 
quit. I look with surprise and dismay upon the mass of professional business I 
have drawn down upon myself in the few months of my retirement. Then, 
again, I look across to Saratoga, where I see the ex-President, ex-Postmaster- 
General, and ex-Lieutenant-Governor, exhibiting themselves to the ambitious and 
the gay, and I wonder why I alone of all the decayed dignitaries should be 
doomed to the tread-mill. 



076 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 



The " Barnburners," really in earnest for Colonel Young, have held a meeting 
in Now York to adopt measures for calling a State Convention to amend the con- 
stitution. R. H. Morris presided, and, strange to say, Albert H. Tracy, John C. 
Spencer, and Gerrit Smith, were among the invited guests. What a conj unction ! 
"We have had an Episcopal Diocesan Convention here. I saw Andrews, Bough- 
ton, and several others. 

Your letters furnish the staple of nearly every newspaper in the State. 
Pray, think of me for a dedication when you publish your first work. How 
little you dreamed of becoming an author! Hammond will have to rewrite 
your character, and Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature" will be enriched by 
a note. 

Aueit.x, Sunday, August 27, 1843. 

After almost a week's hard work at Lyons, at the Circuit Court, I came home 
in the night, spent several pleasant hours with Seth C. Hawley, whom I found 
here ; then found my office affairs here in great confusion ; and to-morrow I am 
to leave them so, to make my first appearance on Tuesday in the Court of Errors 
at Albany. 

At Lyons I saw William H. Adams, and John M. Ilolley, and Judge Spencer. 
They are somewhat despondent about political affairs this fall, but confident of 
triumph next year. Webb is read out of the Whig party by the American Citizen, 
at Albany, for counseling inaction. Greeley has been reproved by the same 
high authority. I shall see King on Tuesday, and endeavor to save the Journal 
from excommunication. 

It is pretty difficult to make up an issue with you. Your last letter con- 
tained your criticism of Webster's Bunker Hill speech, which has been forgotten 
here long ago. So I suppose my references to your letters will seem like far- 
brought reminiscences. 

The abolitionists assemble this week at Buffalo, in a Millerite tent, to nomi- 
nate a President and Vice-President. I have now for the third time declined 
the former honor. They will have a meeting which will recall many recollec- 
tions of the antimasonic movement. 

The Whigs seemed never to tire of demonstrations and tributes to 
Henry Clay. Their long-continued enthusiasm for "Harry of the 
West " rivaled that of the Democrats in preceding years for the " Old 
Hero " of New Orleans. Clay associations, Clay clubs, and Clay meet- 
ings, were incidents in almost every village. The new tariff, largely 
due to his efforts, had proved to be a substantial advantage to manu- 
factures. Factory stocks in Massachusetts rose rapidly in value, and it 
was stated that at Lowell the manufacture of muslin-de-laine would be 
commenced on a large scale, with a prospect of successful competition 
with the French fabric. 

A letter from Mr. Clay himself, in reference to agriculture and the 
t ariff, helped to stimulate the popular feeling. The " Life and Speeches 
of Henry Clay " was published, and had a rapid sale. The Madisonian, 
the presidential organ at Washington, called for organization of the 
friends of Mr. Tyler, urging them to lend their efforts in opposition to 



1843.] . INMAN AND HARDING. 677 

Mr. Clay. At the South, movements in behalf of Calhoun's nomination 
were in active progress ; while, at the North, Mr. Van Buren, when 
he presented himself at Saratoga, Albany, or elsewhere, was received 
with evident marks of Democratic favor. 

A noticeable commercial fact was the great reduction in the amount 
of wines and spirits imported, which was attributed to the effects of 
the temperance reformation. Portraits of Father Mathew were printed 
for popular circulation, and many anecdotes told of his unpretending 
manners and his persuasive eloquence. He was now fifty-four years 
old, with hair a little gray, of slight build, and usually wore in public 
a long surtout, with high, old-fashioned boots over his pantaloons. His 
administration of the pledge to a large number at once was an impres- 
sive spectacle. He would make them all kneel down, hold up their 
hands, and solemnly repeat it after him, with an invocation for God's 
help to keep it. Then he would give each a medal and his blessing. 

The Episcopal Convention of the new Diocese of Western New York 
held its session in Auburn during August. For a week the village was 
full of clergymen, who were the guests of the different .members of the 
congregation of St. Peter's. Among the three who staid at Seward's 
house was the Rev. Dr. Whitehouse, then of Rochester, and after- 
ward Bishop of Illinois. It happened to be the anniversary week also 
of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and, it was remarked at 
table, " nearly every other man you meet in the streets here has spec- 
tacles, or a white cravat." "I see, Governor, that you are being paint- 
ed in a white cravat," said one, referring to the portrait upon which 
Inman was engaged. "Are you adopting the theological custom?" 
"No," said ho, "that is the artist's taste." Inman added : "I never 
paint a man in a black cravat if I can help it. On canvas, especially 
with a dark background, it looks as if his head was cut off." 

Inman remained two or three weeks in Auburn, and finished there 
the study from which the full-length picture for the City Hall was to 
be painted. He succeeded so well in catching Seward's expression while 
engaged in conversation that his portrait became the favorite one in the 
family, and it still hangs in its original place in the parlor. Some time 
later the committee met in New York, who were to decide between the 
two portraits, that of Harding and that of Inman. Both were so excel- 
lent that the committee, after careful examination and comparison of 
opinions, declared themselves unable to say that either was better than 
the other. When this was announced to the painters, Inman, with his 
usual cheerful vivacity, laughed, and said to Harding, " Let's toss up 
for it." Harding assented, and Inman, drawing a half-dollar from his 
pocket, threw it up in the air with "Heads or tails?" Heads came 
up and Inman won. His picture was formally turned over to the Com- 
mon Council and hung in the Governor's Room. The " pipe-layers," 



Q-g LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

who had originated the competition, had already determined that which- 
ever picture was not taken by the city they would purchase and pre- 
sent to Mr. Seward's children. They did so, and Harding's was in- 
trusted to the care of Seth C. Hawley, who in due time delivered it. 
When the family moved to Washington, Rev. Dr. Campbell, on behalf 
of the Trustees of the State Library, asked that it might be left at 
iUbany until their return. For many years it has occupied the central 
space in the row of portraits at the library. 

While the Supreme Court was holding the July term at Utica, it 
was casually mentioned that Chancellor Kent, who was still hale and 
vigorous, would arrive at the age of fourscore on the 31st of the 
month ; and it was determined to hold a meeting of the bar in his 
honor. Attorney-General Barker presided. Complimentary resolu- 
tions were adopted, and a committee appointed to invite him to a pub- 
lic dinner ; the committee comprising lawyers from each county. Gov- 
ernor Seward and Judge Richardson were appointed for Cayuga, Daniel 
( ady for Albany, Henry Wells for Yates, and judges and leading ad- 
vocates from other counties. The Chancellor, while declining the in- 
vitation, sent a charming letter in reply, in which he remarked: 

You have, gentlemen, met me in the midst of my own descendants, down to 
the third generation. u Et nati natorum et qui nasccntur ab illis.'' 1 I am living 
lit Tally among my posterity, as well in professional as in domestic life. My 
contemporaries have nearly all departed, and, although during my official career 
1 was familiar with the bar and with the courts in every part of this great State, 
I have no personal acquaintance with most of the gentlemen who have done me 
the honor to unite in this invitation. "When I first entered public life as a mem- 
ber of Assembly, in 1790, there were but sixteen counties in this State, and now 
this invitation comes from members of the bar who are distributed throughout 
fifty-eight of them. 

Seward, who had enjoyed the friendship of the venerated Chancel- 
lor almost from boyhood, regarded him with affectionate esteem, and 
took pleasure in relating incidents that showed his activity, mental and 
physical, and his quick, youthful manner. On the bench he could be 
grave and stern ; off it he was often merry and careless as a boy. 

( hi one occasion Seward had a perplexing legal question, arising 
out of the settlement of an estate. Taking the papers with him when 
he next went to New York, he consulted Chancellor Kent, asking his 
opinion about it. The Chancellor listened, sat a few moments in 
thought, and then gave his opinion in the matter. " But, Chancellor," 
said Seward, "your ' Commentaries,' which I have carefully looked into, 
take the other ground. They say that the contrary view is the correct 
one." " Do they ? " said the Chancellor ; " let's get down the book 
and see." The book was taken down, the passage read, and the Chan- 
cellor emphatically gave his decision. " The book is right. I may 



1843.] THE "VHIG" PARTY. 070 

guess wrong now, but when I wrote the book I knew. Always go by 
the book in preference to me." 

The newspapers were now discussing the possibility of cheap post- 
age reform. "Penny postage," having been tried in England, had 
proved not only a benefit to the people, but a pecuniary advantage to 
the Government. Seward joined in urging its adoption. 

On the 1st of September it was announced that a Jersey City 
schooner had been stopped by the inspector at Norfolk, under the law 
against New York shipping, which ajjparently was now to be extended 
also to vessels from New Jersey, on the supposition that they were 
really New York vessels, attempting to evade search. It was regretted 
that the Legislature had refused to adopt Willis Hall's resolution, in- 
structing the Attorney-General to bring the question by a test-case be- 
fore the United States Supreme Court. 

Conventions were meeting in Sej)tember to appoint delegates to the 
"Whig National Convention, to meet at Baltimore in May. Upon many 
of the Whig handbills the heading was " Democratic Whig meetings," 
etc. This was an attempt to regain some of the prestige which it was 
felt the opposing party acquired merely by its name, especially among 
foreign voters. Every new-comer from Continental Europe was familiar 
with the word " democracy," and knew that it expressed his views ; 
while, as Seward used to say, " though our principles are the more 
democratic of the two, the name ' Vhig,' on a German or French hand- 
bill, is more apt to discourage than to captivate." Only indifferent 
success attended the complex title, for the essence of party enthusiasm 
is simplicity and singleness of purpose. One of the illustrations of the 
Clay feeling Avas an incident in the lecture of a phrenologist, at Utica, 
who was holding up and commenting upon plaster-casts of the heads of 
distinguished men. When he held up that of Henry Clay, the audience 
rose and gave nine cheers. 

The Democratic feud was increasing in bitterness. The State Con- 
vention met at Syracuse, and, the " old Regency " having a strong 
majority, chose Governor Marcy to preside. The " Old Hunkers " 
counted seventy-nine votes, and the " Barnburners " polled forty for 
Colonel Young. The next day it was reported that though the " Old 
Hunkers " had the control they were desirous of conciliating the " Barn- 
burners." Delegates were chosen to the National Convention at Balti- 
more, in May, and resolutions adopted recommending Van Buren for 
the presidential nomination, and indorsing Governor Bouck, Lieutenant- 
Governor Dickinson, and other State officers, but heading the list of 
delegates with the name of Samuel Young, the " Barnburner " leader, 
while taking care to secure a majority of the thirty-four for the 
" Old Hunkers." 

The Democrats in the Cayuga County Convention, on the other hand. 



680 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 



the " Barnburners " being in the ascendant, refused to indorse either 
the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor. In Columbia County the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor was finally read out of the party. And so the contest 
raged through nearly all the county conventions, the " Old Hunkers," 
in a majority of instances, maintaining their supremacy. 



CHAPTER LI. 

1843. 



Van Buren, Bouck, and Webster.— State Fair.— A Dramatic Scene.— Checks and Balances. 
— " Puseyisra." — Morse's Telegraph. — A Candidate for no Office. — Fillmore and the 
Vice-Presidency. — Weed for Governor. 

Continuing his letters to Weed, Seward wrote : 

Auburn, Saturday Kight, September 2, 1843. 
I happened unfortunately to arrive in Albany just in time for a caucus, con- 
cerning the State Convention; and, more unfortunate still, I advised against it. 
Although my opinions accorded with theirs, every Whig Senator there who was 
impatient of your dictation and mine did not like this. 

Auburn', September 9,1843. 

I have just received your epistle penned at Abbotsford. You had forgot- 
ten that a sight of Abbotsford was denied to me. Melrose gladdened my eyes 
neither at glaring noon nor "by fair moonlight." You are happy in the free- 
dom of will, though checked by that laggard leg. 

Before this time the determination concerning your return is fixed. I hope 
you have decided to winter abroad. Besides your own comfort and enjoyment, 
I like the rough trial to which I am exposed in your absence. I harden well 
and fast. I grow more and more a lawyer, and doubt now your power of fas- 
cination to withdraw me from the money-seeking occupation in which I am en- 
gaged. There is here and there a sharp angle, but I have turned them all safely 
thus far. 

The Democrats have had their State Convention, and it disclosed a broad and 
irreparable seam in the party. The strength of the respective factions was 
shown in the election of a president. Governor Marcy had seventy-nine votes, 
Colonel Young forty. The few delegates from New York favorable to Calhoun 
protested. They were easily disposed of. 

The intelligence from Vermont is propitious, and maybe regarded as furnish- 
ing proof that the Whig party will, partially at least, recover ground at the presi- 
dential election. 

Your letters are quite the rage among all parties. Everybody reads them ; 
your opponents, especially, delight in showing me their magnanimity tow- 
ard you. You have been reviewed in the New World, I hear. But I have not 
the article. It is either retaliatory, or it is twaddle. You know that there 
is a circle of exclusive literary men. A politician— a man of the world like you 



1843.] A DRAMATIC SCENE. (5S1 

— has no right to invade their domain. You are an intruder. On the other 
hand, I see that every remark that you make takes effect. You are quoted in 
every part of the Union, and your letters very liberally republished. 

I hear, and learn from the papers, that Bowen has resigned his office as Vice- 
President of the Erie Railroad Company. But I hear nothing from him, and 
doubt whether the information is authentic. It is, at least, quite time that 
Bowen should leave that great enterprise to try its fortunes with the corruption 
that it was rescued from by our and his efforts. 

Aubukn, September 17, 1843. 

I have just returned from Avon Springs, where I have been trying a hotly- 
litigated cause for William and John Beach. 

I met Fillmore at Rochester, and had a pleasant interview with him, which 
was fortunate. I freely told him I was of opinion that he ought to be, and 
would be, nominated for Vice-President. He replied that he did not want it, 
but did not disclaim. He said he had cast the horoscope, and thought the place 
would fall to me, to which he should most cheerfully assent. I absolutely dis- 
claimed, assigning reasons. 

The Calhoun men in New York arc arraying themselves for battle, and the 
whole Democratic party in other States exhibit signs of division. In Maine it is 
probable no Governor is elected by the people. In Massachusetts the State 
Convention has adopted the " district system," and it is now probable that not 
a State in the Union, except New York, will adhere to the general-ticket plan. 
So you see that the indications of the contest are cheering enough, if we look 
only to the condition of our opponents. 

I cannot omit again talking about your letters. They are in every country 
newspaper. In truth, you have already written yourself out of all remembrance 
of the thousand offenses with which you had wounded politicians of all parties. 
I write to-night to require King to examine proofs more clearly. He suffered 
your beautiful account of kirk-going in Glasgow to be spoiled by converting 
the "Tron Church" (the Throne Church — that is, the Episcopal Throne Church) 
into an " Iron " Church. What an outrage ! 

Mr. Miller saw Daniel Webster in his law-office in Boston, talking about 
his farm with composure. He is referred to now as a man of immense tal- 
ent, but not particularly, etc., etc. So it is to be eclipsed ! I agree to this 
at the very moment when the community is rife with reports tending, if not 
designed, to make me appear hostile to the great luminary which eclipses 
Webster ! Enjoy while you may the precious relaxation of travel. 

Auburn, September 24, 1843. 

Your flying epistle from Havre, Rouen, and Paris, came opportunely last 
night to revive me from the exhaustion of a week of great labor and excite- 
ment. The information that your purpose as to the time of your return is 
unsettled relieves me somewhat, since I hope that the seductions of Rome, 
the winter in Rome, may prevail. 

The Agricultural State Fair came off at Rochester last week. I had de- 
termined not to go there. Our Court of Common Pleas was in session. On 
Tuesday morning Mr. Van Buren and my respected successor were here on 
their way to the fair. A few Whigs (John A. King among them) were here, 
and the Whigs became anxious that they should be represented. I visited the 



6g2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

ex-President and the incumbent State Executive, and attended them during 
their stay here. They returned my visits. Not a "Barnburner" approached 
the Governor, except to deride and insult him ; and even Mr. Van Buren was 
treated with marked neglect because he was in company with the "Hunker" 
Executive. They went on, and the next morning brought Mr. Webster to the 
cattle-show, there to make a speech, to undo the Baltimore "anti-tariff 
speech." I felt that it was due to him to sustain and cheer him, and that 
there would be kindness, if not magnanimity, in my doing so. I followed 
him to Kochester with Morgan. At that place there were fifteen or twenty 
thousand people, men, women, and children. Van Buren and Bouck were re- 
ceived there much as here, Webster with all the enthusiasm that such intellect- 
ual power ought to kindle. He was at first disquieted, moody, and morose. 
No one attended him but Coleman of the Astor. He authorized himself to be 
announced to speak in the field at three o'clock. Meantime a supper was ar- 
ranged for the same night. All Western New York turned out at three to 
hear him. Mr. Van Buren and the Governor retired, through fear of the effect 
of contrast. Tho audience sent forth their shouts for "Webster! " "Web- 
ster ! " but he came not. The messengers went for him. He pleaded sick- 
ness, and the people called out for me to speak in his stead. It was kind in 
them, and they received what I said in kindness. At night Webster came out 
at the supper, among a hundred and fifty of us, in one of his great and overpow- 
ering speeches. His heart was warm, and his mind aroused. He enraptured 
us all. I answered, and cheered him with a hearty welcome. His great soul 
rose under this excitement. He grasped me by the hand, and, turning to the 
company with his full, manly, and impressive eloquence, tendered to me the 
friendship and support in all after-life of all the great New England confed- 
eracy ! It was a scene such as the stage seldom exhibits, and how it told 
upon all no one can describe. We parted friends. He returned eastward to 
enjoy his triumph, and I hurried back to the court to defend my clients in 
the General Sessions. 

Yesterday (Saturday) was the day of our nominating county convention. I 
attended and renewed my ancient association with the Whigs of Cayuga. I 
was reading your letter in the evening, when A. B. Dickinson and John May- 
nard came in to ask me to go to New York, and endeavor to resuscitate the 
New York & Erie Railroad Company. After a long discussion I convinced 
them that the time had not yet come. I am wearied with labor, and exhaust- 
ed. But it is Sunday, and its soothing influences are upon me. There is a 
manifest revival of Whig sentiment and feeling, and, though it is all directed 
blindly, there are a thousand evidences that it lays hold upon the Whig policy 
and principles as promulgated at Albany during the past four years. These 
are consolations for you and me. The year 1848 is already anticipated in the 
very hour of the enthusiasm which has until now looked to 1844 as the last 
struggle, and the contest of that year is felt to be only preliminary to that of 
the next trial. 

The Repealers have had their national convention, and made Robert Tyler 
their president. Their efforts will tell here, and may do good across the At- 
lantic. But they are about as blindly directed as those of the modern Abolition 
party. 



1843.] REFUSING NOMINATIONS. G83 

Auburn, September 30, 1843. 

June, July, August, September — four months less a week since our friends 
on board the steamboat made me their organ to tender you wishes for a pros- 
perous voyage and speedy return. 

The week's gossip throughout the State and country has been the Agricult- 
ural Fair at Rochester. The impression has gone abroad, as I anticipated, 
that Van Buren and Bouck went to Rochester in search of popularity, and 
were eclipsed. You know it was the 7th of June that I presided at a repeal 
meeting in New York. The indefatigable " Old Hunkers " have burrowed 
out at last a repeal letter written by Mr. Van Buren on the 20th of that m< 
I cannot forbear to notice that no paper of either party has censured him for 
doing what they found an unpardonable offense in inc. 

West Point, October 8, 1843. 

At last we are here, and I employ the last hour of a delightful visit to pre- 
serve the punctuality you have so good a right to exact. We have been here 
three days, and enjoyed our boy's society much of the time. lie is quite suc- 
cessful in his studies, and his disposition has won the esteem of his teachers 
and fellows. , 

"We spent a night at your house on the way down, and found your family all 
well, and expecting your return by the next steamer. 

The political elements are gathering. The Calhoun men threaten to plant 
themselves on the district system, and organize the convention by receiving 
only delegates elected on that plan. It is apparent that Mr. Van Buren has re- 
peated the blunder of ls-24. Whether it will be equally disastrous is doubtful. 
But the doubt arises from counterbalancing blunders of our own. Instead of 
having laid and left a platform broad enough to invite all dissentients, we have 
narrowed it so that only one man can gain a foothold upon it ; and we are 
watching to exclude all others. Webb has nominated Webster for Vice-Presi- 
dent. . . . My name has been rung in changes for that nomination, as well as 
for Governor of New York. But I have abruptly ended them by answering. 
through the Courier, that I would be a candidate for no nomination, State or 
national. . . . 

I return to-morrow evening to Albany, and thence to Auburn, not even 
securing the indulgence of a day with the "pipe-layers." Business forbids. 
We are packing and leave-taking, so adieu. 

His letter to the Courier said : 

I am not, and shall not he, a candidate for any office, State or national, in 
the canvass of 18-44. Far from seeking further preferment, I have had enough 
already to call forth profound gratitude. That gratitude I expect to manifest 
by leaving the Whig party to bring forth its candidates without interference 
on my part, and by yielding to them my zealous and faithful support. 

Returns now began to come in from the October elections in other 
States. The Whigs had carried Ohio, Georgia, Maryland, the city of 
Philadelphia, and had a prospect of success in the States of Penn- 
sylvania and Delaware. In New Jersey they had been defeated. The 
last days before the election were, as usual, largely occupied by publio 



684 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 



meetings and speeches, Seward attending some of those in Cayuga 
and the neighboring counties. His avowed antislavery opinions had 
always been considered objectionable by many of his own party. Some 
of the dissatisfied Whigs even charged him with lack of fidelity to Clay. 
Three days before the election, he wrote to John C. Clark : 

Auburn, November 4, 1843. 
The two State Central Committees, at Albany, in August last issued a circu- 
lar recommending the appointment of delegates by district conventions during 
the present autumn, and recommended further that the delegates so to be ap- 
pointed should be instructed to vote for Henry Clay as the candidate of the 
Whig party, already spontaneously nominated and universally acknowledged 
throughout the State. These recommendations have been adopted in every 
electoral district. I venture to state, without asking previous leave of the com- 
mittees, that those recommendations were made by the Central Committee on 
my suggestion, and in my own language. 

The letter was published and created some amusement, as it showed 
that those who were accusing him of defection had all been following 
his advice, without knowing- from whom it emanated. 

November 7th was election-day, and the evening was spent by SeAV- 
ard at the newspaper office receiving returns. The Whigs had carried 
the county and district, which seemed to give hope that the State had 
not been lost. But on the 10th decisive returns came in. The State 
had gone Democratic. There was a falling off of the Whig vote in the 
western counties, partly occasioned by the drawing off of votes for the 
Abolition ticket. As each succeeding day brought fuller returns, the 
news grew more and more adverse. The Legislature, it was ascer- 
tained, would consist of a Senate of twenty-six Democrats to six 
Whigs ; the Assembly, of ninety-two Democrats to thirty-six Whigs. 

The next step after every election is to determine, each party for 
itself, what policy to pursue in view of the result. The Whigs abated 
no jot of hope, or of purpose to continue the support of Mr. Clay, 
though it had become evident — at least so far as New York was con- 
cerned — that there was danger of a loss of many votes on account of the 
abolition question. The supporters of the distinctive Abolition organ- 
ization were largely drawn from the Whig ranks. When remonstrated 
with that their votes would be unavailing, and if thrown away on the 
third candidate would help to defeat the Whigs, and so elect the pro- 
slavery candidates, their answer was that they were voting for a prin- 
ciple, and could give_no support to either of the two great parties. 
And this, in substance, was the point of difference for many years be- 
tween two large classes of enlightened men at the North, both opposed 
to slavery, both desirous to restrict or abolish it ; but the one believing 
they should build up a third party, the other that they could act more, 
effectively through the great parties already organized, and holding 



1843.] "CHECKS AND BALANCES." 685 

alternate control of the Government. Men's minds are not all cast in 
the same mould, and there always will be some who find that the prac- 
tical way to accomplish results is through cooperation and waiver of 
minor differences ; while others prefer to satisfy their love of inde- 
pendence by acting alone, or with the small body who can agree to 
think alike in all things. 

The Democrats, so far from being united by their victory, grew more 
and more divided. Hitherto Democratic sentiment, North and South, 
had seemed to be divided between two presidential candidates, Calhoun 
and Van Buren. From Pennsylvania now came the suggestion of a 
third (Buchanan), who, it was thought, might reconcile existing differ- 
ences. 

When the official vote of New York was counted, it showed that the 
Democrats had polled 177,000 votes ; the Whigs, 1.jG,000 ; the Aboli- 
tionists, 15,G72 ; the Native Americans, 8,712 ; so that, if the three 
parties opposed to the Democrats had cast a united vote, they would 
have carried the State. The problem before the Whigs, therefore, was, 
how to combine that vote, if, as was claimed, the two minor factions 
were made up of discontented Whigs. Yet even the 177,000 Demo- 
cratic votes were not an assured element. Among them were many 
who, though acting hitherto with their party, were restive under its 
pro-slavery lead. 

Then, upon the financial question, the debt, and internal improve- 
ments, the Democratic party, though they voted together at the polls, 
were divided into two antagonistic factions when it came to legislation. 
The problem for the Democrats, therefore, was, whether they could con- 
tinue to combine these opposing elements, or whether one or the other 
of them, separating from the Democratic party, might not combine 
with the Whigs. 

There were rumors from Washington of a new and grave issue 
which might unsettle all political calculations. The question of the 
annexation of Texas would probably come up at the next session. 

It has been claimed that the especial merit of the American Gov- 
ernment is, that it is " a government of checks and balances." If so, 
it seemed at this period in complete and successful operation. The 
President was held in check by a Whig Senate, and that in turn by a 
Democratic House. The New York State government was balancing 
between " Old Hunkers " and " Barnburners," who in turn were held 
in check by apprehensions of the Whigs, who were themselves check- 
mated by the Abolitionists and Native Americans. 

This year witnessed the beginning of an important era. The J\f<i<Jl- 
sonian announced, in the summer, that Prof. Morse was about to 
begin laying the wires of his electric telegraph along the line of the 
Baltimore & Washington Railroad. The wires were to run in leaden 



QgQ LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843. 

pipes a quarter of an inch in diameter. But this announcement, though 
of vastly greater importance, did not attract half the attention that 
was bestowed upon Queen Victoria's and Prince Albert's visit to France 
in their yacht. Of this event the papers were full of descriptions. 

Another topic of discussion, especially in the cities, was Dr. Pusey 
and the "Oxford Tracts." "Puseyism" became the term to designate 
everything that looked toward changes of ceremonial observance in the 
Episcopal Church ; and all manner of descriptions were given of the 
contemplated improvements in the ritual, one of which was gravely said 
to be the sacrifice of a lamb every Friday evening. 

Among other subjects of popular interest was the seizure of slavers 
on the African coast by British vessels. The descriptions of the hor- 
rible condition of the poor creatures on board, the arrangement of the 
hold, etc., helped to remind the public that the nefarious traffic was still 
going on. 

Early in November came intelligence of the arrest of Daniel O'Con- 
nell by the British Government. It was no surprise, but had been an- 
ticipated, though it served to acid fresh stimulus to the repeal move- 
ment. It was proposed, as an effective demonstration, that the Repeal 
Associations should hold simultaneous meetings all over the world on 
the first Wednesday in January, 1844. 

At a meeting held in Auburn at the town-hall, on the 25th of No- 
vember, Seward was called to the chair, and submitted a letter, which he 
had prepared at the request of the Association, to O'Connell ; which 
was read, signed by the citizens present, and sent to the " Liberator." 
It commended him that, under his guidance, the masses " are not 
merely patient and pacific, but profoundly submissive to the laws, how- 
ever unequal, and to the throne, however inaccessible ; " also that they 
had "rejected all military preparations," and that while "you are vol- 
untarily in the power of the law, meeting the oppressors of your coun- 
try in her civil tribunals, and not a hostile arm has been raised nor a 
drop of blood been shed either in turbulence or by accident." 

Another subject of importance to Ireland and the United States 
was attracting the attention of scientific inquirers and of the agricultural 
and commercial community. This was a disease before unknown, which 
had attacked the potato-crop. It was first noticed as a black spot. 
The "pink-eyes," then a favorite species, had especially suffered, many 
farmers losing their entire crop, and some losing in addition the cattle 
and swine to whom they had been fed. 

Mr. Weed had already embarked on the Ashburton, October 26th. 
The ship was more than a month at sea, and Seward, who was in 
New York early in December, attending court, was in time to greet 
him on his debarkation. Weed had gone to Europe, leaving the party 
infected with so many jealousies and rivalries that it was an unexpected 



1843.] WEED FOR GOVERNOR. 687 

and agreeable surprise, on his return, to find that lie had grown popu- 
lar; that the press, not only of his own, but of the opposing party, was 
full of kindly expressions ; that he had been impatiently awaited, to 
advise about the legislative policy and the presidential campaign ; and 
that some of his zealous admirers were proposing to make him the 
Whig candidate for Governor at the next year's election. In sending 
him a letter from an enthusiastic friend, on this subject, Seward added 
this postscript at the bottom of it : 

I have written to Strong that you would not accept, and that you desire 
the matter to be dropped. But it is not to be easily dropped. Everybody is up 
for it. I have written an article for Oliphant next week, which I think you will 
find help to relieve yon, as it will probably be understood to come from me. 
Still, you will have to hear the sound of the cannon. 

Quite a number of the Whig newspapers were strongly urging him 
as a candidate. When some of his friends came to talk with Seward 
about it, he, knowing Weed's repugnance to any such project, did not 
encourage them. 

" But why not ? what reason is there why he should not be made 
Governor, whether he wants it or not?" 

" Plenty of reasons," answered he. 

" Well, give us one," said they. 

" Well," replied he, " one reason is, as you know, that, if "Weed was 
Governor, he would pardon all the rascals out of State-prison, and then 
get in himself, for pipe-laying ! " 

The peremptory refusal of the " Dictator," on his return to his post 
of duty at Albany, after his half-year's absence, finally put the cmes- 
tion to rest. 

Referring to his article in the Auburn paper, Seward wrote : 

I have noticed that whenever a county convention nominated mc for Gov- 
ernor, or President, or Vice-President, I was not consulted at all about the mat- 
ter; but the Evening Journal, the next day, would emphatically decline in my 
behalf. One good turn deserves another, and, as you were not here, I thought 
I might as well decline for you in the Axibum Journal. 



ggg LIFE AND LETTERS. [1843-'44. 

CHAPTER LII. 

1843-1844. 

Postal Reforms.— Simultaneous Repeal Meetings— The Law's Delay.— Prescott's " Con- 
quest of Mexico."— Mocking- Bird Moralizings.— Legislative Battles.— Clay Meetings on 
Washington's Birthday.— Auburn Speech.— Fillmore and Seward.— The Texas Issue. 

At the opening of the session of Congress, the Postmaster-General's 
report was followed by discussions in Congress and in the press on the 
propriety of prohibiting express companies from carrying letters. 
They were now engaging in this enterprise, and the letters were car- 
ried more rapidly than by mail. This led, naturally, to the question 
whether the post-offices, backed by the Treasury of the United States, 
could not afford to transmit letters as cheaply as a company of private 
individuals. 

Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, introduced a resolution in the House 
to repeal the tariff, which was rejected, one hundred and seven to 
seventy-seven. Mr. Adams again offered antislavery petitions. When 
the Speaker decided one of them to be excluded under the twenty-first 
rule, " Bring it back," said Adams ; " I will put it with the rest. I 
have a houseful that I am preserving for some future day. I have the 
petitions of a hundred thousand of the people, excluded from a hearing 
by this House." 

As the time for holding the Democratic Convention approached, 
candidates for the presidency multiplied. The JVeio York Standard 
hoisted the name of General Cass. Governor Dorr, who was now in 
prison, was elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention, 
and some curiosity was expressed to know whether he would be re- 
leased, in order that he might attend. 

The Whig delegates were usually instructed to vote for Clay. Fre- 
quently, there was also instruction on the subject of the vice-presi- 
dency, and several of those from the State of New York were charged 
to go for Clay and Fillmore. 

During the first week in January, Seward was on the road to Al- 
bany again. He was to attend the repeal meeting there, which he had 
promised to address ; and, subsequently, his cases in court would de- 
tain him there during the rest of the month. His letters home de- 
scribed this ffatherinp; : 

Alba:n-y, Saturday Morning. 

I was fortunate iu extending my first day's ride to Utica. The residue of 
the journey was a light task the next day. After paying my respects to General 
Root, whose public life has closed, I devoted the next day to a revision of my 
speech for Ireland. The day was cold and snowy, yet there were three thou- 
sand persons in the procession. They came past the Eagle, and I stood in the 
window of my room for nearly two hours, receiving their salutations. The 



1844.] SIMULTANEOUS REPEAL MEETINGS. CS9 

assemblage at the Capitol was the greatest I ever saw in this city, and the pro- 
ceedings were spirited and becoming. Mr. Stevens, although not an early con- 
vert, made a capital speech. We adjourned at eleven. The crowd formed a 
procession, and escorted me to the Eagle, where they left mo with kind greet- 
ings. Some gentlemen had a supper waiting, which was given in honor of 
Weed's return from Europe. 

I occupied the next day with writing out the speech, and spent yesterday in 
studying my cases for argument in the Supreme Court. 

The meeting was one of the series of simultaneous repeal meetings 
held on the same day in the various cities throughout the Union. A 
few days later the reports of their proceedings were brought by the 
newspapers. The one in New York was held at Tammany Hall, and 
addressed by Mr. Greeley and others; at Syracuse, General Leaven- 
worth and B. David Noxon participated ; at Rochester, John Allen 
presided ; at Buffalo, George M. Clinton. 

Albany, Saturday Evening, January 13th. 

If I had been able to calculate on the chances of the calendar, 1 mighl have 
spent two or three days with you. On Monday morning next the court will be 
as near to me as they were on Monday last, and no nearer. But 1 have em- 
ployed my tiino profitably. 

My habits of study arc pretty well understood, and I have few visitors. The 
Senate and Assembly are engaged in warm debates concerning the wisdom of 
my administration of the government — a question which has lost power to excite 
me. I suppose, a generation hence, it will be settled, with more impartiality 
than now. 

It has been my purpose to spend to-morrow in Troy, but, as the day ap- 
proaches, I fear the loss of time in going there to-night. My invitation is from 
George B. Warren, who is a Whig member of the Assembly, and an earnest 
friend. A yqung gentleman called on me to-day, who is a student at Schenec- 
tady, and whose bright locks, fair face, and graceful contour, proved him, as be 
was, a brother of Miss Bowers. 

I called last evening on Mrs. Porter, as you wished, and found her very agree- 
able ; but when I attempted to perform your commands, by giving her the vil- 
lage news, I failed, being totally destitute of all information concerning occur- 
rences at Auburn. 

I am reading Prescott's "Mexico," a most interesting work. I hope to finish 
it and send it to you on Monday. It will be a much better book for you to read 
than the " Mysteries of Paris," and, though it is history, you will find it almost 
as exciting. 

John C. Spencer is nominated by the President for judge, but his confirma- 
tion is doubtful. 

The Democratic party here are in much distress, and the two factions are 
beginning to think the Whigs worthy of some attention. Mr. Croswell has 
just paid me a visit, and expressed no little surprise (but not designedly) that 
the Whig party manifested no disposition to affiliate with the Governor's especial 
friends. 

44 



qqq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

I took tea last evening at Dr. Sprague's, whose simple New England habits 
and forms of entertainment always please me. 

But I quit my letter to attack my chancery case, which must be in readiness 
on Monday ; and I am endeavoring to keep the good resolution of abstaining 
from labor on Sunday. 

Albany, Sunday Night, January \4ih. 

I wrote you last night, indeed, but it was at the close of a week of thought- 
ful anxiety and exhaustive study. This has been a day of rest and refreshment, 
and I am moved to commune with you a while before its fleeting hours bring on 
the renewal of cares that make one selfish and neglectful. 

I have read the rest of Prescott's history. I am impatient until you have the 
enjoyment of it. It, however, loses its interest, or rather diminishes in interest, 
toward the close. Your hopes for the escape of the Mexicans, or at least for a 
modification of their subjection, for some alleviation of the miseries of conquest, 
give way, and the cruelty they suffer becomes painfully distressing. The sub- 
jugation, slavery, and almost extermination, of a race who have done no wrong, 
but have possessed themselves of the gold-dust in their streams and the gaudy 
feathers of their birds, and have ever freely divided them with their covetous 
enemies, are not to be contemplated without excitement, and a swelling desire 
for their revenge. That revenge they had not. 

I am troubled with a new political movement that promises long animosi- 
ties and contentions. Last year, as you know, it was determined well and 
wisely that even if I could I must not and should not be a candidate for public 
office. With Mr. Fillmore for Vice-President, and Willis Hall for Governor, the 
Whig party could have no occasion to call for me, while in pcacefulness and 
quiet I could contribute to its restoration through their election. I explained 
these views to both of them, and they were, as well they might be, content. 
Hall is prostrated with illness, and Fillmore only is left. The Whig party wants 
some one in Hall's place, and indications, as I am told, are plain enough, that, if 
there be not some one, I must step in the breach, to be ruined equally by suc- 
cess or defeat — the latter most probably. Fillmore is wanted, therefore, to 
come down to Hall's place. This he will not willingly do, and I feel that he 
ought not to be compelled. Yet what I see convinces me that he must, and 
that at least efforts will be made to bring him there, unless I consent to be a 
candidate — a thing for a thousand reasons impossible. Hence he is to upbraid 
me with the whole, and with insincerity to boot, though I am faithful and just. 

Monday Evening. 

I have just laid aside complete the brief upon which I have been all day 
engaged. The court has hardly approached me, but I have a hope of a hearing 
in our cause to-morrow. 

Have you noticed the polemics going on between Dr. Potts and Dr. Wain- 
wright? It is published in the ( 'omrrn rcial, but extracted into the Express and 
Tribune. It will amuse and perhaps instruct you. 

I asked A to come into my room to smoke. He proposed we should 

have our after-dinner smoke in his room. I said, " ISTo! Don't let us smoke in 

the presence of the women." " Dear me," said Mrs. A , " I wonder where 

you find the worn n ? " Mrs. A obviously thinks that ladies are not women. 

For my part, I like the old English names of " folks," « men," and " women," 



1844.] MOCKING-BIRD MORALIZING. G91 

and especially now, as all common dames are " ladies," those who have refine- 
ment may well be content to bear the appellation of women. 

I wasted a part of yesterday in reading the now first-published correspond- 
ence between Burns and Olarinda. She was a bold, vain woman ; Burns little 
better than a villain. But she had no right to complain of him, if women have 
any obligation to protect their own virtue. She had some talent, but hardly 
enough to make her letters worthy of going down to posterity with Burns's 
poetry. 

The Democratic party, notwithstanding their triumphant success in this 
State last fall, manifest much alarm. Mr. Van Buren evidently drags, and 1 
should not be surprised if in May he is cast off. How unwise it was of a great 
man to seek restoration ! Few statesmen, however, have the virtue of modera- 
tion, and few have it in so great a degree as Mr. Van Buren. 

Albany, January 21st. 

If it were in my nature to despond under small vexations, I should have a 
sad day. Here I have been, day after day, repairing to the court-room at ten 
in the morning, and leaving it not until eight at night, and this attendance pro- 
tracted through three weeks, and not a cause of mine has been readied. Then 
I was engaged to go to Troy to-day, and the thermometer is below zero. But 
I will let these things pass. I have followed what seemed and was the way of 
duty thus far, and abided its consequences. So I will do now. One year has 
brought me into the court ; another, if equally auspicious, will give me suffi- 
cient occupation among its actors. 

I sent you the first volume of Prescott by Henry Underwood ; I now send 
the two others by Judge Conkling. I think I am not mistaken in supposing 
that you will be deeply interested in this delightful book. 

Albany, January 25, 1844. 

I go to-night to Mrs. Peckham's ; and, since I find no leisure in the hours 
which intervene between dinner and midnight, I may as well write now. 

Fame told me of your party, before your letter advised me of that event, so 
troublesome to the matron who gave and so joyous to the young people who 
received it. I am glad to hear that it was pleasant, especially to Frances ; as 
for Willie, he deserves a party every day ; and Clarence, I hope, will continue to 
enjoy them as much in after-life. 

There is a mocking-bird in the bar-room which greets us all with a roundelay 
adapted to our taste and disposition every morning. Bis notes sadden me, for 
they recall recollections of Bo!), and remorse for my vile habit of smoking, 
which shortened his days, I fear. I study this bird intently, nevertheless. His 
notes are like, and yet not altogether like, Bob's. I should know him, of 
course, to belong to the class and species, yet I can easily discriminate between 
his strains and those that so long were music to me. His attitudes and motions 
are similar, yet I can remember peculiarities of Bob's which this warbler has 
not. Instinct, then, like reason in man, works out like and yet net exactly 
similar results in the animal creation; and a refined ear, perhaps more refined 
than any human ear, would discern inequalities as great in the mocking-bird as 
between a Catalina and a N"ew England ballad-singer; and the dull, untaught 
listener would find the whole concert of a thousand of those musicians of the 
sunny clime a jargon of dissonant sounds. Well, who shall say that, in the 



g 9 2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

judgment of superior intelligence, the eloquence of a Webster and the music of 
a Handel are not more widely different from the rude speech of the barbarian 
than the notes of the leader of the forest-orchestra from his imitators ? Let the 
mocking-bird go on with his song; it is an interlude for the taverners, dearly 
purchased at the expense of the slavery of the musician, his neglect, and pre- 
mature death. 

Mrs. Bouck has sent me an invitation for to-morrow evening. I shall go. 

We are now within apparent reach of some of my causes ; but we have been 
in sight of them so long that my hopes of reaching them are by no means san- 
guine. 

It is a waste of time and happiness, but so is the world made up, and we 
must endure it. I would take a turnpike-gate rather than thus linger at the 
bar ; but turnpike-gates are neither to be sought nor declined, and, like the 
presidency, they seldom offer when you most want them. 

Partisanship is apt to run to extremes, and all the measures of 
Seward's administration were now denounced in the Legislature. The 
" Colonial History," which one might suppose harmless and inoffensive 
enough, was freely censured as being composed of " useless documents 
of frivolous character." A committee, in their report, remarked that 
the Erie enlargement and the geological survey " are wild and visionary- 
projects of past legislation," originating " in a very peculiar state of 
the times," afterward described as "mania." 

Early in February Seward returned to Auburn. The news followed 
him there of the continuation of the warm debates at Albany over the 
public works and Constitutional Convention. But a more exciting topic 
was a discussion which had now arisen, in which it was charged that, 
but for Seward and Weed, Clay might have been nominated in 1839 in- 
stead of Harrison, and so would have been President instead of Tyler. 
The Tribune gave a detailed account of the proceedings of the Whig 
National Convention at Harrisburg, in 1839, which was copied in 
other journals. Some papers, however, continued to charge " Whig 
duplicity toward Clay." Meanwhile, everything seemed going in the 
Whig ranks, not only favorably, but unanimously, for Clay's nomi- 
nation in the coming canvass. All delegates that had been instructed 
at all were instructed to vote for Clay, and all that were not, it was 
understood, would vote for him without instructions. 

A letter from Mr. Webster was published, requesting his friends 
not to present his name at the Whig Convention, and saying that his 
opinions on public affairs were unchanged and well known ; that he 
thought the election of next fall would involve the same principles as 
that of 1840, and that he should support the same cause. Whig local 
conventions were called to meet in the various counties throughout 
the State simultaneously on the 22d of February, to appoint delegates 
to Baltimore. 

Mr. Weed, in his Journal, again formally stated that " Governor 



1844.] GREELEY, CLAY, AND HARRISON. 693 

Seward will, under no circumstances, be a candidate for Governor," 
and also that " Mr. Weed will not tolerate for a moment the use of 
his name for a station to which he does not aspire, and for which he 
knows himself to be totally unfit." 

Seward's letters to "Weed described his occupations : 

A i i:n:x, February Bd—Sun 
On my arrival I fell upon a mass of invitations to Clay clubs and mass-meet- 
ings to he held on the 22d, which it has taken a whole day to decline in a be- 
coming manner. The rest of my time has been engrossed with professional 
business, which Hows in upon me now very steadily. To-morrow I attend a 
Court of Chancery here, and the ne\t day the ('our! of Common Pleas in Bata- 
via. Next week we have the Circuit, Court here. I lose much in the loss of 
your conversation, but 1 find house, family, books, and trees, more than ever 
dear to me. 

I perceive that the Daily and the /"///;, n are down upon you. I could teach 
them a game worth two of this. Lei them go in and make you Coventor, and 
your ruin would be complete and speedy. 

It is difficult to know what to do in these times. The Clay men are mad if 
you work, and mad if you don't; shouting the "Mill-boy of the Slashes" is 
very effectual with a large array of voters. But then there are parrots of more 
practised and wider throats; while to talk of principles, which might be useful 
to the lukewarm, is to compass the king's death. 

Auburn, February 1-, 1844. 

The 22d of February is here. I have invitations from Dan to Beersheba, 
and all the intervening towns. The exclusive friends of Mr. Clay have spent a 
year here in endeavoring to make the people believe that I was opposed to him, 
and are quite desirous that I should go abroad. I may as well put an end to 
that matter, now as ever. Warren Hastings, who had overborne all his ene- 
mies and attained to high renown in India, got himself impeached on his return 
to England. He could not learn the ways of politics at home. This is some- 
thing like my case. But I am trying to learn. 

The public mind is receiving most kindly your article on the "forty-million 
debt,'' audit is a good sign that politicians, on both sides, are conceding that 
the charge -was fraudulent. 

Greeley — who moulds hundreds of thousands of minds— Greeley wrote me 
querulously, because I and you (i. e., you and I) suffered ourselves to be not 
only sileut about the abuse of him, hut to keep friendship with its author. 

Greeley wrote also that it was reported all about New York that I sent my 
brother to Harrison, in 1839, to promise him the delegation at Harrisburg from 
this State, if he would promise me the patronage of the Federal Government in 
this State, and that they refer to a son of General Harrison, at Cincinnati, for 
authority. Greeley desires me to come out and charge this to be a falsehood, 
and call on them to prove it. I answered that I must bo excused from taking 
any notice of it, but, for Mr. Greeley's own satisfaction, assured him that I had 
no communication with General Harrison, or anybody (be, about his nomi- 
nation. 

The Whigs of the various counties bold their conventions on the 



694 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



22d. Those of Cortland and Cayuga Counties met at the Court-House 
at Auburn, where Seward addressed them. He said : 

Every man's memory is a depository into which no other man can look— a 
depository of pleasures and pains, joys and sorrows, precious to the owner be- 
cause they are all his own. These rise unbidden whenever the mind is excited, 
and with them come up from the heart fears, hopes, and affections, as peculiar 
as the character and fortunes of the individual to whom they belong. After an 
interval of almost seven years, I am again in a general gathering of my old po- 
litical and personal friends. A thousand well-remembered voices call me to 
resume long-suspended duties, a thousand faces beam upon me with all that 
ancient kindness which always cheered me. 

The two great political parties occupy equal vantage-ground. Neither has 
announced its leaders, and yet the leader of each is known, and waits only the 
ceremony of announcement to enter the field. It is as certain as any human 
event that Henry Clay will be the Whig candidate for the presidency. Through- 
out the length and breadth of the Union not a delegate has been chosen who 
will not give his voice to Henry Clay ; nor is there a Whig, North or South, or 
East or West, who will not, by his vote, affirm with heart and soul this unani- 
mous choice. 

Henry Clay is a statesman in self-sought, contented retirement, after a career 
in which almost every stage has been distinguished by acts identified with the 
defense, or with the advancement, of this country. His wisdom sustained and 
animated his countrymen in war, and his moderation and equanimity were em- 
ployed to secure the blessings of an honorable and lasting peace. His influence 
in the public councils mainly restored the American currency when it had been 
unwisely abandoned; and every mechanic, artisan, farmer, and laborer through- 
out the land hails or might hail him with reverence as the restorer of the pros- 
perity of his country. . . . 

Auburn, March 17, 1844. 

It is Sunday night, and if Benedict or King is not with -you, I suppose you 
are feeding your mind with some novelty of literature. I almost envy you the 
misfortune that gives you so much repose. Harassed with cares and studies 
which are irksome, I watch with eagerness for every hour that I can take for pur- 
suits more congenial. I am grieved for King and the bereaved children of our 
excellent friend Mr. Elliot. How vast the changes a year makes in our circle of 
friends, ami yet how little we notice their progress! It is only a year since I 
left Albany, and the family has lost both its estimable and honored parents. 

The President has at last found a successor to Judge Thompson. I suppose 
the Senate will confirm. Was ever man so blest with occasions to make friends 
ami strength as Tyler? Was ever fortunate man more prodigal? Strong called 

on me on his return from Albany. He was alarmed lest Mr. F might lose 

the nomination for Vice-President, and the misfortune be charged by him and his 
friends to you and me. I told him I really did not know what more I could 

or do. I had signed off everything, put my political estate into liquidation 

for the satisfaction of all my creditors, and now had indorsed Mr. F as fully 

as anybody could; that he would be nominated if it was best; and, if not, it 
would he from no fault of mine. 

"W onld it not be well to move the people to petition Congress not to dis- 
turb the tariff ? 



1844.] EXPLOSION OF THE "PEACEMAKER." G95 

Auburn, Saturday, March 24, 1844. 

From early mora on Monday until last night I was engaged in the altercations 
of a trial about the building of a bouse. The contention was painful enough, 
but it is more painful still to note bow much sand lias run out from the hour- 
glass now that the hour has come. I hardly know what has happened in the 
world around mo during the time. 1 perceive that a crisis is supposed to be 
reached in the Texas question. I cannot believe that the Michigan Senators 
will be false to the interests of humanity and the sanctions of wisdom. But 
r this abatement 1 am inclined to believe til'' statement of Greeley's corre- 
spondent. If such a crisis is at band, we have need for all our wisdom and all 
our moderation. If the evil is to burst upon us al once, 1 think we have three 
things to take care of: 1. That we place our opposition to the annexation 
solely on the ground of opposition to slavery; 2. That we give not occasion 
to charge us with pusillanimity or favor toward Great Britain and Mexico ; and, 
3. That, being loyal, we leave the responsibilities of dissension upon the South. 

If over man has reason to petition for salvation from his friends, Willis Hall 
has that cause. It is horrible to see the New York committee bringing him be- 
fore the people with that crutch. They will not allow him the repose he seeks 
and needs, for o <i v weeks. Ten days ago, I thought the excitement would 
weaken the abolitionists. I have no cause for thinking otherwise, except that 
I see they are using very energetically all the artillery Mr. Clay's past indiscre- 
tions have furnished them. We shall see what are the prospects in this respect 
when our town meetings here come on. If the third-party men give a full vote, 
the sixteen thousand will all appear in the fall. 



CHAPTER LIII. 

1844. 



Explosion of the " Peacemaker." — American Destiny. — Calhoun and Annexation. — Native 
American Movement. — Whig National < torn ration. — Clay and Frelinghuysen. — Greeley 
and Cooper. — Legislative Address. — < tics. 

A visit of three days to Albany, during the first week in March, 
brought Seward into communication with Whig- members. While 
there, the gratifying intelligence was received that a favorable vote on 
the right of petition had at last been obtained in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Moved, perhaps, by this example, the Assembly reconsid- 
ered its previous decision, and adopted Stevens's resolution in favor of 
the right, Another point upon which Seward encouraged the "Whigs 
to persevere was, to insist that the State should take the eighty-four 
thousand dollars, its share of the proceeds of the public lands ; and on 
this they made vigorous debate in the Senate. 

Early in March the country was startled by the news of a fearful 
calamity at Washington. The President, with his cabinet and invited 
guests, had gone on board the steamer Princeton, to witness a trial of 



090 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



a huge gun named the "Peacemaker." While they were gathered 
near to observe the firing, the gun exploded, instantly killing Mr. Up- 
shur, the Secretary of State ; Mr. Gilmer, the Secretary of the Navy ; 
Commander Kennon, David Gardner, and Virgil Maxcy. Colonel Ben- 
ton had been stunned ; Captain Stockton, the commander of the vessel, 
burned ; Mr. Phelps and others knocked down and bruised. The Presi- 
dent had been more distant, and fortunately escaped. It was the ab- 
sorbing theme for several days. The journals were filled with mel- 
ancholy details of the calamity, and of the public demonstrations of 
orief which followed it. The President sent a message to Congress. 
The Houses passed suitable resolutions. The White House and de- 
partments were draped in mourning, flags placed at half-mast, and 
minute-guns fired. Funeral services were held at the Executive Man- 
sion. The five coffins were laid side by side in the East Room. On the 
day of the funeral, the stores were closed, the avenue hung with 
black, while the five hearses, each surrounded by pall-bearers and fol- 
lowed by family and relatives, proceeded to the congressional burying- 
ground, where the clergyman read the committal service, repeating, 
after a pause, five successive times, " Earth to earth." 

Next came the news that the obnoxious twenty-first rule had, after 
all, been retained ; the South having demanded, in caucus, that what 
was done on Tuesday should be undone on Wednesday. Absentees 
were sent for, members induced to stay away, others to change their 
votes, and finally the whole subject was laid on the table by a vote of 
eighty-eight to eighty-seven. 

Mr. Calhoun was called to the cabinet as Secretary of State. It 
was rumored that the President had concluded a treaty for the annex- 
ation of Texas. This led to earnest discussion among the people and 
in the press. Mr. Webster addressed a letter to the citizens of Worces- 
ter, saying that his judgment was decidedly unfavorable to the project. 
Five members of the cabinet were said to favor it — all but one being 
from slaveholding States. 

1 '(solutions were introduced in the Senate at Albany, by Mr. Rhodes, 
opposing the annexation. In the Assembly, a resolution protesting 
against it was laid on the table. The Democratic press divided on the 
question, the majority of them advocating annexation, but the Evening 
Post, and a few others, opposing it. 

The two Democratic factions in the several counties were beginning 
to have separate organs— the Argus leading at Albany for the "Hunk- 
ers," and the Atlas tor the "Barnburners." Both sides were as yet 
understood to be supporters of Mr. Van Buren for the presidential 
nomination. Local conventions passed resolutions and chose delegates 
in his favor. 

Seventeen adventurous gentlemen in New York published a call, 



1344.] AMERICA AND THE WORLD'S PROGRESS 697 

inviting the friends of John Tyler to meet at the City Hall, to advance 
his reelection. 

The foreign mails now brought the close of the Irish state trials. 
Daniel O'Connell, Barrett Duffy, John O'Connell, Steele, Kay, Gray, 
and Tiernay, had been found guilty of "unlawfully and seditiously 
conspiring to raise and create discontent and disaffection among the 
queen's subjects," etc. O'Connell's address to the people of Ireland 
had been published, warning them, and discountenancing all outrages, 
such as the burning of corn, hay, and implements, " as exceedingly 
wicked and egregiously foolish ; " but advising them to persevere, in 
quiet and tranquillity, in support of their political principles. 

There had been a great dinner to O'Connell at Covent Garden 
Theatre, and an enthusiastic reception and demonstration of sympathy 
by Englishmen at Birmingham. 

Seward, declining an invitation to Albany, quoted Lord Bacon's 
saying that "the practice of the law drinketh up much time that I 
would willingly devote to higher purposes ;" but took occasion to sum 
up his views in regard to the relations between America! is and the rest 
of mankind : 

We are accustomed in early life to suppose that the opinions we approve are 
universally accepted. Long years occurred before I dreamed that mine were at 
all peculiar. But I found that the bias of early sentiments had brought me in 
conflict with opinions so deeply cherished and so widely prevalent, that many 
of my countrymen felt obliged to question at once my orthodoxy as a Protei 
my patriotism as an American, and my sincerity as a man. Xext to truth and 
knowledge, I love peace and harmony with my fellow-men. I have, then 
reconsidered my early impressions with candor, during a repose not unfavorable 
to the performances of such a duty. . . . 

The rights asserted by our forefathers were not peculiar to themselves, they 
were the common rights of mankind. The basis of the Constitution was laid 
broader by far than the superstructure which the conflicting interests and 
prejudices of the day suffered to be erected. 

Those who erected that superstructure foresaw and provided for its gradual 
enlargement, and looked forward to the time when the same foundations would 
receive and uphold institutions of republican government ample for the whole 
human race. . . . 

The Constitution and laws of the Federal Government did not practically 
extend these principles throughout the new system of government : but they 
were plainly promulgated in the Declaration of Independence. Their complete 
development and reduction to practical operation constitute the progress which 
all liberal statesmen de-ire to promote, and the end of that progress will be com- 
plete political equality among ourselves, and the extension and pi i £ in- 
stitutions similar to our own throughout the world. . . . 

lie is an indifferent observer who does not perceive the apheavings of the 
principles I have described, in every part, at least, of the civilized world. ITere 
they are moving continually to a more complete equality of - iffra . to univer- 



(•98 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

S:1 1 ed'i^ation, and to the abolition of slavery. They are moving in England to 
+ ]..- reduction of the aristocracy ; in Scotland, to the emancipation of the Church; 
in Ireland, to domestic legislation responsible to the people ; and in France and 
Germany, and throughout Western Europe, to the abridgment of executive 
power, and the enfranchisement of the masses. 

This progress is very unequal, but it is nevertheless certain and irresistible. 
Everywhere its origin is traced to the United States. . . . 

To the oppressed masses in France, in Greece, in Poland, in Italy, in England, 
and Ireland, the United States of America is the Palestine from which comes a 
revelation effectual to political salvation. . . . 

So, too, when a revolution occurs in Europe, whether tempestuous and con- 
vulsive, or moral and pacific, the uprising masses turn at once to the United 
States of America for succor and support; and such is the mysterious fellowship 
produced by the love of liberty, that the sympathies of the American people 
have always been found irrepressible. Ought it to be otherwise ? "Who would 
not blush for his country if it were not so ? 

In the Legislature, the long debates seemed to be at last approach- 
ing a conclusion. A select committee was instructed to report a bill 
for submitting to the people the question of a Constitutional Conven- 
tion. Another select committee reported on the petition of the tenants 
on the manor of Rensselaer.vyck, submitting a bill allowing the tenant 
to have the cash value of his rents, covenants, and conditions, ascer- 
tained by three appraisers, and, on paying the amount, to have the 
land. A bill was introduced in the Assembly to regulate excise and 
the sale of intoxicating liquors, the entering wedge of a long contro- 
versy over the question of securing temperate habits by law. 

The Whigs were encouraged by success this spring in the Con- 
necticut election. The town and charter elections of New York also 
resulted, on the whole, auspiciously. The Albany charter election 
showed a Whig majority. The New York charter election had gone 
adversely. Mr. Harper, the Native American candidate, had been 
elected by a large majority, and twelve out of the seventeen aldermen 
were pledged to appoint none but native Americans to office. 

Mr. Clay had been received with ovations and speeches in Georgia 
and South Carolina, had written a letter to Rhode Island congratulat- 
ing the " Law and Order " party on its restoration. His birthday was 
celebrated in New York. The Whig members of the Legislature met 
on the 13th at the Eagle Tavern, and passed resolutions favoring the 
tariff, and opposing the annexation of Texas on the ground that it 
would endanger the Union, and extend slavery and the slave-trade. A 
Clay medal was struck, bearing his profile. 

While his popularity seemed unfailing among the Whigs, it was, 
nevertheless, encountering increasing danger from the abolitionists, 
whose papers declared " they could not support a duelist and a slave- 
holder," and all the enthusiasm at the South only tended to strengthen 



1844.] HENRY CLAY NOMINATED. 599 

this prejudice at the North. The Whigs defended their candidal 
referring to his once having advocated emancipation in Kentucky, but 
especially by the argument that, of the two greal parti< s, < 
other of which were certain to have the control of the Government, 
the Whigs were far the more consistent opposers of slave 

The first delegate from Ohio, Colonel John Johnson, of .Mian;. 
reported to have already started on horseback for Baltimore, pas 
through Columbus, and glorying in his err 

Seward wrote to Weed : 

Arm :. 

Our town-meetings, here and iu Onondaga, show improvement, but I fear 
that it is not enough. Certainly, it is not the tern] 14, or 

that of 183V. We are at the flood, our opponents lib. They must im- 

prove in zeal and in fortune. Mighty efforts are necessary to secure the State. 

From all parts of the country came indications that the Whig en- 
thusiasm would make such efforts. Clay clubs were mul . and 
seemed animated with fresh zeal. Mr. Clay himself was said to have 
written a letter from Raleigh, avowing opposition to the ann< 
Texas. A throng of enthusiastic delegates and 1 3 were wend- 
ing their way by steamboat, stage-coach, and railway, I 1 Baltimo 
participate in the great convention. 

Meanwhile the news from Washington foreshadowed questions with 
Mexico. Claims against Mexico were talked of in Congress. There 
were rumors of terms of Texas annexation, the 1 nil 
sume her debts, Texas to keep her lands, her army and navy to be in- 
corporated with those of the United States. A treaty 0:1 tlie- 
similar terms was reported to have been already signed. 

Pennsylvania had become very properly restive and uncomfortable 
at the position in which she found h The eyes of the world 

were upon her as a repudiator of her d< • could nol long 

tinue to refuse payment, endowed as she was with ample 
fertile soil, productive mines, industrious and increasing populal 
Her Legislature this year were already discussing measures (■>■:■ th 
sumption of the payment of her inte 

On the 1st of May the Whig National Convention assembl 
Baltimore. Never was such a gathering more unanimous. Henry ( 
was nominated at once by acclamation. Then came th n of 

the candidate for Vice-President, the New-Yorkers presenting the name 
of Millard Fillmore, and the Massachusetts men that of John I' 
but the ballots finally resulting in the choice of Theodore Frelinghuy- 
sen, of New Jersey. The resolutions adopted were brief. '! 
gates separated, and returned home in high spirits, full of hopes, which 
the enthusiastic unanimity of the party, and the divided cou 
their opponents, seemed to justify. As the news of the nominal 



700 LIFE AND LETTERS [1844. 

spread throughout the country, they were received Avith salutes, meet- 
ings of rejoicing; and flags were flung to the breeze, inscribed with the 
names of " Clay and Frelinghuysen." 

For a year preceding the convention some of the jDolitical friends 
of Seward had been urging him to permit his name to be presented 
for the vice-presidential nomination. He had discountenanced all such 
efforts. There were various reasons for this. Perhaps the most potent 
was his disinclination to occupy any position which should seal his lips 
on the slavery question, the great issue of the future. Another was 
his unwillingness to reenter public life while personal affairs demanded 
his constant care. And the reason which he accepted as finally closing- 
all doubt on the subject was the candidacy of Mr. Fillmore. Certainly, 
it was not wise that New York should have two candidates for that 
honor, and fidelity to past relations required, as it seemed to him, that 
he should rather aid than hinder his political colleague. To this it was 
answered that he could obtain the nomination, while Fillmore would 
fail to do so. But this he declined to believe. Writing to Mr. Weed 
on the 7th, he said : 

So the convention has passed, and all is well. Clay's nomination was as 
felicitous in manner as propitious in circumstance. What a glorious oppor- 
tunity lie will enjoy to stamp a new and lasting impression on the history of 
Lis country and on the age ! Will he do it ? I hope so. I almost wish I had 
never known great men personally. I am continually mistaking the public 
from too much knowledge of the private character of statesmen. I delight to 
contemplate Clay as he is shadowed forth, not by his personal acquaintance, 
but by the popular enthusiasm which his public life has awakened. It is so 
that we conceive Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton. How fortunate that 
we came on the stage too late to know the infirmities they shared in com- 
mon with ourselves! 

You thought it unfortunate that I was not fully agreed in your notions about 
the vice-presidency, and in the respects you touch upon it was so ; but I have 
read (not in Machiavel, but in another less unprincipled and equally wise) that 
it is good for a statesman to let others pass by him without envy, if they wish, 
while traveling the same road. 

I am studying Greeley's Cooper case diligently, to argue it the last of this 
month in New York. 

Mr. Greeley had been prosecuted for libel in 1842 by Cooper, the 
novelist, and, as he said, " employed no lawyers, not realizing that I 
needed any." Xo witnesses were called ; he admitted the publication, 
and accepted responsibility for it, and made his own defense. How it 
resulted was characteristically described by himself in. his subsequent 
" Recollections of a Busy Life." 

The tedious debates and recriminations in the Legislature at Al- 
bany over canals and constitutional amendments drew at last to a close, 



1844.] A RESUME OF THE POLITICAL SITUATION. 701 

and on Weduesda}', the 8th of May, the Speaker's hammer fell, as he 
announced the adjournment sine die. 

The alienation and disputes of the majority encouraged the Whig- 
minority to believe their turn was coming- socn. In accordance with 
annual custom, they wanted an address to their constituents, and Sew- 
ard was urged to prepare it for them. He complied, and sent them 
down from Auburn a visit m& of tin 1 political situation, which they 
adopted and published. It was the last of these documents, probably, 
that he prepared. It commenced by remarking that the Whig mem- 
bers had been in such small force that for the most part their services 
had " necessarily been advisory and preventive rather than direct or 
effective. The majority have been so divided that the session has 
been consumed rather in efforts of .the respective factions to baffle and 
defeat each other than in maturing measures for the general welfare." 

After referring to the condition of the State debt, it described the 
condition of affairs thus : 

In the darkest hour the State lias ever seen, the Whigs performed every con- 
tract without taxation. Their successors, with the aid of a tax of six hundred 
thousand dollars, have hroken contracts on which they have already subjected 
the State to eight hundred thousand dollars of damages, and the future aggre- 
gate of this ruinous expenditure cannot yet he conceived. 

We would, if we could, Btate the policy of the present administration in re- 
gard to finance and the public works; hut in truth no policy exists. The ma- 
jority unanimously agree that the contracts must be broken and damages must 
he paid, which it is apparent will equal the whole cost of bringing the enlarged 
Erie Canal into use, thirteen hundred thousand dollars. But one portion strenu- 
ously insists on resuming the works immediately, the abandonment of which 
his cost so much, while the other insists on rendering the abandonment com- 
plete and perpetual by amending the constitution for that purpose. 

An expenditure of one million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
would complete one line of enlarged locks, and furnish an abundant supply of 
water from Albany to Buffalo, whereby the capacity of the canal would he en- 
larged threefold ; yet not one dollar has been appropriated for the purpose. 

Along the whole line of the canal, bridges, aqueducts, culverts, and other 
structures, have remained in an unfinished and decaying condition since the doom 
pronounced upon them in 1842. Large a unts of valuable materials lie scat- 
tered upon the hanks and in the vicinity of the canals, scarcely known or cared 
for as public property, subject by the irrevocable decrees of the act of 1842 to 
be lost to the State by exposure and pillage. . . . 

As to amendments of the constitution of the State, the address 
then proceeded to take decided grounds in their favor : 

Changes in the organic law ought not to be rashly made; yet, in a growing 
country, and a progressive state of society, such an exigency must often happen. 

The judiciary is confessedly incompetent to a perfect and speedy administra- 
tion of justice and equity. . . . The spirit of the age condemns the narrow pol- 



702 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



icy which, by a property qualification, disfranchises a small portion of the peo- 
ple ; the power of the people to choose many public officers, now otherwise 
selected, might he safely and wisely extended. 

The inspection laws, too often designed and always mainly used to reward 
politicians for partisan services, by exactions on agriculture, trade, and com- 
merce, remain without material modification, except that a new officer has been 
created in the city of New York with the formidable title of " Inspector-Gen- 
eral," whose sole powers consist in distributing the spoils among the subalterns. 

Then, turning to national subjects, it proceeded : 

Nothing lias been done or even said by the Executive or by the Legislature 
to induce the States of Virginia aud Georgia to rescind their unconstitutional 
laws by which New York vessels are subjected to visitations and pitiful exac- 
tions, as a retaliation for the laws of this State extending the trial by jury to 
persons claimed as slaves. 

The session of Congress seemed to open propitiously to the advancing cause 
of human liberty. The stern and inflexible Adams seemed at one time about 
to obtain a recognition of the right of States and citizens to petition the na- 
tional Legislature on the subject of slavery. 

"We appealed to our brethren in the Legislature to join us in protesting 
against the flagrant violation of the Constitution, by which that inviolable and 
inalienable right had so long been denied. . . . The party bonds were found re- 
laxed, and the majority generally and nobly sustained our appeal ; but with the 
night that followed came considerations of personal objects and political advan- 
3, and the next morning the action of the previous day was rescinded, and 
New York was made to speak in language so evasive as to cover her free citi- 
zens with humiliation and shame. . . . We would not be discourteous toward 
our adversaries, yet truth and justice bid us say that such legislation is unwor- 
thy of American freemen. 

Not merely were Seward's views on political subjects comprehen- 
sive, but the same characteristic prevailed in all his dealings. He liked 
toleration better than polemics, and in business matters had an aver- 
sion to petty stipulations. Once, in early life, he gave one-half of all 
his little property to a friend, to save him from bankruptcy. His habit 
was to labor hard and long, travel hard and long, give liberally and 
spend freely. The Chautauqua enterprise attracted him by its breadth 
and scope, and did not frighten him by its complications, for he liked 
to overcome difficulties. AVhen one of the copartners became alarmed 
by a financial panic, he offered to take his share. When, a few years 
later, it seemed to him that the company's creditors were to be unfairly 
dealt with by a plea of usury, he refused to join in making it, and pro- 
tected their rights by placing his whole interest in trust for their 
benefit. 

So in regard to political preferment. He was ambitious of achieve- 
ment, not of office. He sought no place, and was reluctant to accept 
any, if he saw that in so doing he was crossing the ambition of friend 



1844.] CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS. 703 

or associate. He would have preferred to leave the field to Granger 
in 1838, and did leave it to Fillmore in 1844. Always free in conver- 
sation, yet what he said of friends and enemies behind their backs 
might have been repeated to their faces. He put generous construc- 
tion on their conduct, never exulted in an advantage, could not strike 
an opponent when down, and, when a victory was gained, would take 
no part in the triumph over the vanquished. "The war is over with 
me," he said, " when the enemy lays down his arms." 

He had no great respect for the vox popid't, for he knew it to be a 
voice given to hasty utterances and frequent contradictions. Yet on 
the ultimate sound judgment of the people he always relied. His own 
speeches and acts, so far as they were shaped to gain popular appro- 
bation, sought to appeal to the calm impartiality of future years, rather 
than to the excited passions of the passing hour. When revising his 
speeches, he would say of some expression which he was warned would 
subject him to attack, " Well, I think that will stand." 

Whenever he prepared an address or important public communica- 
tion at home, he liked to read it aloud to Mrs. Seward ; and though 
her suggested corrections were not frequent, they were usually in refer- 
ence to some point of taste or principle that commended itself to his 
judgment. When away from home, he would in like manner read to 
some intimate friend. In this case it was perhaps not only for the 
sake of criticism, but for the suggestions which the process of reading 
aloud would make to his own mind. 

He was not sensitive to the attacks of opposing newspapers, and, 
so far from being galled by them, generally made them the subject of 
pleasant remark. " The newspaper will have the last word," he used 
to say; "and it is not seeking for truth, but for triumph." Unde- 
served abuse he always believed would, in the long-run, injure its 
author more than its object. Misapprehension by friends he would 
endeavor to correct by kindly word or letter ; but he would not allow 
himself to be drawn into a controversy with either friend or foe on 
merely personal grounds. He lightly esteemed the value of personali- 
ties as a weapon of either offense or defense in political warfare, but 
addressed himself to the measure or principle involved. He believed 
the public would only take lasting interest in questions that concerned 
their own welfare. Whatever temporary mistakes they might fall into 
about individuals, their calmer judgment would sooner or later modify. 
Tlis imperturbability under such attacks was not the fruit of stolid 
indifference, but rather of that equanimity with which one listens to 
hasty words that he knows will afterward be regretted. 

Not unfrequently his friends thought him too lenient in judgment 
when he excused his adversaries by explaining the probable motives or 
inducements they had for apparently malicious acts. Magnanimity is 



»q± LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

a trait difficult of appreciation by those who do not possess it. With 
the mean it passes for meanness ; by the timid it is ascribed to cow- 
ardice ; by the cunning, to selfish design. It was often ludicrous to 
see what motives were ascribed to him by opponents, and how ingen- 
iously they would undertake to prove his acts to be the successive steps 
of some deep-laid scheme, when, in reality, they were the natural fruit 
of generous impulse or straightforward sense of duty. 

Trifles are often the best, because the most unpremeditated, illus- 
trations of character. His love of decision, breadth, and vigorous 
energy, in all things, showed itself in the details of daily life. He liked 
a large house, and plenty of people in it ; a good fire, and a large fam- 
ily-circle round it ; a full table, strong coffee, and the dishes " hot and 
sweet and nice." He preferred long rides, long and fatiguing walks, 
bathing in cold water or strong surf, working steadily for hours, and 
even taking' recreation with determination and perseverance. No one 
ever saw him listless, or complaining of ennui. His habits of life were 
in literal compliance with the injunction, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth 
to do, do it with th}' might." 



CHAPTER LIV. 

1841 



The Law-Office— Recollections of a Student.— A Church Quarrel.—" Third Parties."— 
Philadelphia Riots. — Adams's Report. — Democratic National Convention. — Polk and 
Dallas. 

On resuming the practice of his profession in 1843, Seward had 
formed a partnership with William Beach and George Underwood, each 
being the son of an old friend and neighbor. The new firm took an office 
in the second story of Beach's Block, on Genesee Street, in Auburn. 
Messrs. Beach and Underwood were attorneys, Seward usually conduct- 
ing the cases in court. Young men soon gathered round him, from 
near and far, to become students in his office, some of whom are since 
dead, while others have risen to prominence at the bar or in public 
place. Among them were William W. Shepard, Theodore M. Pome- 
roy, Charles Fosdick, Charles A. Parsons, James R. Cox, Calvin Huson, 
Horace T. Cook, Myron O. Wilder, John Sessions, Cornelius Cole, 
Messrs. Hosford, Davis, Horton, and Ogden. One of these, Mr. Cox, 
recalls some incidents of that period. 

"Two rooms constituted the office. In the front one, only acces- 
sible by a narrow entry from the back-room, ' the Governor,' as we 
always called him, and as he was ever familiarly known at home, sat 
in his writing-chair, busily at work, and usually accompanied by one 




■'. 






1844.] RECOLLECTIONS OF A LAW-STUDENT. 705 

of his partners. In the back-room were we ' students,' with our papers 
and books. His business had grown so rapidly, and become so large, 
that there was always abundant occupation for all, in copying pa- 
pers, etc. 

" Of course, we studied his conduct, and most of us profited by it. 
Did an ignorant farmer come in to have a deed or a contract drawn, 
the Governor would betake himself to it, and finish it, with all the 
interest and care which we would expect to see laid out in more im- 
portant business. And occasionally he would drop some remark, sug- 
gesting that no legitimate business which belongs to the profession is 
ever to be refused or trifled with. ' People come to a lawyer,' he would 
say, ' because they have reason to believe that he understands affairs 
better than they do. And they pay him for " writing," as they call 
it, more than they pay others, because they have a better right to rely 
upon professional knowledge than upon the ability of an ordinary pen- 
man.' 'And,' he would say, 'you will remember, young gentlemen, 
that while, as lawyers, you have the right to charge more for such 
services than an ordinary scrivener, yet, as responsibility is assumed 
by you in drawing papers, which is not incurred by the mere scrivener, 
the privilege is balanced by the responsibility. The scrivener makes 
a mistake, and is not answerable for it in damages. He is not a pro- 
fessional man. But you are lawyers ; and if you make a blunder in 
drawing important papers, where an ordinary knowledge of your pro- 
fession, and ordinary care, would have avoided it, ignorance or neglect 
is answerable in damages to the party injured.' And then he would 
refer us to some adjudicated case upon that doctrine, and bid us look 
it up and read it. 

" Constantly interrupted during the day by the visits of inconsider- 
ate friends and village politicians, his most efficient labor was generally 
done at night. He would come into the office after supper, sit down 
in his writing-chair, and rapidly throw off the leaves, which would drop 
on the floor around him like the leaves of the forest. They were all 
paged, however, and we would gather them up and proceed to copy 
them. Knowing the subject-matter, w r e succeeded in deciphering them 
pretty well. 

" We students, although ordinarily diligent, could never copy as 
fast as the Governor would draw papers ; and about ten o'clock one 
after the other would retire, intending to 'fetch up' in the morning. 
But how often, when we came into the office in the morning, would we 
find a batch of manuscript — the last pages of the chancery bill we were 
working on — hastily gathered into a pile on the chair, and the floor 
covered with manuscript of another bill in equity, as long as the first, 
but with different parties and subject-matter ! 

" His endurance was as astonishing as his industry. "We never 
45 



YOG LIFE AND LETTERS - t 1844 - 

knew him to be fatigued, or to claim allowance for exhaustion. Yet, 
while thus laboring in the duties of his profession, he was all the while 
studying, with profoundest interest, the political condition of the coun- 
try. The antislavery agitation was rapidly assuming proportions which 
the utmost efforts of the pacifiers were unable to withstand. In the 
summer of 1844 we students took great interest in the presidential 
campaign, and among us was represented each of the political parties, 
the Democratic, the Whig, and the antislavery, or 'abolition.' The 
Governor was a Whig, and strongly opposed to slavery, although ear- 
nestly advocating the election of Mr. Clay. But, differing widely from 
the radical antislavery orators and writers, he never forgot that the 
statesman must take men as they are, and must with them accomplish 
what of good for his country he can. Nor did he agree with those who 
left the Whig party at that juncture and enrolled themselves among 
the political abolitionists. About that time there was much ferment- 
ing in many of the Christian churches throughout the State. Some 
antislavery men could not continue to be members of a church which, 
as they said, joined hands with the slave-power, and admitted slave- 
holders to communion. Several neighbors and friends of the Governor 
in Auburn had withdrawn from church-fellowship, and they were call- 
ing upon me to follow their example. The Governor knew very well 
that I was an abolitionist, and desired, above all things, to make my 
life count against slavery. I therefore consulted him upon the sub- 
ject ; reminded him that the church with which I was connected was, 
to all appearance, a bulwark of slavery ; that all expression of anti- 
slavery truth was discountenanced and suppressed ; that slaveholders 
were found occasionally in our pulpit at Auburn ; that several mem- 
bers had withdrawn, and desired me to follow ; and whether or not it 
was best for me to do it was the question. This conversation was in 
a retired spot at the south end of the Governor's garden. It was a 
fine summer evening, and the Governor was in an unusually communi- 
cative and philosophical mood. He gave me a lecture which I shall 
not soon forget. Said he : ' If you had the power, would you regard 
it as wise to abstract from the Presbyterian Church of this country all 
its antislavery element ? or, would you desire to add to it all the anti- 
slavery reenforcement you could command? How much better off 
would that Church be with all you antislavery men out of it ? How 
much better off, to do any good, would you be if all withdrew ? Would 
you thereby gain any more personal influence than you now have? 
Look at the Whig party of to-day. Everybody knows that I am an 
antislavery man. Whenever I write a political letter, or make a po- 
litical speech, my words are reproduced in every Whig paper in the 
country, and reach the eyes and ears of everybody in the land. But 
it is because I remain in the party, and consequently enjoy their con- 



1844.] YOUNG MEN AND POLITICS. 707 

ficlence. They will hear me and consider what I say. But should I 
leave the "Whig party, and join the radical antislavery party, although 
my speeches and writings would doubtless be read by that class who 
do not need my influence, they would not reach the much larger class 
who do need to know the truth. No ; I think I can do more good 
where I am. To-day Mr. Clay really stands the candidate of the pro- 
gressive party in this country. Everybody knows that he disapproves 
of slavery. His whole life hitherto has shown it. Throughout the 
South, by Democratic papers and orators, reviled as being lukewarm 
in the cause of slavery, he is still more bitterly denounced by you 
abolitionists of the North, because he tolerates evils which he cannot 
with a word destroy. And I therefore think,' he continued, ' that you 
should stay in the church where you are. By identifying yourself with 
your fellow-members you can have an influence to exert for good, 
which you would lose entirely by withdrawing. As I think about the 
Whig party, so it is with your church. Stick to the ship, and work 
away. In a few years you will see that we antislavery men in the 
Whig party will not have labored in vain. Do you be as faithful in 
your church as I will try to be in the Whig party, and you will see 
that, if you would do your fellow-men any good at all, you must not 
withdraw yourself from their association because you think you know 
more or are better than they are.' 

" Within a day or two after this, as we were all in the office to- 
gether, the Governor lectured us a little. He had observed that we 
were constantly debating on political matters, and, upon this occasion, 
he remarked substantially : ' Young gentlemen, as you come forward 
into the struggle of life, are admitted to practice, choose your places of 
residence, and take your stand among your fellow-men, it will be well for 
you to identify yourselves at once with one or the other of the principal 
political parties of the country — it makes very little difference which ' 
(and these words, from such a partisan as he was regarded, struck me 
at the time with amazement). 'In every republican government par- 
ties are necessary for the preservation of the rights and the promotion 
of the best interests of the people. And it is desirable that political 
parties should be nearly equally balanced. In such cases, each watches 
the other, and the necessity is forced upon each to present their best 
men, and their best measures, for the support of the people. If you 
look for office and preferment, it will be vain to identify yourselves 
with any third party, for, long before that third party can gain power, 
it will become merged in one of the others. 

"'But, while thus desirable that 3-011 should ally yourselves with 
one or the other of these parties, allow me to advise y<>u that, if your 
attention is attracted to office, if you strive for preferment and politi- 
cal power, it will be at the expense of the sacrifice, in great measure, 



YQ3 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

of professional success. You cannot be a good lawyer, distinguished 
in your profession, and at the same time a seeker of office. 

"'As for me,' he continued, 'my political aspirations are more 
than gratified. The people of my native State have been very indul- 
gent and partial to me ; and I have nothing to complain of. But I 
have sacrificed, as a lawyer, all that I have gained as a statesman. 
The pursuit of office and of power is a thorny path. If you value 
domestic happiness, the pleasures of home, and a life of ease and 
quiet, keep out of that path by all means, for you will probably never 
succeed in attaining your ideal ; and, meanwhile, you must part with 
much that renders life most pleasant and most useful.' 

" One day, among letters which he gave me to copy, envelop, and 
direct, was one to a somewhat well-known local politician, who had 
been a member of the Legislature the winter before. I had enveloped 
and directed it — ' George W. Smith, Esq.' — and, with my letters in 
hand, was starting for the post-office. Something impelled the Gov- 
ernor to look over the letters, and, in doing so, he quickly remarked 
the indiscreet direction. ' This will never do,' said he ; ' the American 
people are fond of all the titles they are authorized to expect. You 
must direct this over again, " The Honorable George W. Smith," etc., 
because usage justifies the title ; and he might think that his dignity 
was overlooked, which would be more of an affront than if willfully 
disregarded.' 

" One peculiarity was frequently to be noticed in the Governor's 
policy, in the management of his clients' affairs. His judgment was 
rarely warped or diverted from the principal subject by the attractive 
presentation of a lesser advantage placed within reach. Unlike the 
fabled goddess, he never stopped in the race to pick up even apples of 
gold. On one occasion, when in consultation with a client about a 
patent-suit, his associate remarked, in reference to a course sugg-ested, 
' You know a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' ' No,' said 
the Governor, promptly, ' I know it is just the other way — the bird in 
the bush is generally worth the most ; but shortsighted and impatient 
people are always grasping after the nearest, and losing sight of the 
value of the other.' 

"About the summer of 1844, a controversy arose in a neighboring 
town, which gradually spread among the people, engrossed their atten- 
tion and arrayed them in partisanship, until, at last, it culminated in 
an action at law, either for libel or for slander, with a demand for large 

damages. Good old Dominie E had preached for years in the 

Dutch church in that town, and held tenaciously his points of faith, 
strictly according to the 'Heidelberg Catechism.' Among the most 

active of the Methodists of the town was Dr. B , a physician of 

distinction and merit, who was quite as sincere, in reference to the 



1844.] A CHURCH CONTROVERSY. 709 

Methodist views, and a good deal more fiery than Dominie E . For 

several months the quarrel, although originating about points of faith, 
had degenerated into a fierce personal controversy, and each party had 
published a number of ' statements,' ' replies,' and ' charges,' implicat- 
ing the other. These were seen posted on the highways, placarded 
upon barns and stables, and stuck up in the toll-gates. It was in one 
or more of these that the alleged libel and slander occurred which 
occasioned the excitement in the peaceful vale of ' Dutch Hollow.' 
Nobody could be neutral in this controversy — everybody was drawn 
into it. 

"At last the court opened, and the court-room was filled with the 
parties and their friends; all were witnesses, all were parties. As in 
the famous border feuds of England and Scotland, or the wars of the 
Guelfs and Ghibellines, each party was there with all his retainers. 
The cause stood low on the calendar ; but, day after day, they came 
steadily up to court, and occupied the benches all day, to be ready 
when the important cause should be called. The indications were; that 
it would occupy at least three weeks in the trial. After a while the 
judge, Hon. Bowen Whiting, having learned something of the nature 
of the action, the immense number of witnesses to be examined, ami 
the length of time required, proposed to the respective attorneys thai 
the case should be referred, and, after some reflection and delay, it was 
he, I think, who proposed the name of Governor Seward as the referee. 

"Each party was surprised when the other promptly approved the 
proposal, and after some hesitation the Governor reluctantly accepted 
the office ; not, however, without stipulations by which his functions 
were enlarged into the power of an arbitrator, rather than restricted 
by the laws of mere reference. He appointed a day on which the great 
trial was to commence. 

" Meanwhile the voluminous pleadings, handbills, pamphlets, and 
other papers of both parties were placed in his possession, to enable 
him to prepare for the investigation. 

" Upon the trial-day, the office was besieged from seven o'clock A. M. 
until the Governor made his appearance. The room was so crowded 
with parties and witnesses that it was almost impossible even to begin. 
It was then that the Governor gravely announced that he had con- 
cluded to recommend that the trial should commence not in the usual 
way, by speeches of counsel and the testimony of witnesses, but by 
his own personal examination of the plaintiff and defendant, without. 
the presence of any other person, so that he might more exactly under- 
stand the difficulty, and that the witnesses would be notified when to 
appear at a future day. 

" Thereupon the crowd gradually withdrew, until at last the arbi- 
trator, Dominie E , and Dr. B , were left alone in the room. 



fjlQ LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

What took place then has never transpired to my knowledge — the 
Governor was always reticent about it ; but, after about an hour, he 
dismissed them to return during the next week, when he would fur- 
ther consider the matter. 

" At the appointed day they appeared again with their usual troop 
of retainers and witnesses ; but the fervor and fire of the principal 
parties were evidently considerably cooled, and a less bitter state of 
feeling seemed to prevail. As soon as everybody was quiet, Mr. Sew- 
ard, holding the bulky papers in his hand, commenced his remarks. 

" He spoke first of the necessity of legal proceedings, and of their 
value to the community, distinguishing us from the condition of sav- 
ages in having tribunals to which differing parties could with confi- 
dence compel a resort, to hear and determine matters in difference. 

" He stated that he had perused the documents, and made personal 
examination of the parties, and he was delighted to find, at this stage 
of the controversy, that each of them respected the Christian character 
of the other, and that the real difficulty between them appeared to be, 
which of their respective Christian organizations, the Reformed Dutch 
or the Methodist Episcopal, was most entitled to Christian confidence 
and support. He further said that, having arrived at this conclusion, 
and he himself having been personally acquainted with both gentlemen 
for a number of years, he had concluded that this unhappy controversy 
should be terminated in a manner to reflect credit upon both the parties 
concerned, no less than upon the different churches of Christ with which 
they were identified. 

"He then remarked that he believed it was agreed among all Chris- 
tian denominations that charity, which he explained as meaning Chris- 
tian sympathy, love, and respect, was the necessary fruit and result of 
all pure Christian faith ; citing the authority of St. Paul, that this 
charity was the greatest virtue, and adding that that particular Chris- 
tian denomination which exemplified this virtue in the highest degree 
was evidently the most entitled to the general respect and confidence. 
He then briefly recapitulated the noble history of the Reformed Dutch 
Church for three hundred years ; the fidelity of its adherents to the 
true doctrine of the Bible, and to religious and civil liberty ; the purity 
of its morality and the abundance of its fruits, both in Europe and in 
this country, concluding with an earnest panegyric upon the faith and 
steadfastness which had ever distinguished that Church, and making 
mention of many of its foremost preachers and statesmen. 

" And then he took up the subject of the Methodist Church ; its 
lowly origin, its self-denying clergy, their persecutions, sufferings, their 
patience" and their triumphs ; pointed out the vast influence for good 
which that Church had ever exerted, both in England and in our own 
country ; its adaptation to the sacred work of preaching the gospel 



1844.] END OF THE QUARREL. 71 1 

to the poor, and the abundant evidence of the approbation of the Di- 
vine Master upon its efforts. 

"During this address the room, full of witnesses, was entirely silent. 
Mr. Seward had become interested in his subject, and poured forth his 
reflections with unusual ardor, and before he ceased he had completely 
enlisted his entire auditory. Their temper was changed. The spirit 
of strife and litigation had disappeared ; each party was delighted with 
the vindication and eulogy of its own particular denomination which 
they had heard, and the Christian charity to which the arbitrator had 
adverted, as the highest evidence of divine influence and grace, began 
to exert its power. 

"In conclusion, the Governor remarked that, as they had probably 
anticipated, he was now prepared forever to settle this controversy, 
and that, in his judgment, there was no further occasion for testimony; 
that, in the composition and publication of the censorious remarks con- 
tained in these papers, the one party had evidently lost sight of the 
true requirements of charitable consideration ; and that the other 
party, in commencing and prosecuting this action for damages, had also 
neglected the same duty ; that this controversy had gradually enlisted 
a very large portion of the neighborhood on one side or the other, and 
had grown into dimensions of serious concern, affecting the interests 
and threatening the peace and the effectiveness for good of both these 
Christian denominations ; that it was of much more importance to 
both churches that the difference should be adjusted, ended, and healed, 
than that it should be decided in any particular way as between the 
parties ; that it was not alleged that any pecuniary damages had been 
sustained, and that therefore he should decide this cause by rendering 
his award as follows : this action to be discontinued without any costs 
to either party ; and the plaintiff and defendant to join their hands in 
token of reconciliation, and mutually promise each other that the past 
should never be disturbed again ; that their only strife for the future 
should be to see which should hereafter best exemplify that Christian 
charity which was inculcated among all Christian denominations, and 
especially by the Dutch Reformed and the Methodist Episcopal 
Churches. 

"No compensation was required by the arbitrator, and the meeting 
was dismissed in peace. We heard no more of the celebrated quarrel." 

Texas now stood at the gates of the Union awaiting admission. 
The treaty for her annexation, so long expected and urged, had been 
made in the State Department by Secretary Calhoun. It had been 
sent by President Tyler to the Senate, and that body, with el 
doors, was debating it in secret session. Even before its details were 
published, public opinion had commenced to divide. At the South it 



712 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



was warmly advocated by the majority of both parties. At the North 
it had the support of the Democratic organization, though not without 
the dissent of many members ; while the Whigs loudly opposed it 
through speeches and the press. Both the support and the opposition 
were felt to be in a great degree grounded, not on the mere question 
of increase of territory, but on the general belief that it was a measure 
undertaken in the interest of slavery, and with the purpose of its ex- 
tension. Mr. Calhoun wanted a presidential candidate pledged to its 
support. Colonel Benton was known to oppose it, on the ground that 
it would lead to war. If Mr. Clay should take ground against it, he 
could gain the support of the now hesitating antislavery men, though 
he might lose strength in the Southern States. 

There was another exciting political topic. The organization of a 
political party opposed to foreigners had achieved little success in the 
rural regions ; but in the great cities where immigrants land there is 
always an unassimilated element of the population whose presence leads 
to such divisions. The " Native American " party had carried elec- 
tions both in New York and Philadelphia. In May the newspapers 
were filled with incidents of bloody riots that had broken out in the 
latter city, originating in disputes between " Native American " or- 
ganizations and Irishmen and Germans. Churches were burned, houses 
pillaged, men, women, and children killed. Hostile companies met 
and shot down their victims in the streets, and for a time the munici- 
pal authorities, even with the aid of police and military organizations, 
seemed powerless. The picture of the " No Popery" riots in London, 
so vividly depicted by Dickens in " Barnaby Rudge," was in the hands 
of American readers at the very time when their counterpart occurred 
in the United States. 

Referring to these and other incidents of the time, Seward wrote : 

Aubuen, May 12, 1844. 

What bloody instructions these Philadelphia riots have read to the bigotry 
of the country ! And yet they are all lost, as instructions given to religious and 
political intolerance always are. You do well to give the Whigs the full benefit 
of Mr. Frelinghuysen's religious beneficence. 

I see you are helping Collier beyond anything you promised, or he asked. 
Well, I think he must be satisfied now that he might as well have consulted you 
earlier. 

The blows you are dealing the third-party people will bring many to their 
senses. Did ever such a cause fall into the hands of such men? 

Will our good friend Greeley learn at all that he was born for an editor, not 
for a party leader? He is letting his adversaries recover all the advantages they 
lost in the winter. 

The " third-party people " were the abolitionists, whose meetings 
and conventions were proposing to keep aloof from the great political 



1844.] WEST POINT. 713 

parties, and to present distinctive candidates of their own. Mr. Clay 
was a slaveholder, and the party that placed him in nomination had a 
large number of adherents in the Southern States. " No union with 
slaveholders " was announced as a rallying-cry for antislavery men at the 
North. Some of them, in excess of zeal, even called for dissolution of 
the Federal Union on that ground. 13ut these were a small minority. 
In another letter Seward said : 

"When I was thirteen or fourteen years old I first saw a book-store. I envied 
the boy whose felicity it was to enjoy such facilities for obtaining knowledge as 
1 lis master's shelves incidentally afforded to the clerk, though designed for the 
public only. But the boy grew up a dull, unintellectual man. My \\'\v shillings 
produced me greater benefits from the literary warehouse than he secured, to 
whom all its treasures were free. I think, sometimes, that it is so with news- 
paper-editors. Catering for the taste of the day, they overlook the grave wants 
of the future. 

I confess I grow weary of partisan excitement, and addicted more to studies 
of general polity and science. Now, 1 venture a conjecture, that you have 
passed by without reading the crowning work of John Quincy Adams — his 
grand, majestic report on the resolves of Massachusetts ; for it falls before the pub- 
lic at a wrong time to be generally read. I wish, nevertheless, that the here-and- 
there subscribers of the Journal, who would read it even now, might have an 
opportunity to do so. But I want you to read it for the sake of the vindication 
it affords of that grand old man, and for the sake, still more, of your own im- 
provement and confirmation in the liberal, comprehensive theories of popular 
government that you so faithfully advocate. 1 have been a Democrat, a univer- 
sal suffrage Democrat, a universal education Democrat, a slavery-hating Demo- 
crat, and all these characters constitute an inveterate Whig. But I never before 
saw so conclusive a justification of my principles as this report affords me. I 
send you one. Bead it, and see the chart of progress to emancipation as deline- 
ated by Jefferson, and renewed and perfected by John Quincy Adams. 

In answer to the invitations now pouring in upon him at Auburn, 
to speak at Whig meetings, Seward wrote letters pointing out what 
seemed to him to be the path of patriotism. Thus, to the Whigs of 
Orleans County, to the Whigs of Troy, of Cleveland, and of various 
other localities, he enforced the same views with fresh illustrations. 
Professional duties now called him to Albany and New York ; and in a 
hasty note from West Point to Mrs. Seward he said : 

May 25th, Saturday Night. 
I am here, indulging not very pleasant fancies, and I may as well impart; 
them, since they will not afflict you. I intended to spend the day at Albany 
with Weed. But I soon discovered that those who were charitably disciplining 
him by stopping his paper were liable to be so much irritated by my visitation 
to him that he wished me the speediest possible voyage to this place, prom- 
ising to visit me on Monday at New York. So I landed here, at two the hour, 
ami Saturday the day of days, t,, v i>it our boy. I sent to him immediately after 



YI4 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

my landing, and in due time the boy came. I strolled with him all that re- 
mained of his relief, and we have parted— he to his bed at "taps," and I to 
wait till midnight for the boat. lie is well and in good spirits, and confident that 
be will retain his present standing at examination, and do better yet next year. 

The Military Academy was at this time under the superintendence 
of Major (afterward General) Delafield. He was a stout, heavy-featured 
man, of pleasant manners, thoroughly versed in military and engineer- 
ing science. Captain Thomas, the commandant, erect, soldierly, and 
handsome, with a clear ringing voice, had supervision of the parades, 
drills, and discipline of the cadets. Among the other instructors were 
Prof. Mahan, who was engaged in preparing for the press a mathe- 
matical work ; and Prof. Weir, in whose studio was stretched the 
great canvas on which he was painting his historical picture of the 
" Embarkation of the Pilgrims " at Delft Haven, afterward to occupy 
one of the panels in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. Sew- 
ard's occasional visits to the Point brought him into agreeable acquaint- 
ance with all these gentlemen, which, with some of them, was ex- 
tended by official relations in subsequent years. 

The Democratic clans now mustered, in their turn, for a National 
Convention at Baltimore. It was appointed for the 27th of Ma}'. 
But they had a very different task from that of their Whig op- 
ponents. Instead of mere formal sanction to a nomination already 
unanimously agreed upon, they had to reconcile conflicting opinions 
of policy, and choose among conflicting candidates. Mr. Van Buren 
was foremost in the favor of his party, and had, or was claimed to have, 
a majority of the delegates. General Cass was next strongest. But 
Colonel Johnson and Mr. Buchanan had also eminent supporters. 
President Tyler was not averse to a nomination ; and Secretary Cal- 
houn was a candidate, not so much in the hope of obtaining the nomi- 
nation as in that of obtaining control of the convention. Before the 
balloting commenced, the " two-third rule " was adopted. This was 
the first step toward Mr. Van Buren's defeat. Seven ineffectual bal- 
lotings consumed Tuesday ; the votes being divided among seven can- 
didates, with no other result than the gradual transfer of the highest 
place from Mr. Van Buren to General Cass. That night, the nomina- 
tion of Colonel Polk, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
was projected, it was said, under the auspices of Mr. Calhoun, who was 
determined to have a candidate favorable to the annexation of Texas. 
For the same purpose, a gathering of Tyler's friends, office-holders 
principally, had been convened at Baltimore, who resolved to support 
Tyler himself for reelection, unless the Democratic nominee should be 
one favorable to the policy he had inaugurated. On Wednesday morn- 
ing the Tennessee delegation brought forward the name of James K. 
Polk ; and after the first ballot the Van Buren men went over to him 



1844.] NOMINATION OF JAMES K. POLK. 715 

almost in a body, to defeat General Cass ; and the Cass men followed, 
in order to be on the successful side. Polk received not only two- 
thirds but four-fifths of the whole vote. The several factions acqui- 
esced in the new name more readily than they would have done if 
either of the preferred candidates had been chosen. The Van Buren 
men were to be still further appeased by the proffer of the nomination 
for Vice-President to Silas Wright ; but he declined it by telegraph. 
George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was then nominated. 

The platform, if not the work of the master-spirit of the hour (Cal- 
houn), reflected his views. It declared for the annexation of Texas 
" at the earliest practicable period ; " asserted title to the whole of 
Oregon ; opposed the protective tariff, a national bank, or any distribu- 
tion of the proceeds of the public lands ; conciliated the Tyler men by 
a resolution approving his use of the veto-power ; and the Van Buren 
men by a resolution of confidence, affection, and respect. It further 
declared that Congress had no power to interfere with slavery, de- 
nounced all efforts to " take incipient steps in relation thereto," as 
" calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences." 



CHAPTER LV. 

1844. 

The Presidential Canvass. — Calhoun's Policy. — Texas and the Tarifl'. — Addresses at Union 
and Amherst. — Whig Mas.-; Meetings. — Incidents of the Campaign. — Jealou>i 
Forebodings. — Ash and Hickory. — The Alabama Letter. — Clay's Defeat. 

When the news spread abroad, the country was astounded at Polk's 
nomination. The Whigs jeered at it. Many Democrats declared they 
had never even heard of him, and looked upon the convention as a 
j!ii sco. But when the delegates began to arrive home, and explain 
how the nomination had united the party, and would conduce to suc- 
cess at the polls, the enthusiasm and hopes of their followers began to 
revive, and they entered upon the work of the campaign with vigor. 

The issues of the presidential canvass were now made up. The 
Democrats had made explicit declarations of their policy. They had 
at Baltimore sacrificed all their chiefs in order to carry out that policy. 
The Whigs had adhered to their trusted and honored leader, and reit- 
erated their past doctrines. The abolitionists preferred to give their 
votes to a third candidate, even without the hope of electing him, im- 
patient at wdiat they regarded as an effort of the Whigs to stave off 
the great issue they desired to bring on. Yet it was coming — coining 
faster than the most ultra-abolitionist dreamed. 



yiQ LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

Some of the New York Democrats of the school of the Evening 
Post, finding themselves placed in a position of some difficulty by the 
pro-slavery action of the Baltimore Convention, determined to publish 
a joint letter, declaring their purpose to support Polk and Dallas, but 
rejecting the resolution concerning Texas, and agreeing to support can- 
didates for Congress concurring in their views. 

Not only politicians, but churches also, had begun to grow restive 
under the prospect of slavery extension. Long and earnest debates in 
Methodist conferences foreshadowed that it was a subject that might 
prove an entering wedge to rive that denomination asunder. 

Meanwhile, at Washington, the Administration and Congress, were 
taking such action as would tend to force the issue. Ships-of-war had 
been ordered to the Gulf, and troops to the Texan frontier, in view of 
the coming annexation. Day after day the Senate debated the treaty 
in secret session. Finally, they voted, and the count stood sixteen to 
thirty-five. The treaty was rejected. The Whig Senators, Northern 
and Southern, voted against it. The Democrats did not give a full 
party vote in its favor. Colonel Benton, for one, declared himself in 
favor of annexation; but not without the assent of Mexico, nor without 
excluding slavery from the northern part of Texas. So that question 
went to the people, to be decided at the presidential election. 

The improvement of rivers and harbors, which had always been 
favored by the Whigs, entered into this canvass as a local rather than 
a distinctive party issue. Two bills had been passed, the one mak- 
ing appropriations for the improvement of rivers and harbors at the 
East, and the other for those of the West. President Tyler approved 
and signed the Western bill, but vetoed the Eastern one. 

Seward wrote to St. Lawrence County in reply to an invitation from 
Benjamin Squire and others to come there to attend a Whig gathering. 
After referring to his vivid remembrance of the hospitalities bestowed 
on him during his visit to the banks of the St. Lawrence in 1839, and 
the instruction derived from it, he went on to say : 

It was long a question with me how it was that John Quincy Adams was 
bolder, more resolute, and more devoted in the cause of humanity, than all of his 
contemporaries. I found the explanation in the motto impressed upon the seal 
of a letter from that illustrious statesman, " Alteri seewfo." So it may be 
allowed me, my day of public service being past, to consider not alone what is 
the sentiment prevailing this day or this year, but what principles will abide the 
test of time and the judgment of posterity. . . . 

In the tour to which I have adverted, I observed that the counties of Clin- 
ton, St. Lawrence, Franklin, and Jefferson, were largely colonized by natives of 
French Canada, Ireland, England, and Scotland, whose devotion to liberty had 
induced them to erect their log cabins on the southern instead of the northern 
side of the St. Lawrence. 

There was some confusion of tongues, and the cross of the Catholic church 



1844.] MEMORIES OF CHERRY VALLEY. 717 

was seen side by side with the spire of the Protestant temple. It was impos- 
sible to distinguish whether the fields had been sown by Protestant or by Catbolic 
hands. The same sun and showers ripened the fields of both. Contentment 
and harmony seemed to prevail everywhere. ... I said to myself, " Let him who 
distrusts the instincts of freedom, and the capability of men born under op- 
pression, to become true and worthy citizens of a republican state, come here 
and learn the truth, yet widely discredited, though it was taught by the Great 
Master of human reason, and was practically adopted by the great expounder of 
American democracy, that liberal naturalization is an element of empire." . . . 
I am sure no man pretending to be a statesman could fail to receive instruc- 
tion from the scenes and from the people of the valley of the St. Lawrence. 
There the truth must break in upon every candid mind, that the great political 
question between the contending parties of our day is, whether the national 
peace shall be put in jeopardy, the national honor be forfeited, and the national 
wealth and treasure be expended, to give enlargement, security, and perpetuity, 
to Southern slavery, which forever drags us down to the earth? Or whether 
impartial public councils shall leave the free and vigorous North and West to 
work out the welfare of the country, and drag the reluctant South up to par- 
ticipate in the same glorious destinies ? . . . 

It had already begun to be discovered by leading 1 Whigs in other 
Northern States, as well as New York, that the antislavery movement 
was likely to draw off many votes from the standard of Clay and Fre- 
linghuysen. To meet this danger they turned naturally to Seward for 
help. While a steadfast Whig, his antislavery course had already made 
him widely known throughout the North. He, it was believed, was the 
one who could persuade the antislavery Whigs to remain in the party, 
if any one could. He could show them that a Whig vote was the only 
vote that could be effective in preventing the threatened extension of 
slaveiy, and his own record would prove that his reasonings were just 
and his convictions sincere. Many of his letters at this period, there- 
fore, were in reply to such requests. In answer to the Whigs of Michi- 
gan he spoke of "the deplorable error of adding bulwarks to the fall- 
ing institution of slavery, which is the chief cause of all our national 
calamities, and the only source of national danger." And, writing the 
same day to Vermont, he said : " Renew your declaration that the 
extension of human slavery is at war with the principles of the Whig 
party, and that emancipation is among the great works to which that 
party is devoted." 

But to Cherry Valley he sent his excuses for not attending a politi- 
cal barbecue. His engagements elsewhere prevented, and he wrote to 
James Brackett and others : 

Auburn, June 7, 1844. 

I will frankly confess to you why the circumstance is unattended by regret. 
. . . The anniversary of our national independence in 1840 found me seeking 
some place where my presence would not provoke unkindness or disturb the 
becoming solemnities of that interesting occasion. An invitation from your 



71g LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

village announced the purpose of its citizens to honor the memory of their 
forefathers by celebrating on that day the centennial anniversary of the planta- 
tion of Cherry Valley. I accepted the invitation because I believed that, under 
those circumstances, there, if anywhere, party animosities would for a day be 
hushed into profound repose. 

My visit was afterward extended to Cooperstown, the capital of your rich 
and beautiful county. The long procession ; the oration of William W. Camp- 
bell, a gifted descendant of one of the founders of Cherry Valley, rich in affect- 
ing domestic reminiscences and historical instructions; the paternal greetings of 
vour ancient pastor, the Eev. Dr. Nott, bestowed on the survivors of his flock ; 
the temperate but joyous repast under a rustic bower ; the cordial greeting of 
the people and their hearty responses to my unstudied speech ; the cavalcade 
that attended me to Cooperstown, and on my descent to the valley of the 
Mohawk; the mimic voyage on the beautiful lake; the scenes of the adventures 
of the pioneers of Cooperstown, illustrated by the renowned proprietor of the 
"Hall;" the visits to the various houses of Christian worship; my hospitable 
entertainment by distinguished citizens in several villages, and the varied festivi- 
ties that effaced for the time the memory of public cares and duties — all these 
are indelibly impressed upon my memory ; and the hills and valleys of Otsego 
are never recalled by me but as scenes luxuriant in fertility, gladdened by the 
ripening influences of the midsummer sun, and abounding in all the elements of 
social happiness. 

There was no voice or memory of politics on that occasion, and the people of 
Otsego are unknown to me as politicians. I would not efface these impressions. 
I desire that there may be one community that I may remember in all after-life 
as free from the political acrimony which often poisons the springs of hospi- 
tality and friendship. I admit my obligation to bear my full part in the politi- 
cal discussions of the day, although I am removed beyond the incentives of 
personal ambition. But the State is a broader field than I could traverse if I 
should devote myself exclusively to political agitation. Let others, then, labor 
in Otsego County. Let me cherish still longer, and long as I live, the recollec- 
tion of the one green spot in the State of New York where, when my char- 
acter was most misrepresented and most misapprehended, amid the excitement 
of the most exciting of political occasions the country has ever known, I was 
received, not only with kindest candor and respect, but with magnanimity. 

Continuing his correspondence with Mr. Weed, he wrote on 
the 20th : 

Auburn, June 20, 1844. 

So you went to Boston to meet Schoolcraft. I hope you found him well, as 
I doubt not h'e was happy. For truant as we become, in wandering over for- 
eign lands, one is always happy in reaching home again. I too have had a holi- 
day as pleasant as unlooked for. Uncle Cary required me to go to Batavia to 
draw a bill in chancery. I arrived there on Friday, was detained, waiting for 
1 lis adversary until Monday; then in two hours negotiated a compromise; and 
then had an idle season among my friends. 

It is wonderful what an impulse that nomination of Polk has given to the 
abolition sentiment. It has already expelled the other issues from the public 
mmd. I was at a Clay club at Byron, and arrived at a very late hour at the 



1844.] FILLMORE, WEED, AND THE JOURNAL. 719 

mass-meeting at Warsaw. There one of the banners, and the most popular one, 
was a white sheet, on which was Polk dragging a negro in chains after him. 
When I returned here I found that our Whig Central Committee, who a year ago 
voted me out of the party for being an abolitionist, had made abolition the war- 
cry in their call for a mass-convention. I don't know, certainly, how this 
change is going to affect the Whig party throughout the Union at this time. It 
would bo marvelous if abolition should carry the country at the first effort. 
But, however this may be, the battle for the next four years is already set, and 
we are safe and right. God grant that the question be peaceably met and 
settled ! 

I met Mr. Fillmore at Warsaw. He had delivered a great tariff and anti- 
Texas speech before I arrived ; but its praise was in the mouths, and its princi- 
ples in the hearts, of all the people. I had no conversation with him concern- 
ing his expectations. Dawson tells me that he had a long and free conversation 
with Fillmore, who was receiving frequent letters from Rochester and other 
places, advising him that you and I were urging his nomination for Governor 
for his destruction, and that Fillmore was not unlikely to be induced to decline. 
I suppose Mr. Fillmore a cool and well-balanced man in such a crisis. Yet I do 
not believe the nomination for Governor of New York would be declined by 
him. If I could have an ungenerous wish, it would be that he would yield to 
the heated remonstrances of those who are trying to abuse his mind. But I do 
not want so great a misfortune to befall the Whig party. 

Auburn, June 22, 1844. 

I am astounded by your announcement of a purpose to leave the Journal. 
You will survive, the Journal will survive, and you will be restored to each 
other in a better and more prosperous period. But the explanation, in the best 
form it can be made, will not save the party from the consequences. When you 
retreat, there will be no hope left for ten thousand men who hold on for their 
confidence in you and me ; and they look to you for all that we both think and 
design. 

I think Fillmore will decline when you have resigned. He wants promotion, 
and cannot bide his time. But he is fearful and apprehensive. For a few 
weeks the Democrats are going to take the lead ; perhaps, exhibit the most zeal 
and spirit all the way through the campaign. They are doing so here, as they 
well may. They have an emblem; ours is worn out. They have a nickname, 
a new one ; ours has worn as long as poor jokes can. They have occasion to 
rally ; we have had our arms in hand a long time. All this does not alarm me. 
I think it necessary to the success of the Whig party to keep it from vaporing 
away all its strength ; and the great agricultural and mechanical classes are too 
deeply affected to he misled. But the Whigs are, and will be, alarmed. 

I think you cannot leave the Journal without giving up the whole army to 
dissension and overthrow. I agree that if, by remaining, you save it, you only 
draw down double denunciation upon yourself and me. Nor do I see the way 
through and beyond that. But there will be some way through. I grant, then, 
that, for yourself and me, it is wise and profitable that you leave. I must be 
left without the possibility of restoration, without a defender, without an organ. 
Nothing else will satisfy those who think they are shaded. Then, and not until 
then, shall I have passed through the not unreasonable punishment for too much 



fj2Q LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

success. But the party— the country? They cannot hear your withdrawal. I 
think I am not mistaken in this. Let us adhere, then. Stand fast. It is 
neither wise nor reasonahle that we should hear the censure of defeat, when we 
have heen deprived of not merely command, but of a voice in council. 

Do you not know that there is not a Whig, not onu Whig in the State, ex- 
cept in our own (now very small) circle, who looks to any future election? 
They want Clay, now. But they believe that is the end of all human effort ; 
and they feel as if all their fortunes were concluded in that event. Therefore 
they suspect us of a design to share with them ! 

Spending some time at Utica, in July, in attendance upon the term 

of the Supreme Court, he wrote home : 

Utica, July 6, 1S44. 

I have argued two causes in the court, made and written out a speech, and 
yet my room has been a levee all the time. This morning I thought I should 
spend the Sunday with you, but the last car left before I was ready. I spent 
the Fourth of July in a ride about the country with Chief-Justice Nelson. We 
visited Clinton, Paris, and the villages and manufactories in the valley of the 
Sau quoit Creek 

I spoke last night to a thousand people, leaving out-of-doors another thou- 
sand who could not get access, and I asserted my opinions concerning the Phila- 
delphia riots in a way that will for long put me out of favor with a portion of 
my countrymen. If it would relieve me from further invitations to address 
Whig mass-meetings I should rejoice ; but I shall be allowed to work for Mr. 
Clay nevertheless. Mr. Clay has written out his speech at Raleigh, and in a 
single short paragraph expressed himself so strongly against his abolition allies 
as to lead many to declare him unworthy the confidence of his party. 

To Mr. Weed he wrote : 

Utica, July 6, 1844. 

I have at last shown the Whigs that I cannot accept their favor on condition 
of even an amnesty for my offenses. Now I am even with our good friends, as 
you have been all summer long. They cannot " stop my paper," though, as 
they do when you offend. I am to speak at Mexico on Tuesday, in Morrisville 
on Friday, and in Syracuse on Saturday, if court and engagements forbid not ; 
then by-and-by in Cortland and Jefferson. That is all, and by much too much. 

It is hard to be the draught-horse under whip, while the lead-horse is stroked 
and caressed for kicking back ; but fidelity is safest after all. Our time will 
come by-and-by. " Go home, Mr. Mendenhall, and mind your own business," 
was bad enough ; but " I refer you to Mr. Mendenhall for my views on emanci- 
pation" is worse still. 

Chief-Justice Nelson has given me the history of the negotiation between 
Van Buren and Tracy in 1834, by which the latter was pledged to vote for the 
resolution against the United States Bank, which plot was exploded by my ob- 
stinacy. The details were curious and interesting. 

G. P- B is here ; went to Chenango to address the Democrats, and, 

though called on, refused to speak for Texas. He is restless, and declares that 
he shall cut loose if the party do not cut loose from Texas. 

Mrs. Seward said that the Otsego letter was a very good one for me to send, 



1844.] ADDRESS AT UNION COLLEGE. 721 

but not a good one to print, because it was all about myself. Even good letters 
may be too egotistical. I am not anxious for tbe publication of what ought not 
to be, or even what ought to be printed. 

You aud Benedict ought to come this way. The word runs for John A. 
King for Lieutenant-Governor. Can't you draw him out on the suffrage and 
school questions ? He is a noble fellow, and that would be the making of him. 

Utica, July Wth. 

I argue a cause here to-day, speak in Madison County to-morrow, next day 
at Syracuse, and reach Auburn Saturday night. I return here perhaps late next 
week. The Greeley cause is low on the calendar, and I come back for it. 

Collier goes with me to Hamilton ; Jordan and Spencer, and I know not 
how many more, to Syracuse. Our lawyers are all becoming zealous. 

He had been invited to address the Phi Beta Kappa Society of 
Union College at their annual meeting during commencement week, 
and also to address the literary societies at Amherst on a similar occa- 
sion a few clays later. At intervals of his occupations in Utica he was 
now writing an essay that would be suitable for delivery at these col- 
lege gatherings. It aimed to present a succinct and philosophic view 
of the elements of strength of the American Government ; its advan- 
tages and its dangers, and the true method of rendering them most 
effectively beneficial to mankind. It was a comprehensive theme, but 
a favorite subject of thought, and the reflections he now hastily com- 
mitted to pajoer were the basis and substance of a more elaborate pre- 
sentation of the same theme four years afterward in his oration on 
" The True Greatness of Our Country." 

In one of his letters to Auburn he remarked : 

Utica, July i'W. 

Of all the intellectual efforts I ever tried, the only one that I have been 
obliged heretofore to give up in despair was the literary essay which specula- 
tive men find so vastly easy. Well, I found myself on Thursday morning with- 
out anything but a page beyond the day before at Auburn. To-night I am 
armed with what seems to me dull as Erebus, but what you would probably tell 
me was better- than half the essayists could produce. I wish you were here or 
I with you, that you might tell me so, for I am going to Schenectady rather 
distrustful of it. My speech is long enough if good, and too long by half if 
bad. I have not left my room except for an evening walk in the four da\ s. 

I return here on Thursday, hoping then to go home, but may be detained if 
there is a prospect of reaching the Greeley case. I have snatched an hour or 
two to read Carlyle, and I have become bewitched with him, but not with the 
foolish philosophy he teaches. I go to Albany to-morrow, to Schenectady 
Tuesday. 

Immediately after the delivery of the address at Schenectady he 
proceeded to the western part of the State, to speak at Whig meet- 
ings. During the next three months the larger part of his time was 
devoted to this kind of political labor. His letters to Weed were fre- 
46 



^02 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

quent from the different points to which he called to advocate the 
claims of " Clay and Frelinghuysen." In these letters he noted the 
varying aspects and incidents, hopes and fears, of the campaign. 

Auburn, July 24, 1844. 

I have been in Genesee, Wyoming, and Ontario, and am on Saturday to be at 
Rochester. I am apprehensive of doing wrong, doing ill, or doing too much. 
Write me freely at Utica, or meet me there next Tuesday, if you think I ought 
to stop. Our good friends are covetous of my little grace with classes they have 
hitherto despised. This is their motive. Shall I not offend against forgiveness 
by working so much, that they will falsely and unjustly impute to me the very 
ambition I so truly repudiate and disavow ? 

Wright has begun, and Polk's defeat would direct all Democratic thoughts 
toward the discreet and generous friend of Van Buren. This is unfortunate in 
respect to our success in 1848. But that is too far ahead to dream of. We must 
make the election of 1844 safe, and let the future provide for itself. 

Patterson writes me, and says, " For God's sake don't let Weed retire ! " 

Auburn, July 28, 1844. 

On the 5th of August 1 shall hope to arrive with Mrs. Seward, Mrs. Worden, 
and Frances, at Albany, at about 4 p. m. The ladies will take the next morning's 
boat to West Point. I shall, God willing, take my departure in the car for Spring- 
field, whence I may reach Amherst on Tuesday night the 6th, perform my en- 
gagement there on Wednesday the 7th, and return to Springfield on that or the 
next day. 

Here are very urgent letters reiterating the Springfield invitation, and saying 
the day (the 9th) was fixed to suit my convenience. I have also letters from 
Harding, pressing me to stay with him, for which he has my thanks, as our good 
Springfield friends have for their kind invitation. It 6eems I am nearly circum- 
vented. It has seemed to me all along, and never more so than now, that in 
this stump oratory I do not well, and that it " is not my best part." 

Lyman Cobb has written to me for some speeches for his new "American 
Reader." Will you cast over in your mind and tell me what I shall send him ? 
Strange, he asks for the Staten Island Sunday-school speech ! 

Here are abusive, anonymous, " Native American " letters ; and, in the same 
bundle, warm, glowing, grateful letters, from men unknown. There is a mass 
of letters from many places in this State, and from other States," inviting me to 
speak, and expressing deep conviction of the truth, philosophy, and patriotism, of 
my published opinions on the Constitution, the operation of our system, and the 
rights of the people under it. 

Chautauqua County wants me — presses. How on earth am I to get along 
with this? I am landlord there. I ought not to be, I never was, a partisan 
there. A letter, such as it becomes me, and such as every impulse of gratitude 
and affection would force me to write, would be better. 

Auburn, August 1, 1844. 

I am sailing along with less trouble than I feared. I like Wilkin for Lieu- 
tenant-Governor. 

Please say to King that I have engaged to go in September to all the northern 
counties, and have written to J. Q. Adams. 



1844.] CLAY MEETINGS AND SPEECHES. 723 

Auburn, August 23, 1844. 

I was obliged to leave the bishop here on Wednesday, and we met on Thurs- 
day only to part. But the interview we had was pleasant, and useful, in making 
me more intimately acquainted with him. 

It was a great meeting at Ithaca, at least equal to or exceeding the Syracuse 
one. All was pleasant enough, especially so for me. General Root attempted 
an argument with a brief, before fifteen thousand men, in broad mid-day. They 
could not hear. He told them so, but they could not hear that either. At night 
they had a meeting in the town-hall, and he held forth two hours. 

I am at least as tired as you of mass-meetings. But they will go on. There 
will yet be time for work, if the disposition to work remains. I am now booked 
only for Cortland and the northern counties. 

I am home for two days and a half. One day and a half has 1 n spent in 

my law business. In the remaining day I must bring up my correspondence, and 
deferred political and literary studies. Need enough that I leave the mass-meet- 
ings to take care of themselves ! 

It is quite clear that the lion of Democracy is roused, and will contend for 
victory. The " Agricultural Governor " goes by the board. Silas Wright seems 
about to be chosen. His nomination is the fatality. Election or defeat ex- 
hausts him. 

Will Mr. Webster go to Utica? If so, I can excuse myself there. I have 
assumed that he would. "Declare! " as the lawyers say when they put inter- 
rogatories. 

Eochester, Tuesday Morning, August '27, 1S44. 

By this time you will have seen what I see so often, a real " mass-meet in--." 
I doubt not you are in the midst of a vast assemblage. I have accustomed my- 
self to regard these popular demonstrations as very indicative of a favorable re- 
sult. They certainly prove that the great political questions have taken deep 
hold of the sedentary and generally cold masses. 

It seems certain that the Whigs must make up their minds to beat their op- 
ponents, giving them the suffrages of the naturalized voters. No sooner was my 
foot set upon the porch last night than the Whig managers appealed to me to 
make a tariff and Texas speech to that class, saying that they were all against us. 
It is a sorry consolation for this ominous aspect of things that you and I are 
personally exempt from the hostility of this class toward our political associates. 

Mr. Fillmore is here, and in good spirits. I have seen Whittlesey, but not 
yet alone. He is presiding in court. I write early, before my occupation in his 
court, or the necessary preparation for it, will put an end to such pleasures. 

Buffalo, Friday Morning. 
I shall close my argument here to-day, attend a mass-meeting to-morrow, 
and shall go east as soon after as may be. 

Auburn, September 2, L844, 

You fancy short letters. This must be such a one. On arriving yesterday 
morning from Rochester via Bath, I heard, from Florida, that my mother was 
ill, and my father quite ill, but better. Having heard nothing of later date, and 
not being expressly required to go to Florida, I have waited in great and pain- 
ful perplexity until now. I may decide to go to my mother's bedside, even with 
the hope that grows within me for her convalescence. I may wait, alas! per- 
haps too late. To be too late at the sick-bed of a mother, and such a mother ! 



72± 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



I found panic in Bath, and the mass-meeting, which was wonderfully ani- 
mated and kind, dispelled it. But I met that letter at Geneva, and thence here, 
and until now everybody droops, despairs. It jeopards, perhaps loses, the 
State. But that was thrown away in the beginning. 

Is there any other way but to go through to the end, more devotedly than 

ever ? 

We are approaching the State Convention. Morgan is a delegate, and will 
be instructed to prevent, and have full power to prevent, my nomination as an 
elector. The people, I believe, are thinking of it in many places. Here those 
who were reading me out of the party six months ago insist upon it. Despond- 
ency and despair are produced by Clay's letter. 

A. B. D expects you to decide for him whether he shall be nominated 

for Canal Commissioner or Senator. He would prefer the latter, but will be 
advised. He had not seen Clay's letter when I left him. 

I had an agreeable and profitable time with James A. Hamilton and his 
daughter, Mrs. Schuyler. She is a wonderfully fine and intelligent woman. 

There was civility and there were respect and kindness toward me at Eoch- 
ester. Those who have made mischief are now willing to forgive me for it, but 
find it embarrassing to consult me, except concerning mass-meetings. So all 
was right. 

I take new courage since Hamilton told me an anecdote about Washington's 
dependence on his friend. He has a letter acknowledging the receipt of the 
draft of the " Farewell Address," and asking how it shall be given to the pub- 
lic — by pamphlet, or through the newspapers, or how ? 

Tou see this letter is not short. Prefaces should always be written after the 
text of the book. I do not go to Cortland or elsewhere by reason of my uncer- 
tainty about Orange County. 

Auburn, September 15, 1844. 

Covert threw me into anxiety on Friday morning by telling me that Harriet 
denied h im at your door on the previous day. I thought that you were only 
sick of an Ashland letter. But Covert replied that you had been sick all 
day, and I remembered that medicine out of the political mater hi medica cus- 
tomarily paralyzed instead of exciting you to violent nausea. I was much 
alarmed. I have a presentiment always that you are to drop off first. What I 
despise myself for is that the selfishness you have nourished within me makes 
me more unwilling than I ought to be that you should have your own way 
in this. Sterne is the only philosopher who resolves for me what I feel to be 
my art of living. " We get forward in the world," says he, "not so much by 
doing services as by receiving them : you take a withering twig and put it in 
the ground, and then you water it because you have planted it." But Sterne 
is an authority as lightly esteemed among the schoolmen as among the divines. 

If the Whig party be to succeed, the arrangements at Syracuse about elec- 
tors are as unfortunate as you suppose. The grace and favor of democracy 
were expressly disdained by the rejection of Father Burt. If I had not con- 
fided in his nomination I should have insisted on the name of Philip King, 
a fighting Whig of 1776, and a "Bucktail" " Antimason," for elector. The 
concession to the awakening spirit of philanthropy that has already distracted 
the Whig party was as wise as it was generous. 

That last letter will do its mischief unnoticed and unthousht of. The former 



1844.] TOUR THROUGH NORTHERN NEW YORK. 725 

ones irritated our friends, but they have become inured ; and they complain 
not of the last, because complaint is unavailing. But the effect will be calam- 
itous. 

The State Conventions of the two great parties had now presented 
their respective candidates. The Whigs nominated Mr. Fillmore for 
Governor, and Samuel J. Wilkin, of Orange County, for Lieutenant- 
Governor. The Democrats nominated Silas Wright for the first office, 
and Addison Gardiner for the second ; nominations which promised to 
command the united support of the two warring factions of " Hunkers " 
and "Barnburners." 

Hitherto, the Whigs of the State during the progress of the cam- 
paign had been gathering confidence from the mass-meetings and 
other evidences of popular enthusiasm. But the " Alabama letters " 
of their nominee, so unfortunate for his prospects, were now published. 
It was at once perceived that the probabilities of success, in New York 

at least, were diminishing. 

Auburn, September 18, 1844. 

S. S. Pwindall (in the office of Secretary of State) has just sent me bis excel- 
lent book, "A Digest of the Common-School System." I find in it my vindica- 
tion of the school question, extracted from the message of 1841. It seems as 

harmless as it is cogent. 

Auburn, Monday Morning. 

Our friend Clowes has not come. I wish the party could understand how 
much more his rugged, perverse directness (there is a paradox for you) is worth 
than the smoother but unequal and unsafe aid of many they prefer to him. 

Wright was a strong man the day before his nomination for Governor. He 
fell far, and if left alone will be not, what he might have been, George I. 
to AVilliam of Orange, lineal heir to Jackson, through Van Buren. The wise- 
acres in New York speak of him with compliment, "this distinguished states- 
man ; " yet they bring all their small artillery to bear upon him, and give notice 
that be is demolished. The praise they bestow is very ill concealed, but less 
injurious to us than their warfare, conducted in their mode. 

The latter part of September was devoted by Seward td the politi- 
cal tour through the northern counties which he had promised to un- 
dertake. Accompanied by Seth C. Hawley, he started from Albany, and 
traversed Saratoga, Warren, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence, 
Lewis, and Jefferson Counties. At the principal towns they addressed 
large and usually enthusiastic meetings. Seward briefly noted the prin- 
cipal points of the route in his letters. 

OaDENSBrRG. Sunday, September 30£A. 
We have come thus far in our long and uncomfortable journey. We left 
Albany on Monday morning, dined at Saratoga Springs, and slept at Glen's Fall-. 
The next day wo dined at Whitehall, after a very interesting ride through 
Sandy Hill and Fort Anne, a route memorable as the road traversed by Burgoyne 
in his progress to Saratoga. We slept on Tuesday night at Burlington, and the 



726 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

next day attended a mass-meeting at Keeseville. Thence we rode through the 
sand, after nightfall, to Plattsburg, where we rested in General Macomb's quar- 
ters during the siege of that place. The next day was spent in traveling through 
the gloomy forest named the " Chauteaugay Woods," from which we emerged 
at nine o'clock. Resting that night, we came the next morning to Malone, the 
capital of Franklin County ; and held a meeting there in the open air, so in- 
clement as to deprive everybody of all comfort. We slept that night at Law- 
rence, and yesterday morning reached Potsdam, where we had our first meet- 
ing in this county. Thence a ride of twenty-eight miles brought us to this town. 
We speak, to-morrow, at Gouverneur ; on Tuesday, at Carthage, in Jefferson 
County ; on Wednesday, at Martinsburg, in Lewis County ; on Thursday, at 
Lowville, and then our mission will be ended. The meetings are immense, the 
kindness of the people overwhelming. You may expect us on Saturday. 

The meetings were attended by thousands. Farmers came into 
town from all the surrounding country, bringing their wives and chil- 
dren with them. Young people came to the mass-meeting as they 
would to a holiday festival or a circus. Idlers of all sorts were at- 
tracted by curiosity, and thinking men could not keep aloof in what 
was felt to be a national crisis. 

Many of the emblems and appliances of the contest of 1840 were 
renewed in that of 1844. Instead of raising " log cabins," the Whigs 
now erected " ash-poles." Huge ash-trees were cut down, and spliced 
together to make a rough pole, fifty or a hundred feet high, on which 
to display the banner of the statesman of Ashland. Campaign songs and 
songsters, glee-clubs, and choruses, for " Harry of the West," emulated 
those for " Old Tip." Processions by day and by torch-light, flags and 
caricatures, were again abundant. But this time the Whigs could not 
claim a monopoly of the enthusiasm. The Democrats had their mass- 
meetings also, their songs and their " hickory -poles," their processions 
and their banners, and in all these demonstrations they claimed to 
equal, if not eclipse, their opponents. 

Deep popular interest was felt in the election. It was the greater, 
perhaps, because party divisions and subdivisions threw so much doubt 
over the result. The Democrats had to persuade " Hunkers " and 
"Barnburners" to drop their rankling animosities, and go cordially to- 
gether to the polls. The Whigs had to use every effort to prevent the 
loss of votes, for both " Abolitionists " and " Native Americans " were 
recruiting from their ranks. As regarded persons, there was but one 
commanding central figure. That was Henry Clay. He was the em- 
bodiment of the issues. Over him the battle raged. Speakers and 
newspapers talked of the probabilities of " electing Clay," or of " de- 
feating Clay." Other candidates, on either side, attracted little atten- 
tion in comparison. The canvass really turned upon principles and 
prejudices, not upon personal merits. Yet orators made Clay their 
favorite personification, both for support and for attack. 



1841.] A PREDICTION ABOUT SECESSION. 727 

As the chief advocate of a protective tariff, and of the distribution 
of the proceeds of the public lands, Mr. Clay actually was the best per- 
sonification of Whig doctrines. Yet there was another question un- 
derlying the contest, about which Whigs talked less, but thought more. 
That was the annexation of Texas and the consequent extension of 
slavery, and on this the position of the Democratic candidate was clear, 
while that of the Whig nominee was dubious. For obvious reasons, 
stump-speakers of both parties handled this issue with caution. At the 
North, Democratic orators would not declare, probably would not even 
believe, that they were laboring to extend slavery, but claimed that 
they were enlarging the " area of freedom ; " and Whig orators, while 
expatiating fluently on the financial issues, found themselves in danger 
of offending their own associates by saying too little or too much about 
the important question of all. Seward's hostility to slavery had been 
open and avowed for years, and nevertheless he supported Clay, sup- 
ported him on antislavery grounds. It was the knowledge of this fact 
that now made his arguments attentively listened to, and his presence 
earnestly called for, far and wide, even by men who, if they believed in 
his sentiments, were not yet prepared to avow it. In his speech at 
Syracuse he said : 

Friends of emancipation ! advocates of the rights of man ! I am one of you. 
I have always believed and trusted that the Whigs of America would come up 
to the ground you have so nobly assumed. Not that I supposed or believed they 
would all at once, or all from the same impulses, reach that ground, but that the 
progress of events would surely bring them there, and they would assume it 
cheerfully. You have now this gnat, generous, ami triumphant party, on the 
very ground to which you have invited them, and for not assuming which, pre- 
maturely, you have so often denounced them. But you will say that Henry Clay 
is a slaveholder. So he is. I regret it as deeply as you do. I wish it were oth- 
erwise. But our conflict is not with one slaveholder, or with many, but with 
slavery. Henry Clay is our representative. You are opposed to the admission of 
Texas, and you admit and assert the duty of resisting it by the right of suffrage. 
Will you resist it by voting for James Gr. Birney? Your votes would be just as 
effectual if cast upon the waters of this placid lake. 

He closed tins speech with a prediction deemed, even by many 
Whigs, extravagant. Time has verified it : 

Democrats, Liberty-men, and Whigs, by whatever name you prefer to be 
called ! the issue presents itself alike to all. Texas and slavery are at war with 
the interests, the principles, the sympathies, of all. The integrity of the Union 
depends on the result. To increase the slaveholding power is to subvert the Con- 
stitution; to give a fearful preponderance which may, and probably will, be 
speedily followed by demands to which the Democratic free-labor States cannot 
yield, and the denial of which will be made the ground of secession, nullification, 
and disunion ! 



"28 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



In his Yates County speech, in October, one of the last of the can- 
vass, he summed up the issues thus : 

Heretofore they told us that we had nothing to do with slavery ; that it was 
no concern of ours. But now the slaveholder has brought it home to us. It is 
our concern now, God be praised ! It is a national concern. The annexation 
of Texas to enlarge and fortify the slave-trade is, forsooth, " a great Democratic 
measure." Democracy is brought to a test that no mock pretensions can abide. 
True democracy is equality and liberty. The democracy of the Texas party is 
aristocracy for the white, and bondage for the black. Slavery is now on trial 
before the people, and must go down, and with it every power that interposes 
to protect and uphold the institution, accursed of God and man. 

And now, how stand the parties on this great question of peace and war — of 
the Constitution as it is, or of the Constitution subverted — of union or disunion ? 
The one party pronounce the treaty a great national measure ; the other de- 
nounce it now, henceforth, and forever, while slavery defiles the beautiful terri- 
tory that solicits their acceptance. Shall I be told that Henry Clay's position is 
not so strong as this ? Be it so. I regret it. I would that Henry Clay were in 
the vanguard of emancipation. I should honor him ten thousand times more 
than I can now. But Henry Clay's election is the only alternative so far as the 
presidency is concerned, and he is only the leading personal object in the fore- 
ground of the scene we have been contemplating. Let him come into the presi- 
dency under such pledges as will prevent Texas from coming into the Union 
while he is there. We will look out for the future. Present safety being thus 
secured, we will take care that Texas do not come in afterward, or ever, until 
she casts off the black robe that hangs around her, and thus renders herself 
worthy of adoption by the American sisterhood. 

Fellow-citizens, tho time for mass-meetings has passed away. This is the 
last occasion on which I shall address any portion of the people in regard to the 
approaching election. I desire to say that, as I have spoken here, I have every- 
where spoken, not as a mere apologist of the Whig party, or of its leaders, but as 
an advocate of the interests and honor of my country, paramount to the interests 
of all partisans and of all parties. 

Not unfrequently the public speaker on these occasions would en- 
liven his dry argument by some direct " appeal to the ladies " who 
formed so large a part of the audience. At one meeting, Seward began 
his discussion of the tariff by saying : 

Good housewife from Otisco, if your bread was ready for the oven, and you 
had one, would you bake at home, or send it to your neighbor's? and if you 
had no oven, would you change works with your more fortunate neighbor who 
has one, or would you send to the distant market-town ? You would do it at 
home, and always as near home as possible. Of course you would. Now, the 
principle of home-industry applies just as well to the making of our own leather 
and of our own boots, our own cloth and of our own clothing, of our own salt, 
of our own knives and forks, of our own shovels and tongs, and of our own 
spinning-jennies and steam-engines, as to the lowly example I have set forth. 
But the European baker cannot compete with the housewife, while the Eu- 



1844.] WOMEN AT MASS-MEETINGS. 729 

ropean mechanic, tanner, shoemaker, spinster, weaver, blacksmith, iron-founder, 
and iron-monger, can. We must, then, have duties which shall secure equal 
advantages to our own mechanics. 

On another occasion, at one of the meetings in the northern coun- 
ties, he followed a speaker who had devoted his remarks chiefly to the 
question of protection : 

I have listened with attention to my friend's argument. It was clear and 
convincing, as all his arguments are. I reflected, however, that after all it was 
an argument addressed to the pocket. And I determined that, when my turn 
should come, I would appeal, not to your pockets, hut to some nobler thought 
than that of dollars and cents. But now that I am up, and look around me, I 
see that every man of you has pockets in his coat, pockets in his overcoat, 
pockets in his vest, pockets in his pantaloons, pockets everywhere, and, not 
content with that, has huge pocket-flaps to call attention to them. So I believe 
I will give up trying to make impression upon the men. I will turn to these 
front seats, where the women are ; for I see that not one of them wears pock- 
ets, or, if she does, she keeps them out of sight. 

Laughter greeted this allusion to one of the popular fashions of 
dress, and he continued : 

Our opponents insist that women have no place in political assemblies. But 
I will tell them the secret why women are here, and why they will remain here. 
A question of peace or war is thrust upon us. They, by their teachings of the 
young, and by their persuasions addressed to all, influence the decree of the 
ballot-box. You who are mothers and daughters, you who are sisters and wives, 
I ask you not to count up in dollars and cents what a war for Texas will cost ; 
but I tell you that it will cost the blood, the lives, of your fellow-men. Are 
you ready — nay, I know there is not one of you that is ready to counsel her 
father, her husband, her brother, or her son, to go out to battle, when the bat- 
tle is not in defense of his country's flag, but for the extension of human slavery ! 
To you, then, I will address what I have to say. 

Continuing his letters to "Weed, he said : 

AuBtrEN, October 7, 1844. 

I found all well at home on my return on Saturday night, but my business 
sadly out of joint. Thank Heaven, the sacrifices are nearly over! 

The Whigs of the northern counties are a noble and generous set of men. 
The party is struggling like a strong man. We shall see whether they are too 
deep in the morass to extricate themselves. 

I have missed C. M. Clay altogether. I could see him by going to Cortland 
to-morrow, but I must go to Penn Yan. 

The Maryland election ! what is its omen ? Do not go to boasting, unless 
well assured that you will be vindicated by the result. All our friends must 
revise their local estimates, if we are to have good fortune. 

I found three young girls, all of a birth, six days old, at Carthage, and 
named them Frances, Cornelia, and Harriet. The mother blessed me; and the 



730 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



father, who knew no way to reward me hut by voting, promised as many votes 
as if the children were to be electors. 

Do not give this letter to the Argus, as Greeley did Mr. Clay's to the News. 
This letter was not made to lose. 

Time, which saps the foundations of most edifices, had now weak- 
ened the fabric which the " Millerites " had raised. " The Ides of 
March " had come and gone ; the day fixed for the destruction of the 
world had been changed at different times ; but it had been agreed 
that it would be some time in 1843 or 1844. After the discouraging 
arrival of sunrise and sunset with their accustomed punctuality all 
through those years, the sect began gradually to decline. At one time 
the 23d of October had been fixed upon. 

Auburn, October 22, 1844. 

If to-morrow should be the last day, what relief would it bring to millions 
of spirits too gentle for the buffetings of the world! But the designs of Provi- 
dence in regard to the temporal condition of mankind are not yet accom- 
plished ; and so the bridegroom will not come, though the virgins trim their 
lamps and go out to meet him with whatever confidence that the tarrying is 
ended. 

Well, I have been at Eochester; went up on Sunday night and returned to- 
day. Being on the ground at the opening of the court, I defaulted my adver- 
saries, and saved myself the necessity of longer tarrying there. Greeley's case 
goes over now to January. I believe you know that I defend slander and libel 
suits always by delay as far as practicable. There is nothing for a plaintiff, in 
such cases, like haste; nor is there any advantage for a defendant like time; 
that diminishes the grievance complained of. But you are uot a law -student, 
and so I may spare my lecture. 

Watchman, what of the night ? Our friends swear they are confident, and 
mean to be so until the end. But I think they are not sanguine now, and will 
lose confidence as the election approaches. They all say that New York City, 
by giving us five thousand majority, will save the State for Clay. But their 
conversation shows distrust of this. Whittlesey thinks Clay's chances better 
than Polk's, but reckons Pennsylvania, rather than New York, as the State 
which is to secure the election of the Whig candidates. Strange to say, this is 
the prevalent opinion; and our friends, by expressing it, virtually confess 
that New York is lost ; and if you are right about Pennsylvania, then all is 
lost. 

Mr. Fillmore was an exception among all I met. He is confident of Penn- 
sylvania and New York. Yet he claims only 2,600 in Erie, and gives rea- 
sons why we shall not get a larger majority. Our friends in Eochester say 
they expect 1,000, but show that they are not expecting more than 700. There 
is manifestly some gain from the abolitionists; but if our friends see the 
matter as it truly is, the gains are few, perhaps inconsiderable. On the whole ? 
I believe our friends look for salvation through a miracle to be worked by the 
"Native Americans" in New York. They are willing to take it in that way, 
though they declare that it will be disastrous for all time to come. 

I have been persuaded to go to Palmyra on Saturday. 



1844.] POLK AND DALLAS ELECTED. 731 

Aubuex, October 25, 1844. 

Mr. John Lee, of Maryland, brings me a letter from Mr. Clay, the contents 
of which will be stated to you by Mr. Lee. On his suggestion, I have written 
such a letter to our distinguished friend in New York as was desired of me, and 
Mr. Lee will deliver it. 

Now, further, I cannot go to New York. You can do in that quarter all 
that I could, and more. "Will you not go with Mr. Lee and make the effort to 
secure such action on the part of our friends there as will be proper and effec- 
tive? The election is too important and too critical to permit any relaxation 
of exertion. But I need not urge you, who are so much the main-spring of all 
political action in this State. 

Sitting, one evening, in conversation with some friends at Auburn 
a short time before the election, Seward was listening to their various 
hopes and fears in regard to different localities. " Let us make an 
estimate," said he, " of the vote in the State by counties." Pencil and 
paper were put in use, the names of the counties set down in alpha- 
betical order, and against each was set the majority it gave for or 
against the Whigs in 1842. Then, carefully weighing the probabilities 
of change in each, another column was made of the estimated majori- 
ties in 184-4. It was frecmently his custom to calculate in this way the 
probable results of a canvass. Noting the present drift of public sen- 
timent, and knowing, from habit and experience, the probable extent 
of its valuation, his estimates were seldom far wrong. There would be 
errors in regard to localities, but these would counterbalance each 
other. Neither victory nor defeat, therefore, took him by surprise. In 
the present case, after the figures were added up, the column showed a 
majority of several thousands against the Whigs in the State. It was 
discouraging ; but all attempts to obtain a better showing proved in 
vain ; and at midnight it was laid aside until election -day. 

The campaign had now approached its end. The closing meeting 
had been held ; the last torch-light procession had marched ; the chal- 
lengers had been appointed, the ballots distributed, the polls opened 
Tuesday, the 5th of November, for the conflict; and the country in 
suspense awaited the result. But there was not long to wait. Three 
hours after the polls had closed scattering returns from adjacent towns 
began to come in. All showed a falling off in the Whig vote. The 
next day returns came pouring in by mail and telegraph. Polk and 
Dallas were elected beyond a doubt ; Silas Wright was to be the next 
Governor. The jubilant Democrats fired feux de joie, and their shouts 
of exultation around their hickory-poles recalled the days of " Old 
Hickory " himself. The " Liberty party " men also walked the streets 
erect and exultant. They had polled a vote exceeding their own an- 
ticipations ; one, in fact, that would have turned the scale had it been 
cast for Clay. They had " rebuked the pro-slavery parties," they said, 



732 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



and shown the strong hold their principles had upon the Northern 
heart. Only the Whigs were crushed and dispirited. For the ardent 
supporters of Henry Clay it was no ordinary defeat to be retrieved 
next year ; it was gall and bitterness ; it was a life-long disappoint- 
ment. They had fondly believed for years that, if their favorite could 
be fairly placed in the field as the Whig national candidate, his elec- 
tion to the presidency was assured. The experiment had been tried 
under the most favorable circumstances, and had failed. It could 
probably never again be repeated. His defeat rung the knell of future 
hopes to so many that it was common to hear men say that, since 
Clay was defeated, they " had no more interest in politics." 



CHAPTER LVL 

1844. 

Southern Exultation. — Clay defeated by Abolition Votes. — His Letter to Seward. — Gerrit 
Smith. — Weed in the "West Indies. — Birth of a Daughter. — Death of his Mother. — 
Stage-coach Accident. — A Dislocated Shoulder. — John Stanton Gould. 

A aveek or two later came the echo of rejoicing at the South. 
Nashville and Charleston, Mobile, Savannah, Richmond, and New Or- 
leans, were reported to be in " a blaze of Democratic triumph," with 
salutes, festivities, and speech-making. It was a " Calhoun victory," 
a '' Southern victory." The annexation of Texas was assured. It was 
an ominous sign for the abolitionists that they were found rejoicing 
in the same hour with the slaveholders ; but the warning it conveyed 
fell, for the moment, upon unheeding ears. 

By the close of November the official vote of the State was ascer- 
tained. Polk had a plurality of 10,000 over Clay, while 15,000 votes 
had been cast for Birney. Silas Wright was chosen Governor by a 
like plurality over Fillmore. The vote stood : Wright, 241,090 ; Fill- 
more, 231,057 ; Alvan Stewart, the Liberty party candidate, 15,136. 

When full returns from all parts of the Union had been received 
and compared, they showed that Polk and Dallas had 170 electoral 
votes against 105 for Clay and Frelinghuysen. The popular vote (in 
all the States except South Carolina, whose electors were chosen by 
the Legislature) was 1,335,834 for Polk, 1,297,033 for Clay, and 64,653 
for Birney. 

After the election Seward wrote to Weed : 

Auburn, November 7, 1844. 
Well, the end has come ! and how terribly it has come to those who would 
not tolerate the counsels of prudence ! The whole town here are amazed by the 




a 



s * 



1844.] LETTER FROM HENRY CLAY. 733 

exhibition of my estimates foreshadowing the precise defeat, made before the 
election, but withheld until it was wanted to compare results, and to deter- 
mine the measure of hope that might be indulged. Your visit here was most 
agreeable to me, though the weighty matters of the law intruded, and broke 
off our communication. 

Excuse me to King and Taylor Hall for withholding my estimate of Cayuga. 
I could not summon resolution enough to be frank with them on that point, 
when they were making such efforts that ought not to be discouraged. 

"When must you go southward? It seems a hard thing that I am to go 
through a long winter with the ordinary intercourse between us suspended ; 
but Harriet's health demands ami justifies every sacrifice. Your own, I fear, 
would not endure the rigor of our season ; so go, and be happy. 

To Gerrit Smith he wrote, in regard to the result and his future 
course : 

You do me no more than justice in supposing that I shall continue the con- 
test, or, rather, my exertions in the contest for human rights, with as much zeal 
as ever ; but I am confounded for the moment by the magnitude and immi- 
nency of the perils to which the cause of freedom is exposed, by the sad result 
of the recent election. It would be unavailing for you and me to dispute about 
the responsibilities for that result. The same wide difference of opinion that 
has hitherto existed in regard to our respective courses remains, but we have, 
nevertheless, a common devotion to the common cause. All the efforts of all 
sincere lovers of freedom will be necessary to overtake the triumphant spirit 
of slavery, and trammel up the consequences of the sanction of the conquest of 
Texas by the American people. You are committed to the Liberty party's mode 
of proceeding. I find the Whig party like what I always loved to imagine it, 
firm, fearless, resolved, in the very hour of its defeat. I believe it willing, and 
yet capable, to take the cause of freedom into its keeping. As yet I see no 
reason, and much less apparent reason now than heretofore, to distrust its in- 
stincts of liberty and humanity. Under these circumstances I shall cheerfully 
abide its destinies, and wait for the development of circumstances and occa- 
sions winch will show in what quarter, and in what manner, the great war in 
which we have lost so important a battle is to be recommenced. 

The great statesman who had been overcome in the contest bore 

himself with a dignity befitting his reputation. He wrote to Seward on 

the 20th this manly and generous letter : 

Ashland, November 20, 1844. 

My dear Sir : I duly received the two letters which you did me the favor 
to address to me, one written immediately after the interview of Mr. Lee, of 
Maryland, with you, and the other on the 7th instant, after the termination of 
the presidential election in New York. I feel greatly obliged by your prompt 
attention to my request communicated through Mr. Lee. 

Throughout this whole political campaign I have never doubted your good 
intentions, and have been constantly persuaded of your having employed your 
best exertions. The sad result of the contest is now known; it is also irrever- 
sible, and wo are only left to deplore that so good a cause, sustained by so many 
good men, has been defeated — defeated, too, by a combination of the most ex- 



ngj. LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 

traordinary adverse circumstances that perhaps ever before occurred. But it is 
now useless and unavailing to speculate upon the causes of the unfortunate 
issue of the contest. We are also too much under the excitement which it pro- 
duced, and under depression created by that issue, calmly and deliberately to 
look through the gloom which hangs over the future. It will be time enough 
to do that after the public has recovered from the disappointment which it has 
just experienced. 

As for myself, it would be folly to deny that I feel the severity of the blow 
most intensely. I feel it for myself, but, unless my heart deceives me, I feel it 
still more for my country and my friends. I had hoped to have been an hum- 
ble instrument in the hands of Providence to arrest the downward tendency 
of our Government. I had hoped to have it in my power to do justice to those 
able, valuable, and virtuous friends, who have been so long and cruelly pro- 
scribed and persecuted. But it has been otherwise decreed, and my duty now 
is that of resignation and submission, cherishing the hope that some others 
more fortunate than myself may yet arise to accomplish that which I have not 
been allowed to effect. 

You are in the prime of life, endowed with great ability, and I trust that 
you will long be spared in health and prosperity to render great and good ser- 
vice to our common country. 

Such will continue to be the prayer of your friend and obedient servant, 

H. Clay. 

As usual, after a defeat, there were not wanting malcontents who 
sought to charge responsibility for it upon those who had labored to avert 
it. Some of the journals and politicians in New York, who had for a 
year before been inveighing against " Weed and Seward " for luke- 
warmness in regard to Mr. Clay, now accused them of having done too 
much, especially of having brought on the disaster by their affiliations 
with " foreigners " and " abolitionists." To be sure, the figures of the 
official canvass told a contrary tale ; but of what avail are figures to 
counteract deep-seated prejudice ? 

Mr. Weed was about departing with an invalid daughter to spend 
the winter in the genial climate of Santa Cruz. In his letters Seward 
referred to this voyage : 

Auburn, November 12, 1844. 

I was in a very prosperous law -business in May, when the great political 
commotion arose. It took me out of my business. I had no reliable substi- 
tute. One way and another I have got through the campaign, and what busi- 
ness I have retained crowds upon me with the necessity of meeting my profes- 
sional adversaries in all quarters and in every way, now in New York, now 
in Buffalo, now at Utica, now in Albany, and now at home. That is, all at once. 
Nor are they men of straw, but men of mettle. I confess, then, that I cannot 
go to Albany, even to see you, before your departure, much less go to New York 
to take leave of Harriet and yourself. Yet I cannot let you depart without 
seeing you. Pray meet me at Utica on Saturday night. I will leave at 2 
p. m. and spend Sunday there. 

You have a very right article in Monday's paper. 



1844.] DEATH OF HIS MOTHER. 735 

Aubuen, November 26, 1844. 

Your flying epistle, written where yon were waiting for the chill blast that 
petrifies us, while it wafts you to sunny climes, was received this morning. 

I, like you, am suspected of treason to the Whig chieftain, because responsi- 
bility must be cast off upon us by those who led. Silence is interpreted guilt, 
sympathy as hypocrisy, frankness in considering the causes of our defeat as 
exultation. Happily, the judgment to be passed upon both you and me will be 
delayed until reason takes the place of shame and mortification on the part of 
accusers, and sympathy and despondency on the part of our judges. 

I believe you are now not only editor of, but proprietor in, the Evening Jour- 
nal. It is a happy settlement. The country press grows strong. If it had 
been so in years past, what a catastrophe would have been avoided ! 

I am on the tread-mill here, determined to keep my foothold. In haste 
and in much confusion I send this brief letter, hoping it may be in time for the 
first packet. 

Swift upon the heels of the public calamity came intelligence be- 
tokening domestic grief. On the 14th a letter from his father an- 
nounced the prospect of a fatal termination of his mother's disease. 
Taking the train the same afternoon, he went immediately to Florida, 
whence he wrote on the 16th to Mrs. Seward : 

Florida, Orange County, November 16, 1844. 
I was so fortunate as to find a day-boat on the river, and thus we were 
able to reach this place at six last evening. My mother, it appears, became 
worse immediately after I left on my last visit, and continued sinking until last 
Sunday, when they thought she would soon expire of strangulation. She ral- 
lied again on Monday, and it is a great satisfaction to me that I find her not 
only living, but rational, free from pain, and cheerful. I shall wait here until 
Monday, and then I must go to New York. If I hear nothing to alarm me 
while there, I will return to Albany by the middle of the week. But if, as I 
now anticipate, my mother's symptoms should become more unfavorable, I shall 
wait for the end. Her bedside is instructive since she exhibits all the meekness 
and all the affection that might be expected from one whose life and character 
had been so blameless and amiable. 

New York, Wednesday, November 20th. 

My business here is closed. I have received a letter from Florida, saying 
that my mother had a relapse, and they had no expectation of her surviving. I 
shall return there this afternoon. 

A temporary recovery, however, followed ; giving rise to delusive 
hopes of her restoration to health. Seward returned to Auburn, pass- 
ing a month in professional duties. During this period occurred the 
birth of a daughter, who was named Frances, after her mother. 

Meanwhile, the air was filled with news of public events in the dis- 
tant capitals. The electoral colleges of the various States were meet- 
ing and recording their forrnal suffrages for Polk and Dallas. Con- 
gress had assembled, and was arranging its programme for the annexa- 
tion of Texas, and the revision of the tariff ; while the quidnuncs and 



736 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1844. 



newspapers were busily engaged in constructing a cabinet for the new- 
ly-elected President. Uneasy doubts were afloat as to the possibili- 
ties of war with England about the Oregon boundary, and of war with 
Mexico about Texas. But it seemed agreed, by the Administration men 
and opposition alike, that governmental action on these questions was 
a foregone conclusion ; that Texas musthe taken, and that Oregon must 
in no case be given up. 

Another summons to Florida now called Seward from home. He 

wrote: 

Florida, December 20, 1844. 

I could scarcely describe to you the tedious journey I had from Auburn. 
Of course I was detained at night. The river was closed and I was shut in at 
Albany until Tuesday afternoon. I took the steamboat at Hudson, and made 
my way through the ice, and after a change of boats reached Newburg at two 
o'clock on Wednesday morning. There I learned that I was quite too late for 
the sad occasion which called me from home. The stage delivered me at Goshen, 
and I arrived here on Wednesday evening. 

My dear mother's remains were committed to the vault on Sunday with all 
the observances that respect and affection could suggest. I went into the house 
of the dead yesterday morning. On opening the coffin, the remains were found 
in perfect preservation, and the triumph of death appeared to be only the sweet- 
est and soundest sleep. I could not resist the belief that the closed eye was just 
about to beam upon me, and the lips seemed ready to break out with a blessing. 
I lingered there until the majesty of death seemed to be offended by so long an 
intrusion. 

My mother retained her memory, senses, and affections, until the last. Her 
last inquiry was whether there was a letter from me, and whether you had safely 
passed through your crisis, and she spake audibly within five minutes of her 
last breath. She died without convulsiou, and apparently without pain. 

I shall certainly leave here on Monday, and be at home within three days. 
Perhaps this letter may come later than I to our common destination. I can 
find nothing here to banish recollections of you and relieve the solicitude I feel 
about you and the babe. 

The river was closed for the winter, and it was necessary to return 
to Albany by stage-coach. One evening in the following week, while 
the family at Auburn were awaiting his coining by the evening train, 
the mail brought instead a letter to Mrs. Seward, in a strange hand. 

Stockport, four Miles from Hudson, December 2Uh. 
I am detained here for a day or two by the upsetting of the stage. A dislo- 
cation of the right shoulder obliges me to trust my surgeon to write for me. 
The dislocation has been reduced, and I am not otherwise injured. Do not 
think of coming or sending for me. 

The anxiety and alarm which this produced were hardly relieved by 
the more circumstantial account of the accident that the next mail 
brought, from a kind-hearted Quaker friend : 



1844.] A DISLOCATED SHOULDER. ;,•;- 

Stockport, Columbia Cotjxtt, December 27//t. 
By request of thy husband, I write to inform thee that, as he wrote yester- 
day, he was thrown from a seat on the stage with the driver, by the breaking of 
the axle-tree. He was removed, without much pain, to the house of Ezekiel 
Butler, who has treated him with much kindness. The arm was dislocated and 
the hip somewhat bruised. The dislocation was reduced immediately by Dr. 
Bush, a surgeon of the neighborhood, who seemed quite competent to perform 
the operation. Since then, B*rs. W. and G. II. White have visited him, and in- 
stituted a very thorough examination, which resulted in the conclusion that no 
other injury than the dislocation of the arm had been inflicted. The examina- 
tion is to be resumed to-day ; but he has no doubt, from his increasing comfort, 
that the above opinion will be confirmed. He desires me to say that he is doing 
as well as possibly can be expected, and has no doubt that he will be able to 
return home before long, and he desires that thou wilt not think of coming or 
sending, as everything necessary is done for him, and as the exposure would 
therefore be unnecessary. William Wood knows the location of the house 
where he is, which is about four miles from Hudson, and ten miles south of 
Kinderhook. Thy father will know William Wood, of Grover Street'. 

Very respectfully thy friend, 

Jonx Stanton Gould. 

The newspapers also brought details more or less authentic. He had 

been riding, as was his custom, on the upper seat with the driver, in 

order to smoke and look at the country. The ground was frozen hard, 

with but little snow 7 ; and when the stage broke down the fall was 

severe. Happily, the other passengers escaped with slight injuries. 

His own, though very painful, and involving probably a stiffened arm, 

would not cause its loss. It was his right shoulder and hip that were 

disabled. On the Sunday following the disaster he contrived to write 

a few lines with his own hand : 

Stockport, Sunday, December 29tJ/. 

You will recognize my hand, I hope, in tliis irregular scrawl, and will derive 
confidence in my speedy recovery. My right arm gradually submits itself to 
my will, but I cannot yet rest upon it, or make it effective with a cane. At the 
same time the severe sprain of the muscles of my right leg has rendered them 
even more useless and more painful than the disabled arm. In consequence, I* 
have not been able to get in or out of bed, to lift myself into a sitting posture, 
to turn over, or aid myself in any way. My severest suffering now consists in 
the electric-like shock of my wounded limb whenever I cough. But I am going 
along nicely. Every day I am a little better, and I shall certainly reach home 
by Thursday or Friday, I think. I want Mr. Morgan to write to the Chief- 
Justice, care of S. Stevens at Albany, stating my misfortune, and have me ex- 
cused from attending the term of court for two weeks. This family and com- 
munity are kind to me beyond description. Every want is anticipated, and the 
whole county vie in manifestations of sympathy and offers of aid. The family 
nurse me here tenderly. . . . [Here it becomes illegible.] 

Friends from Albany, among them Lewis Benedict and Rufus 
King, hastened down to Stockport to visit the sufferer, and do what 
4? 



7 oq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

they could for his relief. In each of their letters, as well as in his own, 
he reiterated his request to Mrs. Seward not to think of leaving home 
in her present enfeebled condition, and assuring her that he would 
soon be able to make the journey homeward. King, his former Adju- 
tant-General, was to remain in the vicinity, having gone with a com- 
pany of volunteers as a part of the military force under the proclama- 
tion of Governor Bouck to suppress anti-rent disturbances in Columbia 
County. 



CHAPTER LVII. 
1845. 



Convalescence.— At "Work again. — The Greeley and Co >per Case. — Polk's Administration. 
— The Antislavery Movement. — Letter to Chase. — House and Grounds. — Birds and 
Dogs. 

Early in January, Seward was removed to his home in Auburn. 
His injuries proved to have been more severe than was at first sup- 
posed, and a long time elapsed before he had completely recovered 
from them. Impatient to resume work, he insisted upon making the 
painful effort to reach his law-office, on crutches, at the earliest mo- 
ment. His first use of his arm was, of course, to write, but many 
months passed before he was able to lift it to his head, or even enough 
to fasten his cravat. It was not until March that he was able to write 
to Mr. Weed, who v. T as yet at Santa Cruz : 

Aubuen, March 3, 1845. 

God knows whether this reply to your kind salutation from the orange- 
groves, in mid-winter, will reach your retreat before you have taken flight, with 
the bobolinks, for these more temperate climes. Still I cannot deny myself 
the pleasure of writing. We are all rejoiced to hear such good assurances of 
Harriet's recovery; and we try to think that you suppress all mention of your 
own disease because it is forgotten in convalescence. Nevertheless, we know 
you too well for that. I was indeed sorely bruised, and the casualty was most 
unfortunate. Two months' confinement in a sick-chamber, following six months' 
abstraction from business, was in my circumstances a great, though, God lie 
praised, not an irretrievable disaster. But I am now well, and working in the 
midst of business accumulating beyond my powers. 

I have lost my mother, but she has gone to the regions of the blessed; and I 
would not let the birds and flowers charm her back if they could. Our house is 
cheered with the advent of a daughter — a blessing long and graciously deferred. 

The newspapers tell you more about politics than I could prudently write. 

After illness he was never willing to spend a long period of con- 
valescence in the sick-chamber. He v T as always out rather earlier than 



1845.] AT WORK AGAIN. 739 

either the nurse deemed prudent, or the doctor thought wise. Once 
out, he would be at work, even at the risk of a relapse. 

One of the inconveniences of this accident was that, for a long time, 
lie was unable to shave himself. He had naturally a very strong beard. 
In his youth it was the inexorable fashion for every gentleman to be 
closely shaven, and beards or mustaches were thought to imply either 
a foreigner or an adventurer. Though the fashion changed, he adhered 
through life to his early custom of shaving, at least once and sometimes 
twice a day. He looked with little favor upon the innovation since 
become so general. When asked about it, he used to relate with a 
smile that, once in his youth, he was beguiled into raising a pair of 
whiskers, but when they grew he found they were red, like Mr. Van 
Buren's, and so shaved them off immediately. 

While always scrupulously careful in regard to shaving, etc., he 
bestowed little attention upon his dress, further than to see that it was 
neat, and conformed to the general usage. He habitually wore a black 
suit, though he occasionally substituted gray clothes for traveling. 

After laying aside his crutches, he was still obliged for some time to 
use a cane. "When completely recovered, he did not relinquish ii, but 
usually, though not invariably, took it when going out to walk. 

He w r as accustomed to say that it was a convenience after reaching 
forty-five years to have a cane at night to warn him about steps and 
curbstones ; and, though he had no use for it by day, he carried it then 
in order to remember to take it at night. 

It was also at about the age of forty-five that he put on his first 
pair of spectacles, having been warned that the effort to do without 
them, especially in the evening, would prove injurious. Always after- 
ward it was his habit to use them when at work, but he took them off 
when conversing or otherwise engaged. He never used them to look 
at people, or at distant objects. For such purposes his eyes always re- 
mained sufficiently good without assistance. He had one pair of light- 
framed gold spectacles, and another, with still lighter steel frames, kept 
in reserve wdien the first should be lost. But in this respect he was 
fortunate, as they were si Mom mislaid, perhaps because the frequency 
with which he took book or pen brought the habit of keeping the 

ctacles constantly at hand. 

Political events were absorbing public attention this spring, for they 
were of high importance. The joint resolution for the annexatioi 
Texas had passed both Houses of Congress. While receiving the support 
of the Democrats in general, and encountering the opposition of the 
Whigs, yet neither parly was quite unanimous. Twenty-three Dem- 
ocratic representatives had had the independence to vote against it, 
and four Southern Whigs in each House had voted for it. President 
Tyler affixed his signature in approval of it on the 1st of March, and 



740 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

the next day dispatched a messenger to Texas to obtain her assent. 
In three days more his Administration and the Twenty-eighth Con- 
gress ended. But they gave place to successors equally determined to 
make the annexation an accomplished fact. 

Toward the close of April, Seward wrote to Weed : 

Lyons, April 28, 1845. 

The mail of last night brought information of your arrival. I left Auburn 
at sunrise this morning, and so I have had no earlier opportunity to bid you wel- 
come. You are very wise, and I doubt not have properly left Harriet to a few 
more weeks' exemption from our fitful northern winds. 

I think that you will find political affairs here in a way of quite as much 
prosperity as our impulsive and short-sighted friends could endure without 
danger. But of this we will discourse when you shall have sounded the ground. 
It is vacation with Fred, who attends the academy at Auburn, with Clarence, 
who is a Freshman at Geneva, and with Mary, my brother's daughter, who is a 
pupil at Auburn. I have brought them all here to enjoy a balmy country ride 
in April. Confining myself to the cause I came here to try, I hope to leave this 
town to-morrow, and after a day or two to take you by the hand in Albany on 
my way to New York. 

"What strange work you have made of our correspondence during the winter ! 
It is fortunate for you that you did not let me know where letters would find 
you. If ever mortal man had cause to sink into despondency and gloom, it was 
my case in January when left to the solitude of my sick-chamber. But it is all 
over. Although I cannot lift my hand, even to greet your return to your native 
land, I am prosperous and cheerful. 

Called again to New York the first week in May, Seward spent 
some time there in attendance upon the Supreme Court. There were 
several causes which he was "waiting to argue. The most important of 
them was the libel-suit of Greeley ads. Cooper. 

Astor House, Mat/ 13, 1845. 

I have spent, as usual, an unprofitable season here. Every morning I have 
gone to court at ten, expecting that I should that day reach and argue my 
cause, and have come away at three, when the court adjourned, without having 
scarcely seen an approximation to my first case. 

It would not be easy to give you the impression that is made upon me by 
what befalls me. It is far less kind and courteous than it once was, and yet 
there is a great melioration of the prejudices and passions excited during the 
past three or four years. I am at No. 11 of the Astor House, in the second 
story, a room combining the comforts of a parlor with that of a dormitory. 
The everlasting clatter of Broadway has become familiar music. Bowen is 
with me; we breakfast together in my room, and I see little of the crowd 
that fills up this huge caravansary, for I have dined at home but twice, and 
only once at the taMe-cVhote. 

I have seen Mrs. Bowen, who has renewed her health and beauty, the 
Doanes, warm-hearted and grateful as in the first hour, the Blatchfords, the 
Minturns, and made an excursion to Paterson, with a party who visited Ros- 



1S45.] THE GREELEY AND COOPER CASE. 741 

well L. Colt at his magnificent palace. By contrast with this I dropped on 
Saturday night into the quarters of Horace Greeley, where I witnessed the 
efforts of a speculative philosopher to convert the present modes of civilization 
into an anticipation of the simplicity and frugality of the Fourier system. 

The Greeley case stands at eighty-six, and the court are now hearing fifty- 
five. I hope to he heard to-morrow or the next day. 

I have read the "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," and shall 
bring it with me for your perusal. It is a hook, valuable at least because it 
is a compendium and summary of the instructions given by astronomy and ge- 
ology down to the most recent date. It teaches a bold and startling cosmog- 
ony, and invades the existing theology in a manner which draws down upon 
its author the anathemas of the clergy. Its theory is that there was an origi- 
nal design in creation, and that the universe gradually assumes its constitution 
by fixed and invariable laws and in consequence of them, and that the prog- 
ress is certain and inevitable in accordance with the purposes of the divine 
mind. Of course, it clashes with the doctrine of a special superintendence and 
constant regulation by Providence, and is said to tend toward pantheism. 

I am constantly thinking about the repairs of the garden and the grounds, 
and have at last hit upon a plan for enlarging our parlor, which I shall be 
happy to submit to you when I reach home, and which I hope we may carry 
into effect this summer if it meet your approval. 

The " Vestiges of Creation " here alluded to was the pioneer of 
several works based upon similar theories, which have attracted more 
or less of public attention, and which culminated in what is now 
known as the Darwinian theory. It had as yet gained no very strong- 
party of adherents, though it had excited some curiosity and much 
criticism. 

The improvements at Auburn referred to were a continuation of 
the projects of former years. The study of such improvements to 
house or grounds was a kind of recreation, recurring each season when 
he had leisure hours at home. Two or three different plans for the 
enlargement of the house had been considered, but, as one objection 
and another presented themselves, had been laid aside. Meanwhile he 
continued each spring to add to the shrubbery and trees, which, as they 
grew, were beginning to transform door-yard and garden into groves 
and thickets. One plan adopted this year had long been a favorite 
one. This was to take away all the interior fences, and to surround 
the grounds with a high, dark-green lattice. 

The argument in the Greeley case came on at last. A brief ex- 
tract from his speech in behalf of the defendant will show its tenor : 

The undesigned encroachments on personal rights in the law of libel have 
at length brought a conflict between the judiciary and the press. 

The press is a necessary, a potential institution in our democratic system. 
It is the agent by which the people acquire the information they need in re- 
gard to the conduct of every department of the government, the judicial as 



m 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 



-well as the legislative and executive authorities. All these departments, as 
well as the public conduct of all citizens, are subjected to the scrutiny of an 
all-powerful and all-controlling public opinion, ascertained, collected, and pro- 
nounced, by the public press. That public opinion is higher than courts, and 
will when it is necessary, correct even judicial errors. The conductors of the 
press have legitimate functions to perform, and if they perform them honestly, 
fairly, and faithfully, tbey ought to be upheld, favored, and protected, rather 
than discouraged, embarrassed, and oppressed. Under such circumstances it is 
neither -wise, nor will it be successful, to enforce on* an honest, enlightened, and 
patriotic journal the rules of libel established in the worst of times in Eng- 
land, that, if a publication.renect upon any man or magistrate, it shall be pre- 
/, without proof, and against all rational presumption of candor and fair- 
ness that the error was intentional, malicious, and malignant, and that vindic- 
tive damages shall be awarded where an honest but unsuccessful effort to justify 
is made. 

Far wiser and better would it be to open the doors wider to defense in such 
cases, and to restore the ancient English law. If this course is not taken, the 
action of libel will, more and more, be relinquished by good men for whom it 
was designed, and be left to fall more completely into the hands of litigious 
and corrupt men, as an engine of extortion and oppression. 

The argument was published on the 22d of May, and Seward was 
left free to return to Albany. 

On the 26th he wrote to Salmon P. Chase, Samuel Lewis, and oth- 
ers, in reply to an invitation to a " Southern and Western Convention 
of the Friends of Constitutional Liberty." The result of the presi- 
dential election of the preceding year had shown that the votes cast 
for Birney had been ineffectual in stopping the annexation of Texas 
and the extension of slavery, as they perhaps might have done if 
cast for Clay. Wiser counsels were now prevailing among leaders of 
antislavery sentiment, and they perceived the necessity of broader and 
more comprehensive action. The letter to Seward informed him that 
the convention would not be composed exclusively of members of the 
Liberty party, but would be open to all who were resolved to use 
every constitutional and honorable means to effect the extinction of 
slavery in their respective States, and its reduction to its constitu- 
tional limits in the United States. In his answer he remarked : 

Men differ much in temperament and susceptibility, and are so variously 
situated that they receive from the same causes very unequal impressions. It 
is not in human nature that all who desire the abolition of slavery should be 
inflamed with equal zeal, and different degrees of fervor produce different opin- 
ions concerning the measures proper to be adopted. Great caution is neces- 
sary, therefore, to preserve mutual confidence and harmony. 

I am far from denying that any class of abolitionists has done much good 
for their common cause, hut I think the whole result has been much diminished 
by the angry conflicts between them, often on mere metaphysical questions. I 
sincerely hope that these conflicts may now cease. 



1845. J THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 743 

In many of the free States there is a large mass of citizens disfranchised on 
the ground of color. They must he invested with the right of suffrage. Give 
them this right, and their influence will he immediately felt in the national coun- 
cils ; and, it is needless to say, will be cast in favor of those who uphold the 
cause of human liberty. We must resist unceasingly the admission of slave 
States, and urge and demand the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
We have secured the right of petition, but the Federal Government continues 
to be swerved by the influences of slavery, as before. This tendency can and 
must be counteracted. Amendments to the Constitution may be initiated, and 
the obstacles in the way of emancipation will no longer appear insurmountable. 

The slavery question was not only beginning to be a disorganizing 
element in politics, but was entering into religious discussions. The 
Methodists, North and South, were becoming arrayed in two antago- 
nistic organizations. The Presbyterian conventions and General Assem- 
bly were debating, though not dividing, and there was an uneasy feel- 
ing among other denominations as to the path of religious duty on 
the subject. The disputants on both sides were earnest, and doubtless 
generally sincere. Each found, or thought they found, in the Script- 
ures, warrant for their belief. The antislavery men were clear that 
to hold a fellow-being in slavery was incompatible with the golden 
rule of the New Testament, while the pro-slavery men intrenched 
themselves behind the anathema of the Old Testament, " Cursed be 
Canaan." 

Albany remained the scene of Democratic discord up to, and even 
after, the adjournment of the Legislature. When that body finally sep- 
arated, it was evident that the " Barnburners " had gained ground in 
the struggle. The Constitutional Convention project had been adopted. 
Governor Wright had vetoed the canal bill, and was claimed to be in 
entire sympathy with that faction. He had even addressed a letter to a 
" Barnburner " meeting. Each party issued an address to the people, 
recapitulating the events of the session, and justifying their own action. 

Affairs at Washington were moving rapidly and steadily on in the 
direction given to them at the presidential election. Mr. Polk's Ad- 
ministration was dispensing patronage amid a " rush for spoils," and 
vigorously pushing the Texas scheme. The Oregon question con- 
tinued to excite apprehensions of difficulty with England. Two im- 
portant measures had been inaugurated, however, about which there 
was no party dispute. One was the construction of lines of telegraph 
along the lines of the principal railways. The other and kindred meas- 
ure of progress was cheap postage, which was now to have a trial. 
The rates were reduced to five and ten cents for short and long dis- 
tances. Immediately the volume of letters in the mails began to per- 
ceptibly increase. Inventors, too, found a new field in devising deli- 
cate scales for ascertaining the half-ounce weight. 



-44 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

One evening this summer Mr. and Mrs. Seward were gratified by a 
visit from their old friends, Governor and Mrs. Davis, of Massachusetts, 
who paused over Sunday on their way to Niagara. Next morning 
they resumed their journey, with mutual regrets that they did not live 
nearer together, where they could meet oftener than once in a twelve- 
month. Among other visitors with whom he exchanged civilities, while 
passing through Auburn this summer, were Mr. and Mrs. Abbott Law- 
rence, who were on their way to spend Sunday at Mr. Granger's, and 
to go thence to Niagara. Auburn was at this period on the main 
line of travel from Albany to Buffalo; and, as it was a convenient half- 
way point in the two days' journey, many travelers preferred to stop 
overnight. The hotels were doing a prosperous business, which dimin- 
ished as the facilities for more rapid travel increased. Seward's house 
was seldom without guests in the summer season. The welcome wdiich 
always awaited his friends, and the various political or professional 
questions upon which he was engaged, brought so many visitors that 
it w T as not unfrequently a puzzling question where guests were to sleep. 
It was partly from this cause that the house was so frequently enlarged 
by additions. Each summer since he came from Albany he had been 
making repairs and improvements. Some of his friends looked with 
regret upon these evidences of his intention to continue to reside per- 
manently at Auburn ; and several, at different times, endeavored to 
convince him that the State or national capital, or the city of New 
York, offered a far more convenient and congenial field for professional 
or political effort, and urged him to change his residence. But his 
preference for Auburn grew deeper as time went on ; and, for the resi- 
due of his life, he always regarded it as his only real home, and the 
one to which he was alwaj^s intending to return. Mrs. Seward's strong 
attachment for the home of her childhood doubtless had great influence 
upon his purpose. He used to humorously tell her, however, that by- 
and-by it would be she who would wish to move away. " Your boys 
will grow up, and, like the rest of the world, will go to the West. 
Would you be content to live away from your children ? No ! You, 
like a good mother, will follow your boys ; and I, like a good husband, 
shall have to follow you." 

The completion of the high, green fence, and the two square col- 
umns of rough stone at each side of the gate, the gravel-walk along 
the front, and the putting of new roofs upon the buildings, it was con- 
cluded, would be enough of improvement for the present year, and the 
plans for interior alteration were deferred. 

There was never a time when the house at Auburn was without its 
dogs and cats and birds. Though not a connoisseur in any species of 
pot animals, he liked them all, and had no aversions. His letters occa- 
sionally refer to them by name. A favorite project of his, though 



1845.] BIRDS AND DOGS. 745 

never carried into execution, was to construct an aviary in the garden, 
" if lie should ever be rich enough." 

Dick and Bob, the canary and mocking bird so often alluded 
to, had been great favorites at Albany, and were brought hence to 
Auburn. Both were fine singers. Their cages used to hang, in sum- 
mer, on the branches of a tree in the garden. Their winters were 
passed either in the library or hall ; and the former never failed in his 
chirp of welcome to his master in return for his greeting. 

" Snip " was a reddish-brown spaniel, who had come to the house 
under circumstances leading to the suspicion that he had been harshly 
treated in his former home, wherever that might be. He had learned 
various tricks of standing, sitting up, begging', jumping, climbing, etc., 
and was, of course, at once a great favorite with the children. 

Great was their consternation, one day, when a boy appeared, who 
announced himself as Snip's owner, and led him away by a rope. But 
three hours later Snip reappeared with a huge piece of iron dangling 
from his neck, intended to keep him from jumping the fences, but 
which had failed of its purpose. Not long after followed the owner, to 
reclaim his " fugitive from service." But Seward, willingly yielding 
to the children's entreaties, bought the dog. Thenceforward Snip 
remained a member of the family for life. 

The grounds about the house, in fact, were always, more or less,. a 
city of refuge for unfortunate animals. Stray dogs or cats, finding 
food and shelter, were much inclined to take up their permanent abode 
there. 

The birds very early learned that no fowling-piece was allowed on 
the premises, and the consequence was that the trees were vocal with 
matin and even song of robins, sparrows, cat-birds, and orioles. The 
city grew up around the grove, but the birds never forsook their accus- 
tomed haunt. Swallows twittered in the chimneys, and blackbirds 
chattered in the tree-tops. It was one of his especial pleasures to sit 
on the terrace at sunset to watch and listen to the birds returning to 
their nests. 

On one occasion he invited his guests to rise with him at daybreak 
on a May morning to solve a doubt which had arisen as to whether the 
morning voice of birds was really, as poets fancy, a hymn of praise, 
or was merely family squabbling as to who should get up first and get 
breakfast. 

The events of the summer had some features of interest and impor- 
tance. Nearly every week brought conflicting reports from the national 
capital : one day, "rumors of wars," and the next, assurances of p 
through diplomacy. But, in any case, it was asserted, Texas was to 
be annexed, and Oregon to be retained. 

The discussions about Oregon, and the probability of ordering troops 



74(3 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

thither in view of frontier troubles, had the effect of stimulating emi- 
gration to that region. Trains of covered wagons, loaded with fami- 
lies and household goods, were already in motion from the Western cit- 
ies, on the long and weary journey across the Plains toward the Colum- 
bia River. 

In the State, the Whig newspapers called attention to the fact that 
Seward's policy in regard to the New York common schools, which 
was, a few years before, the theme of so much contention, was now in 
successful operation, creating hardly a ripple of dissent. 

The temperance reform continued to make progress. The Astor 
House was to be put on the temperance plan. A new temperance 
hotel was to be opened in Albany, under the title of the "Delavan 
House." The question of "license or no license" was to be determined 
by the residents of each town, and it was confidently expected that, in 
the rural districts, the sale of liquor for intoxicating purposes would 
thus be prohibited, and licenses only permitted in the larger cities. 

A novel enterprise, having the flavor of the romances of the "Pi- 
rate's Own Book," was in progress this summer, at the foot of the Dun- 
derberg, on the Hudson River. The steamboat captains pointed out as 
they passed the spot where dupes of the project were wasting their 
money upon a coffer-dam, derricks, etc., in the vain hope of getting 
more from the bottom of the river. There, as the tale ran, the pirate 
Captain Kidd had sunk a vast amount of gold, silver, jewels, and other 
booty. 

One day in June a case at Oswego called Seward there to court. 
Taking a light wagon, and accompanied by one of his sons, he drove 
over from Auburn, crossing the Seneca River, and skirting along the 
beach of Lake Ontario. The long summer day was just drawing to a 
close as they entered the streets of Oswego and found the villagers 
gazing expectantly toward the fort on the heights overlooking the har- 
bor. At sunset the guns pealed forth a funeral salute to the memory 
of an ex-President. The death of General Jackson had just been offi- 
cially announced from Washington. 



1845.] WESTERN TRIP. 747 

CHAPTER LVIII. 

1845. 

Trip to Lake Superior. — Cleveland. — Detroit. — Lake Huron. — The Chippewas. — The Mani- 
tou. — French Missionaries. — Mackinac. — Henry R. Schoolcraft. — Sault Ste. Marie. — 
Down the Rapids. — Wigwam-Life. 

The opening- of July found Seward arranging his professional af- 
fairs with reference to a protracted absence. He had decided to accom- 
pany his friends Bowen and Hawley up the Great Lakes, for a summer 
excursion. Mrs. Bowen was to remain with Mrs. Seward, at Auburn, 
while their husbands were absent on the trip. Mr. Hawley was to join 
them at Buffalo. 

The story of his journey was given in the letters which he wrote 
home from various points on the way. 

American Hotel, Buffalo, July 'Mh. 
The steamship waits impatiently, and the omnihns is at the doer; in another 
hour we shall be on the wave. Our party remains without enlargement. Colonel 
Bowen, Mr. Hawley, and myself. We shall touch at Fairport and at Cleveland, 
and reach Detroit to-morrow morning; thence to Mackinac, where we go to 
the Sault Ste. Marie. Our plans are not tixed further than this, but will be modi- 
fied by circumstances and regard to time. We had a visit of six hours at Canan- 
daigua, arrived at Rochester at three this morning, left, there at eight, and dined 
here. 

Adieu, till you hear of us in the West. 

Cleveland, J7nirsdaj/, July \§(h. 

Our noble boat, after making great speed to this port, atones for it by loiter- 
ing eight long hours under the sandy bluffs of Cleveland. The weather is in- 
tensely hot. We have killed two hours by a ride through the town, and one by 
dinner. 

I could sleep, I suppose, but it seems much better t > write a Hying note to 
you. 

Night closed upon us, a bright and balmy night, as we passed Point Albino. 
The lake was as smooth as a meadow. I was weary, and found my bed early ; 
and such a bed ! it would tempt even you to an excursion on the Lakes. The 
Wisconsin is a floating palace, two hundred feet long. It has, besides accommo- 
dations for freight and steerage-passengers, three long cabins or saloons, and 
forty or fifty state-rooms. One of them, as large as my own bedroom at home, 
is set apart for the captain's use. It has a large French bedstead, with a mat- 
tress; and there are a table, and sofa, and three mahogany chairs. The room 
opens to the air, and is perfectly ventilated abaft the wheels. It is quiet and 
secluded. 

I looked out this morning upon a smooth sea, which had no landmarks. At 
eight o'clock we dropped in at Fairport, the haven of Painesville, at \\\q mouth 
of Grand Pliver. Three hours afterward we made this harbor. Cleveland was 
a village of twenty-five hundred people when I was here in 1829 ; now it num- 
bers twelve thousand, and rejoices in the franchises and fame of a city. 



743 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

The streets are sandy, but imperfectly paved. The town is at the termina- 
tion of the Ohio Canal, which connects the Ohio River with the lake, a wedding 
of the Mississippi with the St. Lawrence. I have never seen a neater or more 
beautiful town than Cleveland, and yet it is not a novel sight to the New York 
traveler. It is built like the New York towns — like Rochester, Buffalo, Geneva, 
Auburn, and Syracuse. It affects New York manners and taste. Imitation of 
New York meets you everywhere. The merchants display this ambition very 
ostentatiously: "New York & Ohio Line," "New York Emporium,' 1 " New- 
York Grocery Store," etc., etc. 

Colonel Bowen, Mr. Hawley, and I, rode through the streets, parks, and 
beautiful suburbs, looking upon the lake, and then returned to the boat to dine. 

Here I have been visited by an occasional caller, and now we are impatient 
to renew our travels. What a power there is iu steam ! Since Monday morn- 
ing there have been four days. I have been at Auburn, at Utica, at Auburn 
again, at Canandaigua, at Buffalo, and here, two hundred miles from the latter 
place; have slept every night, and had many hours of rest in every place. 

Our boat bears one passenger who exhibits himself as a "reformed gam- 
bler," and is of course quite a lion. He delivered what he called a lecture, 
in the cabin, this morning. It consisted, chiefly, in giving an account in detail 
of low and cunning frauds, practised by him upon dupes before his reformation. 
And he illustrated by exhibiting the modes of cheating at cards. How very un- 
suspecting this world is! I could plainly see that he enjoyed a high and pleas- 
ing excitement in narrating his villainies; yet his simple audience were satisfied 
that he was a saint not excelled but by St. Paul. 

We leave the wharf here at eight to-night, and in eight hours will reach De- 
troit. I shall be abroad early iu the morning to see the straits at Maiden, and 
the river that stretches from the lake to Detroit. 

We remain at that place only three hours, and those too early to allow us to 
visit anybody. We are obliged to go on in order to secure an entrance to Lake 
Superior. 

Steamek Wisconsin, on Lake Hukon, | 
Saturday Morning, July 12th. ) 

We have reeled off seven hundred miles, and still our course is onward. 
Lake St. Clair is separated from Lake Erie by the river Detroit, which is a 
majestic stream about fifty miles long. The part of the river below Detroit is 
filled with beautiful islands; the shores are low and often marshy. Above De- 
troit the river has several courses, flowing through an almost boundless marsh. 
At a distance of seven miles there are sand-bars which offer an ineffectual barrier 
to the floods of Lake Huron. As we approach Lake Huron, the channel is very 
narrow, and the course of vessels is indicated by stakes, fixed in the sand-bars, 
and projecting above the water. 

Passing these, we found the river contracted into a narrow, deep, rapid flood, 
with a current of five miles an hour. Surmounting this, we emerged upon the 
vast flood of Lake Huron. We came up the St. Clair with a south wind under 
the fierce blaze of a July sun. As we floated into the Lake, a strong north wind 
saluted us with revivifying sternness. We kept within a mile or two of the 
American shore, and for hour after hour saw the British shore recede from us, 
until only a wide waste of waters lay at our right hand. A road presses the 
river-bank of the St. Clair on either side, with habitations and towns less elegant 



1845.] THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES. 749 

than those we see in our older regions, but still evincing a respectable degree of 
improvement. 

Fort Gratiot is at the mouth of Lake Huron, and presented the neat, quiet 
aspect of a military post in a time of profound peace. 

We have now followed six hundred miles the line which separates our country 
from the sister republic that is content to remain a dependency on a European 
state. At some places the shores of the two countries are seventy or eighty 
miles apart ; at others the people can hail each other across the channel. 

Our hospitable steward spread for us last night a supper of woodcock, oys- 
ters, and lobster. Of course, we made a late sitting. "When wo awoke this 
morning we had passed Saginaw Bay. The Thunder Bay Island, Presque Isle, 
and the western shore of the lake bay, stretched out at our left hand. Before 
us, and on our right, was a boundless sea, and behind us the waves were lighted 
up with the blaze of the sun. 

At ten, last night, we passed a fire on the shore, and since that the spy-glass 
discloses no sign of human habitation. Northern Michigan lies off at our left, 
an unbroken forest of vast extent. 

We are now following the shore as it winds to the northwest, and three or 
four hours' sail will bring us to the straits of Michilimackinac. It is a hundred 
and seventy years since the white man reached these straits. He came in the 
character of a missionary — a Jesuit. He found the red children of the forest 
Avorshiping the unknown god, the Manitou, and Lake Superior was the home 
of the divinity, and the Greater and Lesser Manitoulin Islands, in Lake Huron, 
the Olympus, where he loved to be worshiped, and to reveal his will to those 
who sought him. The Jesuits planted the cross on those favored spots, ami re- 
vealed to them that Jehovah was the Manitou ; that he had descended to the 
earth in the far-distant regions where the sun rises, had taken upon himself the 
nature and form of man for his redemption, had again put off mortality and 
ascended to the skies, and had sent the white man to his red brother to win him 
from the savage rites of the forest to the abodes of bliss by the practice of virtue. 
How persuasive was the first mission of the white man in this northern region ! 
How different from the spirit in which Christianity came to the red man in the 
southern regions of the continent ! There it came with chains, fire, and sword, 
and it waged a war of extermination. Here it came in the prayers of the mis- 
sionary and the martyr. The Jesuit shrived the savage who felled him to the 
earth with his tomahawk. The southern missionary and the northern taught 
the same faith — the Latin creed. But the missionary to Peru was a Spaniard ; 
the missionary to Huron was a Frenchman. Can it be that the national charac- 
ters of these people made this strange difference ? 

But where now is the French missionary? He sleeps in the valleys of the 
West. And the simple races into whose wondering ears he poured the mysteries 
of Christ's incarnation? They have been driven with the elk and the buffalo be- 
yond the Mississippi; and the white man is crowding all into the Pacific. 

Sault Ste. Makie, Tuesday^ July Wth. 

I have come from the little crowded tavern on shore to the steamboat, that 

lies at the foot of the Sault, to take leave of you before I resume my pilgrimage 

to Lake Superior. The passengers have all gone ashore, the deck of the boat is 

clear of obstruction, and Betsey, the half-breed chambermaid, has brought out 



750 LIFE AND LETTERS - C 1845 - 

from the cabin a mahogany stand. I have promised her that, for all this kind- 
ness, she shall have all that the new post-office law saves me in postage on this 
letter. Well, here we are, at the foot of the Rapids of St. Mary. Tradition 
and imagination are entitled to half the merit of all the importance they own. 
If you can find a map at all perfect, you will find that there is a west passage on 
the eastern shore of Lake Huron, between Drummond Island and Sugar Island. 
We sailed from Mackinac across the lake, and entered this passage, which is 
the debouche of the St. Mary, and we floated up its strong current, now wide 
as Tappan Day, and now contracted to the width of the Oswego River — passing 
a thousand beautiful islands, and seeing a hundred nameless hills, which take 
the importance of mountains, while the national flag, seen floating from the 
battlements of Fort Brady, signified to us that we were at the Sault. 

Happily General Brady and his suite were on board the boat. They had 
come for the annual inspection and review. So we landed, under a salute given 
to the general from the fort. This place has from time immemorial been a 
station of the Hudson Bay Company, of the American Fur Company, of the 
Catholic and the Protestant missionaries, and it has therefore happened that the 
hanks of the river, for a mile or more on both sides, are crowned with rude 
farm-houses and assume some appearance of civilization. The Rapids of St. 
Mary are less majestic than those of the Niagara, and more imposing than those 
on the Mohawk. They reach the length of one mile, and, above that distance, 
the river flows, as we are told, in a broad, deep current. It is twenty miles 
from the head of the rapids to the lake. 

There may be fifty dwellings here, chiefly of French and Indian half-breeds. 
We slept last night nine in a room, and our table at the hotel was of the rudest 
kind. Last evening I walked into what is called " The Bower," a wood that 
lies along the rapids on the American shore. I found it filled with Indian wig- 
wams, and their tenants a harmless, inoffensive people, ignorant of our lan- 
guage, and not offended by our intrusion into their circle while they were pre- 
paring their rude evening meal of potatoes. An hour afterward an Indian 
half-breed gentleman, and a young lady of the same race, from Green Bay, in- 
vited me to walk with them. Under their conduct I returned to "The Bower." 
They saluted the inhabitants kindly, in the Chippewa and in the French lan- 
guage, and instantly Indian hospitality was unlocked, and men, women, and 
papooses were free to garrulity. I found they looked upon the half-breeds as 
persons of their own race, fortunately elevated, and were flattered by their 
attention. I spent a long hour in traversing this strange camp, in which each 
family occupied a wigwam made in circular form of birch-bark. Here they spend 
the summer in taking white-fish, herring, and trout. In the winter they return 
to their dwellings in the recesses of the forest. The pertinacity of these people 
in clinging to their Indian customs is astonishing. No one can tempt an Indian 
child from his home, or, if so rare an event occurs, the educated savage returns 
to the life and society of his people. Each»family hag a delicately-formed birch 
canoe, a spear, and scoop-nets of larger and smaller size. The aged patriarch 
and the immature boy of twelve years, each, in turn, paddles this frail bark into 
the very centre of the rapids, and then, while one holds it in its unstable moor- 
ings, the other throws the net, happily, if in a long day's waste he brings to 
shore a dozen white-fish, which are immediately sold and packed for a market 
along I he lower lakes. 



1845.] ON LAKE SUPERIOR. 751 

General Brady invited us this morning to attend his review at the garrison. 
We found the officers leading an indolent life, neither enterprising nor intel- 
lectual; but we were kindly received, and our news, now a week old, was eagerly 
sought. Mr. Schoolcraft, the superintendent here, has furnished a boat, filled 
it with a tent and provisions, and manned it with five native voyageurs. It has 
already gone up to be launched above the rapids; I wait the summons to follow 
it to that place of embarkation. In an hour we shall be on the bosom of the 
Ste. Marie, above the region of its disturbances, and to-night we shall encamp 
half-way from this place to the lake. 

To-morrow morning we expect to look out upon Lake Superior. Our ar- 
rangement contemplates a voyage, to be performed with sail or oar according 
to circumstances, one hundred and twenty miles to the Pictured Rocks. This, 
the great imaginative attraction of Lake Superior, will, it is said, gratify our 
curiosity and leave us to return to the lower regions where our lot is cast, re- 
spectable for all after-life ; although, as good Christians, we cannot expect it 
will, like the pilgrimage to Jordan, insure our salvation in the next. The voy- 
age will detain us five days, it is said, or somewhat more if the winds be ad- 
verse. No human habitation disfigures the majestic solitudes which we seek, but 
rocks and forests that never heard the woodman's axe will afford us our bed 
and curtains. One might speculate profitably here on our national character. 
Here are fifty or sixty persons waiting for a passage up the lake. Except our- 
selves, all are going to explore the country for rumored mines of coppe: 
silver. We alone, of this great caravan, seek mere pleasure, information, or to 
commune with Nature. Returning from the lake, we shall go back hastily to 
Mackinac ; descending Lake Michigan from that place to Chicago, we shall 
spend a day there ; thence cross the peninsula of Michigan to Detroit, and return 
with dispatch to our long-forsaken homes. We have arrived at a point, I think, 
about on the forty-sixth parallel of latitude. The mid-day sun is enervating, but 
the evening breezes are cool and salubrious. The strawberry ripens now ; the 
chestnut is unknown here ; the currant has just acquired hardness enough for 
the kitchen-use ; the season for roses has come ; and, while we are spared the 
pestiferous heat of July, we are enjoying June for a second time. 

Steamboat General Scott, River £te. Maete, I 
Friday, July 17th (on our Descent to Mackinac). ) 

Through the politeness of Mr. Schoolcraft, and of the officers at Fort Brady, 
we were fitted out on Tuesday afternoon with all necessary appurtenances for 
an excursion to the Pictured Rocks — the great curiosity on Lake Superior. Our 
boat was an open vessel, having a sail as large as a sheet, with four oarsmen and 
a pilot in command. The wages of these men were one dollar each pel- day, and 
their provisions. The officers at Fort Brady lent us a tent, and we supplied our- 
selves with provisions. Our craft and stores were earned beyond the rapids; 
we followed them on foot, the distance three-quarters of a mile. 

At five o'clock in the afternoon we put our oars into the water, and bore off 
against the current, our voyageurs beincc half-breeds and Chippewa Indians. 
The river is everywhere as broad (above the falls) as the Hudson in Xev, I 
Bay. The sun poured down upon us intense heat ; but, full of expectation, and 
excited with so much that was wonderful, we shared the exhilaration of our 
boatmen, who signalized our departure with the melodious boat-songs in their 



^2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

several languages. Night met us at a distance of seven miles from the Sault, 
and we encamped on a peninsula called Point aux Pins (Pine-tree Point). Our 
barge was sheltered in a beautiful little bay; the shore was of clear sand, fringed 
with a border of Michigan roses, wild-snowballs, and sweetbrier. Inland the 
ground was covered with grass, and everywhere we gathered winter-green ber- 
ries, wild-gooseberries, and raspberries. In ten minutes our voyageurs had 
pitched our tent, kindled a brisk fire at the door, spread our mattress, and, in 
twice as many more, they set before us our supper of white-fish, trout, ham- 
and-eggs, tea, and biscuits. Until a late hour we strolled on the beach, and 
slept, after a long contest with the mosquitoes, who revenged themselves upon 
us when fatigue wearied us out of our power of resistance. 

The place of our encampment exhibited the ruins of a fort or breastwork, the 
history of which is unknown to us. Our guides had promised to awake us at 
sunrise, and as soon as day dawned we heard a crackling fire, and soon afterward 
the cheerful songs by which the voyageurs fulfilled their promise. Half an hour 
sufficed to strike the tent, and remove it and its contents to the boat. On wo 
went, passing Point aux Chenes, and arriving at seven o'clock, by the power of 
the oars alone, at Gros Cap, which, as well as our encampment, was within the 
dominions of Victoria. Gros Cap (Big Cape) is a towering peninsula on the 
coast, crowned with a thick forest. As we approached, we discovered a canoe, 
perceptible at first only to our voyageurs. who have practised eyes. By-and-by, 
Indians were seen on the eminence, regarding our approach with much curiosity. 
"When we came within reach of voice, our voyageurs sent forth loud greetings in 
the Chippewa dialect, and these were returned with the same peculiar shouts. 
We landed on a beautiful, rocky shore, and found the whole population contained 
in two wigwams. There were aged men and women, those of middle age, and 
children of all sizes — among them an idiotic girl. Her sister, a pretty-looking 
girl of sixteen or eighteen, stole away in her rough attire, and presently returned 
arrayed in a nice calico jerkin and other garments, which contrasted queerly 
enough with her naked feet. "We made our toilet on a rock, Lake Superior 
being our ewer and mirror. 

After breakfasting here, we set forth again, and about noon landed on Isle 
Parisien, within the American waters. The lake was unruffled by the gentle 
breezes that wafted us thereon toward "White-fish Point, a promontory project- 
ing far into the lake. W T e read, conversed, laughed, wrote letters, and amused 
ourselves with contemplating the stillness and solitude of the scene around us. 
Wearied with excitement, and being somewhat ill, I fell asleep, leaving the scene 
so calm that an infant would have smiled upon it. I was awaked an hour or 
two afterward by the heaving of the waves. The lion with which we had played 
so long was roused, and soon gave us a touch of his nature. Thunder and light- 
ning truly heralded a violent storm. We were in sight of the desired haven, but 
for five hours were driven off from it by the winds — our slight bark taking in 
water from the lake, while the clouds poured it in copiously from above. In 
truth, we were alarmed, or rather would have been, but for the admirable pres- 
ence of mind of our voyageurs. 

Night came at last, just as we had gained the shore, and such a shore ! It 
was the W T hite-fish Point; but more dreary than any place I had ever seen was 
that haven for which we had contended with the elements. The cape has been 
formed by drifting sands ; for four miles not a tree breaks the prospect ; some 



1845.] WIGWAM LIFE. 753 

scattered blades of wild grass scarcely gave it a green mantle. Indian wigwams 
to the number of thirty were scattered over the barren plain. Rude sheds, 
formed of boughs of trees, covered the barrels prepared for the Chippewa fish- 
ermen. Our boat had been observed in the contest with the tempest, and the 
Indians were gathered on the shore to witness our debarkation. It rained 
violently. I was shivering with an ague. The beach was strewed with herring, 
cast upon the shore as useless, and with the heads and fins and entrails of the 
white-fish and trout which had been cured during the summer. The wind blew 
a hurricane, while our tent was stretched over the twelve feet of sand we ap- 
propriated. 

An old Frenchman invited me to " his house," because I was sick. I accepted 
his invitation eagerly, and followed him assiduously, expecting to find the abode 
of a civilized man, although the garb and language of my host warned me to the 
contrary. Guess my grief, as well as surprise, at finding " his house " an Indian 
wigwam, made of birch-bark, without any semblance of the home of a white 
man ! It was dark. He raised a curtain at the door, which was the only de- 
signed aperture, except one for the smoke at the top of the hut. I stooped and 
entered. The fire was dying away, and I could only distinguish a platform, 
raised six inches from the floor, and going quite round the interior of the wig- 
wam. 

Some explanations in the Chippewa language caused the sleepers on this 
platform to move, and give me a seat. The fire was rekindled. The matron 
of the family, a squaw of fifty -four, drew herself forth from the bed; the tea- 
kettle was boiled, with tea of my own store ; a huge mass of fish and pork was 
fried, and my supper was set before me on a box that served for a table. I ate 
but little. A bed was prepared on the platform — my hosts using my own blanket 
and pillow for its construction. I sank to sleep, and slept until aroused at day- 
light by the crackling fire. Morning revealed to me that the wind had a thou- 
sand accesses to this humble lodge, and that I was one of ten persons who had 
been indebted to it for shelter from a storm that none could have endured 
under the open sky. 1 paid my entertainers, and, reinvigorated by my sleep, 
returned to the tent, where I breakfasted with my friends, who reported an ex- 
cited night, disturbed by the insane ravings of the lovers of " fire-water." 

The wind was adverse to our expedition, and, until noon, too high for our 
vessel to go forth. We strolled on the beach, gathering pebbles marked with 
every variety of form and color, including, now and then, a beautiful agate, and 
a richly-variegated carnelian. The western shore received the flood from the 
whole extent of the lake, and wo rejoiced in beholding the majesty of Lake Su- 
perior. The steamboat returns to the Sault only once, next week, from Macki- 
nac, and that on Tuesday. Of course, unless we reach the Sault before that 
day, we might not hope to leave it until Tuesday of the succeeding week. We 
must, therefore, relinquish our voyage to the Pictured Rocks, as there is no 
reasonable hope of reaching them and returning before Tuesdaj . 

Accordingly, after taking dinner in our tent, we spread a timid sail to the 
breeze, and following the shore we found our returning way to the Sault. We 
rested for supper on the Isle Iroquois, the shore of which was bright with roses 
and sweetbrier ; and sailing thence at nine o'clock, rocked to sleep by a still 
stormy sea, we arrived at three o'clock at the head of the rapids. We waited 
there for daylight, and then, our voyageurs, all alert and watchful, plying the oar 
"48 



754 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

and helm with caution and dexterity, we glided over the boiling rapids, and 
through the thick spray they sent upward ; and, by a voyage scarcely longer 
than the time I am describing it, the savage shouts of our boatmen proclaimed 
to the sleepers at the Sault, and to the fishermen who were thus early abroad in 
their bark canoes, that we had descended that stormy tide in safety. Hence, 
one night in Chicago, and then by a quick journey homeward. 

On returning home, Seward wrote to Weed : 

Auburn, July 27, 1845. 

Bowen will have told you the long tale of our excursion, brief in time, but 
long in space. I am at home once more ; again, I trust, in health to the full 
value of the cost — richer in knowledge, of which I was in much need. 

Ohio is a State of moderate dimensions, but vast capacity and facilities. 
Michigan is crippled by bad statesmanship. Wisconsin may overtake her. 

The defeat last year has left a universal despondency in the West. New 
York, of course, is censured, and given over hopelessly to the enemy. In Ohio 
the Legislature passed bank and registry acts. The Whig party is called to ac- 
count, and evidently despairs. In Michigan there was no thought of even nom- 
inating a ticket. They rail at Birney, and yet seriously propose to make default, 
whereby Birney would take the Whig party of the State. I advised otherwise. 

Judge McLean is the talked-of candidate in Detroit. I was assured that it 
was otherwise in Ohio, and I think I perceived a hope for Corwin, with an 
expectation of resting on John M.. Clayton. 

We had inexpressible satisfaction for our wonderment in the great expanse 
of lakes, the virgin shores of the Ste. Marie and of Superior, the simplicity and 
romance of the Christianized yet uncivilized Ojibways. 

There is inexhaustible mineral wealth on the shore of Lake Superior. But 
each and every one of the copper companies is a fraudulent swindle upon the 
credulity of the dupes in the cities. The Boston Company is the best of them, 
and indeed the only one that pretends in earnest to work mines. Before long 
all the stock of even that company will get into the hands of irresponsible specu- 
lators at atrocious prices, and the mining operations will stop. The history of 
the lead-mining operations at Bossie is prophetic of the present operations on 
Lake Superior. When this fever shall have passed off, copper and silver will be 
found in large quantities; but at present the only money made will be made 
out of the gulls in the cities. 

The Supreme Court has rendered judgment half for Cooper, and half for 
Greeley, I perceive. I have not had time yet to see how it leaves the cause. 

I fear Dr. Wott will think hard of me for leaving the commencement. But 
it was best I should go elsewhere. I thought that the loud drum-beat would 
recall enough, who will be indifferent hereafter, when I am zealous. 

This visit to the habitations of the Chippewas gave Seward an op- 
portunity to observe their habits of life. Noticing a squaw's evident 
fondness for one of her children, he asked her what was its name. She 
made no answer, but burst into a merry laugh, as if she thought it an 
excellent joke. He was informed that Indians are not named, as white 
men are, in infancy. An Indian earns his name, by some exploit or 
prominent incident in his life, which is thus commemorated. 



1845.] RUMORS OF WAR. 755 

He used to relate that, while among the Chippewas, he saw a 
young Indian stand under a tree and imitate with such precision the 
call of a bird, that the bird answered with the same note, as he came 
hopping down from twig to twig expecting to find his mate — a striking 
illustration of Indian skill in woodcraft. 

The commencement at Union College, which he was reluctant to 
miss, since his presence there had been expected and counted upon, 
was the semi-centennial of the existence of the college, and was at- 
tended by many of those who, during the half -century, had as teachers 
or pupils trod its halls. 

While at Detroit, on this trip, he met some of the army officers 
then stationed at that post. Among them was Colonel Joseph Taylor, 
who had married a daughter of Judge McLean. The casual acquaint- 
ance here begun was afterward to ripen into intimacy at Washington. 



CHAPTER LIX. 

1845. 



Texas annexed. — Rumors of War. — Policy of the Whigs. — Governor Throop. — Free Suf- 
frage. — John Van Buren. — Fillmore. — Governor Wright. — Whig Discords. — Seward, 
Morgan, and Blatchford. — The S. S. Seward Institute. 

Events transpiring at Washington all pointed toward the conclu- 
sion of the Texas scheme. Texas had accepted the terms. The an- 
nexation was formally proclaimed. The Mexicans were displaying 
imbittered feelings, and making military preparations. 

In the South there were celebrations of the annexation. Shipment 
of slaves to the newly-opened market had already commenced. It was 
evident that the country was hastening toward the crisis with rapid 
steps. Rumors foreshadowing war with Mexico now came thick and 
fast. They told of disputes on the frontier, of activity at arsenals and 
navy-yards, of movements of ships and troops toward the Southwest, 
of the massing of Mexican forces under General Ampudia. Stories of 
hostile encounters were circulated one day, to be contradicted the next. 
It was reported that ten thousand Mexicans were marching to the 
Rio Grande, that Americans were volunteering in New Orleans to meet 
them, and that regular troops were landing in Texas. Learned specu- 
lations and " authentic statements " of governmental plans were given 
out by those who knew nothing about them, and a chaotic jumble of 
reports from Vera Cruz, Matamoras, Havana, and New Orleans, about 
Santa Anna, Ampudia, Almonte, and other Mexican leaders, helped to 
make up the column of "important Mexican news," most of which 



756 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 



was unreliable in detail, and only reliable at all in that it indicated the 

way that events were drifting. 

"What should the Whigs do?" was the next question. Should 

they oppose the war throughout, cripple the Government, and so aid 

the enemy ? Such, at least, seemed to be the opinion of some of the 

zealous and obstinate members of the party. Seward wrote on this 

point to Weed : 

Rochester, August 17, 1845. 

The papers seem to foreshadow war with Mexico. I presume I need not 
counsel about your course on that question, and I am by no means confident 
that my advice would be right. Still, you will excuse me for saying that your 
letters from Santa Cruz last year pointed out the policy that seems best now. 

If war comes, say that the people had war with Mexico and with England 
before them, in the election last fall. We thought best to avoid, but they are 
supreme ; and the battle must be fought with all our energies. We go for the 
country, at all events. 

The war will be ended the sooner, and the more safely, if we do not fall into 
the folly of faction. 

From Albany the news was less important, though of some interest. 

The Constitutional Convention was to be held in the following year. 
Parties were practically united in favor of holding it, though in con- 
siderable uncertainty as to its probable effect upon their own interests. 
Canvassing for delegates was going on in the different counties ; and, 
as a general thing, men qualified by thought and experience were 
nominated, in preference to mere partisans. 

An anti-rent outbreak created much feeling, as it was the first that 
had been attended with fatal results. A sheriff, while in the discharge 
of official functions, had been murdered. A revulsion of sentiment, 
among many who had favored the anti-rent movement, was the imme- 
diate consequence ; and the popular demand was unmistakable that, 
whatever might be the grievances of the tenants, there was no justifica- 
tion for bloodshed, and that the murderers should be punished. Gov- 
ernor Wright issued his proclamation to that effect, and the anti-renters, 
for the time, lost half of all the popular sympathy they had gained. 

Again engaged in professional duties, Seward wrote to Mr. Weed : 

Eagle Tavern, Rochester, August 13, 1845. 

You have another anti-rent outbreak, I see, in Delaware. The Senators are here, 
but there is a calm in politics. All men are looking, without power to penetrate 
the future. The convention alarms the very " Barnburners " who authorized it. 

The seditious spirit is still strong, and will have boldness enough to display 
itself this fall. 

Rochester, Wednesday. 

After a brief relaxation, I am again at this post of expectation rather than of 
duty. My next cause is No. 15, and the court is engaged hearing No. 14. It 
Beems reasonably certain that I may be heard to-morrow. 



1845. J WHIG DISCORDS. 757 

I bad a nice voyage by steamboat from tbis place to Lewiston, and taking 
tbe car tbere I arrived at Niagara early on Sunday morning. Tbe weather was 
intensely hot, but I found coolness and comfort in the afternoon on Table Rock, 
which was wet with the spray of the cataract. It seemed to me I had never had 
so fine a view of that stupendous wonder. 

On Monday I went to Buffalo, closed my business there yesterday, and was 
again in my bed at midnight. I staid at Hawley's, took tea at Mr. Fillmore's, 
spent an evening at the theatre, and met many friends. 

Rochester, August 22, 1845. 

There is undoubtedly a goodly number of persons here who love neither you 
nor me, and we do not at all divide the opinions of men between ourselves ; but 
both are objects of love or hate by the same individuals. Querulousness, in re- 
gard to both of us, wearied the public mind, and I think we may safely go where 
we will without exciting any especial anger. So I hope that you will come 
out while I am here. Whittlesey and I are much together, and when we find 
fresh trout, woodcock, or new fruit, or enjoy a moonlight night, each expresses 
his regret that you are not of the party. 

My first case has been argued acceptably to my client. I note this because, 
while all the world seem to regard me as an old professional stager, I am con- 
scious that I am subjected to the trial of obtaining a place at the bar. Tho 
multiplicity of labors necessary for this is especially oppressive to one so near 
forty-five, who has so long rested from all similar pursuit. But thus far I have 
had good success. 

There was a division of sentiment in the Whig party, somewhat like 
that in the Democratic party, though less marked and more unequal. 
It had not yet reached a stage to prevent concert of party action, nor 
had the opposing forces any distinctive names. Seward's friends used 
to claim that there was no division, further than that made by a few 
malcontents or disappointed aspirants, who opposed " Seward and 
Weed," because they had not been rewarded with coveted honors. 
Yet this, perhaps, was not quite just. Such disappointed men would 
naturally take sides against those who held, or who they fancied held, 
the reins of power in the party. But, besides this element, there was 
an opposition to " Weed and Seward," in the Whig ranks, based upon 
differing theories of government. The Whig pai'ty, having its origin in 
New England and the metropolis, had, at the outset, been a party 
favoring liberal construction of the Constitution, in opposition to the 
"strict construction" of the Democrats. It had favored banks, State 
and national, schools, colleges, railways, canals, and sought to promote 
the public welfare by enterprises of public benefit. This trait had 
attracted to it many of the wealthy, the educated, and the refined. It 
was sneered at as the "gentleman's party," the "silk-stocking party," 
the " rich man's party ; " while the Democratic, as its name implied, 
was the " poor man's party," and champion of popular rights against 
aristocratic oppressors. 



758 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

Heartily sympathizing in all the "liberal construction" sentiments 
of his Whig associates, going even beyond them in his zeal for internal 
improvement and education, Seward was, nevertheless, a thorough 
democrat, in the broader sense of the word. " Weed and Seward " 
aimed to make the Whig party a popular one, and to free it from all 
aristocratic tendencies. Its more conservative members saw and dis- 
trusted this radicalism, and believed that Seward's appeals in behalf of 
schools for immigrants and votes for negroes savored of demagoguery. 
The division of feeling, hardly perceptible at first, grew gradually. As 
yet, it manifested itself principally in discussions as to candidates. 

The division between radicals and conservatives in the Democratic 
party had begun earlier and developed more rapidly. The conservative 
wing held fast to ancient affiliations with the South, and consequently 
to the national patronage. The radical wing adhered tenaciously to the 
Jacksonian theories of "strict construction," "hard money," and antip- 
athy to governmental aid to corporate enterprises. Their conservative 
opponents called them " Barnburners," and likened them to the stupid 
man who burned his barn in order to destroy the rats. At one of the 
first distinctive conventions of the radical faction, Colonel Young, 
in his speech on taking the chair, accepted the opprobrious nickname. 
" They say we are ' barnburners,' gentlemen. Thunder and lightning 
are barnburners, but they are also great purifiers of the atmosphere. 
And that is what we propose to do with the political atmosphere of 
our State ! " 

They styled their opponents in return " Old Hunkers," in allusion 
to their alleged fondness for spoils and place. 

One of the letters of this summer briefly refers to a visit from 
another ex-Governor. Governor Throop, now retired from political 
affairs, was living on the shore of the Owasco Lake, about four miles 
from Auburn. Fond of rural life, and skilled in horticulture, he took 
pleasure in planting trees, laying out drives, and cultivating with his 
own hands the fruits and flowers for his table. The pretty cottage, 
and the spacious farm around it, grew in course of years, under his 
judicious taste and management, and that of his nephew and niece, 
Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Throop Martin, to be a beautiful country-seat, ap- 
propriately named " Willowbrook," from the stream which traversed 
it. The acquaintance between the two families ripened, during the 
years Seward spent at Auburn, into a warm friendship, and thencefor- 
ward, whenever he returned home for rest or study, a frequent excur- 
sion was a drive to the hospitable shades of " Willowbrook." 

A picnic or fishing-party on the Owasco Lake was a favorite sum- 
mer amusement with him. On these occasions he liked to have only 
his family, and one or two guests or friends. Larger and more formal 
excursion-parties he was less inclined to, as savoring rather of work 



1845.1 UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 759 

than of relaxation. At these times he would take an oar, or a fishing- 
rod, in the boat, or stroll along the beach, or lie under the shade ; and 
was always in vivacious spirits, ready even to engage with the children 
in skipping stones, culling wild flowers, or guessing conundrums. 

He had a dislike to fashionable watering-places. When called by 
business or political conferences to meet friends at Saratoga, Avon, or 
Long Branch, he always made his stay as brief as possible. The crowd 
of busy idlers, with their ennui, their gossip, and their social ostenta- 
tion, was distasteful to him. He loved the sea, the mountains, the 
lakes, and the forest, and every summer sought recreation among them. 
Above all, he enjoyed visiting them in his own conveyance, or in his 
own boat, and in lodging where he would have something of the pri- 
vacy, comfort, and independence of home. 

The debate over the annexation of Texas, though it had resulted 
in a triumph of slavery extension, had given new impulse to men's 
thoughts about emancipation and constitutional rights. The attempt 
to proscribe and crush John P. Hale, by the Democrats of New Hamp- 
shire, and the attempt to suppress Cassius M. Clay's newspaper by mob 
violence in Kentucky, strengthened the growth of antislavery feeling. 
The Constitutional Convention, now to be held in the State of New 
York, would have to deal with questions of popular rights, as affected 
by race and color. The Whig delegates for the most part, it was be- 
lieved, would lean, in these respects, toward the liberal views of Sew- 
ard. The " Barnburners," or some of them, would take similar action. 
A letter to Mr. Weed referred to some of these questions : 

Aubukx, August 30, 1845. 

Having a respite from the Court of Errors, from Friday night until Monday 
morning, I am at home to-day and to-morrow. The assiduous attendance upon 
court results in producing desultory habits. 

By-the-way, one of the choicest triumphs of my whole life was when I found 
John Van Buren, at Rochester, making up his mind, slowly and reluctantly, to 
consent to answer the people of color favorably on their demand for the elective 
franchise. You will see the whole party break under this demand. 

The western Whigs in all the counties are sound, and I have heard nothing 
like hesitation since the events in Kentucky. I saw Fillmore at Buffalo. IK 
finds it difficult to sit squarely, about these days, on the Conservative and Prog- 
ress steeds when they draw so widely apart. He had a letter from the colored 
people, and wanted to answer it by saying he would dispense with the property 
qualification, and substitute one of capacity to read and write. I told him the 
convention would go to universal suffrage, and that it was as inexpedient aa I 
thought it wrong to hesitate in his reply. 

Governor "Wright and his friends despair of weathering the anti-rent storm. 
How bloody instructions return to torment the inventors ! Bis proclamation 
would have been needless now, had mine commanded the support it deserved. 

When a ship is wrecked those who have worked hardest at the 



r-QQ LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

pumps usually come in for a large share of the fault-finding by the 
idlers who merely looked on, or stood in the way. Such was Sew- 
ard's experience, after his long and earnest efforts to save the Whig 
party from the crushing defeat of 1844. His published speeches show 
their extent ; his private letters attest their sincerity. Mr. Clay's 
manly acknowledgment after the election showed that he, at least, 
appreciated them. Nevertheless there were Whigs, especially in New 
York who, having throughout objected to his antislavery opinions, 
now resolutely shut their eyes to the figures of the official canvass, and 
charged the defeat upon " Seward, Weed, and Greeley." Weed and 
Greeley replied through their respective papers, the Evening Journal 
and the Tribune. Seward contented himself with a brief letter in an- 
swer to the assertion that during the campaign he " made what the 
public felt and knew to be anti-Clay speeches." He remarked : 

The late election seemed to me to involve the stability of domestic industry, 
which had been restored so recently and with so much difficulty ; the continu- 
ance of peace, indispensable to the welfare, happiness, and advancement of the 
American people ; the preservation of the public domain for the general use of 
the country ; the maintenance of good faith with the weakest and the strongest 
nations of the earth ; the security of free States against the unconstitutional 
encroachments of the slaveholding parties in our confederacy ; and, finally, tbe 
prospects of a peaceful and speedy abolition of human slavery, the chief evil in 
our country, and the great crime of our age. 

Moved by these considerations, and stimulated by sentiments of duty and 
gratitude to the Whig party, I engaged in the contest at its beginning, and re- 
mained in the field until the disastrous termination of the conflict'. 

Mr. Clay was the candidate of that party, and his election was indispensable 
to the success of its cause. 

I claim to have labored with singleness, sincerity, zeal, and assiduity, and to 
have devoted to the success of that cause, and of Henry Clay, whatever influence 
I enjoyed, and all the knowledge and ability I possessed. 

Of course the press, metropolitan and rural, took up the controversy, 
and it raged through many columns for several weeks, each side re- 
maining unconvinced by the other. 

The increase of his law-practice, this fall, rendered additional help 
necessary. He invited his old friend Christopher Morgan, and his for- 
mer private secretary, Samuel Blatchford, to join him ; and the sign of 
the new firm of " Seward, Morgan & Blatchford," was displayed on 
Genesee Street. This change greatly facilitated the labors of the law- 
office, leaving Seward free to travel, far and near, to argue his cases in 
the various courts in distant cities, while his partners remained at Au- 
burn, and kept the office-business proceeding with regularity and dis- 
patch. Mr. Blatchford removed with his family from New York to 
Auburn, and remained a resident of that place while the partnership 
continued. 



1815.] THE S. S. SEWARD INSTITUTE. 761 

Among his cases this year were some involving- a question of the 
patent-right of Jethro Wood's plough, then and since in such general 
use. An important decision affirming the rights of his client was pub- 
lished in October. His success in patent-cases surprised even himself. 
They began to multiply upon his hands, and soon formed the principal 
portion of his practice. 

He wrote to Mr. Weed : 

Auburn, October 4, 1845. 

Either Pope or Dean Swift said that no resident of a city was ever known 
to express a disappointment that his country friend did not visit him more 
frequently. If I were to judge by the irregularity of your replies, I should think 
that you received as many letters from me as were agreeable. 

Samuel Blatchford is to be here to-night. I believe that he and Morgan 
could enable me to right my affairs in three years. Perhaps Blatchford could 
alone, and thus leave Morgan to assist you, who need aid nearly as much. But 
this we cannot know until we try. 

Meantime, the efforts I am making cost me much health and strength. To 
add to my embarrassments, my father, sick, nervous, and melancholy, writes me 
urgently to drop all my business here, and come to him, adding that what is 
made here by " pleading law " is less than what would be saved there. 

His father wished him to come to Florida to take charge of his busi- 
ness affairs, and those of the " S. S. Seward Institute." This was a 
school which had long been a favorite project of its founder, who built 
the edifice for its use directly opposite his own gate, on the main street 
of the little village, endowed it with a fund, and was now looking for 
suitable teachers. That it would afford a seminary for the education of 
his grandchildren and of the children of his neighbors, would develop 
and stimulate the growth of the village so long his home, and would be 
an appropriate work of benevolence for his declining years, were the 
motives which impelled him, when near fourscore, to undertake an 
enterprise that a younger man might well shrink from, and that, in a 
business point of view, seemed hardly consonant with his usual shrewd- 
ness and sagacity. However, its ultimate success justified his pre- 
visions. He was now desirous to have it opened and in operation 
before the winter should set in. In accordance with this summons, 
Seward started for Florida, and gave the aid required, though declin- 
ing to change his residence from Auburn, or to give up his professional 
occupations. 



r-g 2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

CHAPTER LX. 
1845. 

Rural Cemeteries.— Constitutional Changes.— The Anti-Renters.— Organizing a School.— A 
Pair of Ponies.— The Telegraph.— Hudson River Railroad.— Congress and Slavery Ex- 
tension.— Going to Washington. 

Toward the close of October Seward wrote home : 

Albany, October 25, 1815. 

I left court on Saturday afternoon at six o'clock, weary enough, flung myself 
into a carriage with two friends, and got a glimpse of the Albany Cemetery be- 
fore night. I returned to town expecting to spend a long, quiet evening with 
"Weed at his house alone. "When I returned to my room after tea, I found James 
G. Wilson, and soon Gibson entered with half a dozen men. They worked me 
until ten at night, when I left them. Sunday morning I went to St. Peter's, 
and after church James Horner took me with him to dinner; then I went to 
Weed's, and after two hours there went with him to the Governor's — all which 
brought nine o'clock. I have risen this morning refreshed, and am using the 
candle to aid the twilight. 

The cemetery here has a beautiful location. It surpasses Mount Auburn and 
Mount Hope. There are plain and hill, and shade and lawn, brook, lake, and dis- 
tant prospect. The forest consists of evergreens, interspersed with oak. As the 
grounds were opened only two years ago, the place has acquired little of the 
embellishment to which it is destined. As graveyards, these cemeteries seem to 
have one defect. The beauty and the instruction of the graveyard alike ariso 
from the fact that there the rich and the poor lie down together. But the aris- 
tocracy seem to take these places, set them apart, and shut out the poor. You 
enter the little inclosure of one of the families, and you might imagine yourself 
in its drawing-room, only the upholsterer has given place to the stone-sculptor. 
There are some fifty or sixty monuments of every kind and magnitude, such as 
might justly grace the resting-place of a Washington, a Howard, a Milton. Yet 
each bears either no name, or one known only for a few years, and not long 
ago, as a prosperous man of business. But let us come away from the grave. 

Contrary as it may seem to his usually cheerful temperament and 
buoyant spirits, he always enjoyed a stroll in a graveyard. The study 
of its inscriptions, so suggestive of historic events and traits of character, 
always attracted him. He rarely visited a new place without spending 
an hour in moralizing among its tombstones. He used occasionally to 
repeat some quaint epitaph that had struck his fancy. Gray's " Elegy " 
he frequently quoted ; and in one of his visits to England he took a day 
to visit Stoke-Pogis, the spot where it was written, and where the re- 
mains of its author rest. In one of his letters to Mrs. Seward, he spoke 
of a vault as " that miserable artifice of pride in death," adding : 

I pray you, if, as is not improbable, I should pass away before you from this 
world of mockeries, have me buried in the churchyard at Auburn beside the 



1845.] THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 703 

dust of our little one, with space enough beside roe for your resting-place. I 
would not be exposed to the intrusion of the curious or profane in a charnel- 
house. 

Once more the season for conventions and nominations had come 
round, though only members of the Legislature and county officers 
were this year to be chosen. The Whigs held their local conventions 
with no great hope of success, except through the increasing dissen- 
sions in the ranks of their opponents. A new publication startled the 
politicians of both parties. Mackenzie, former leader of the Canadian 
patriots, had been appointed to a place in the New York Custom-House. 
While there, he came upon a mass of private correspondence upon 
political affairs which a former collector had neglected to destroy or 
take away. Among the letters were those of Van Buren, Wright, 
Marcy, and others. They were written with entire freedom, contain- 
ing many careless expressions which, wheu published, were repre- 
sented as betraying insincerity, recklessness, or hypocrisy. This 
dish of political gossip was long a staple of conversation and news- 
paper comment. Its allusions to the management of past campaigns 
and details. of administration were claimed by the "Hunkers" to be 
especially damaging to the "Barnburners," and vice versa, while the 
Whigs declared them damaging to both. 

The voters of the State at this election were to pass upon the ques- 
tion of holding a Constitutional Convention. The indications were of 
a favorable public sentiment, but it made its way rather by its own 
merits than by the usual appliances of oratory, public meetings, and 
personal zeal. Some of the county conventions, among them those of 
Cayuga, Oswego, and Wyoming, passed resolutions indorsing and 
approving the public course of Governor Seward. This was an unusual 
political proceeding in regard to a public man neither in office nor a 
candidate for it. It was doubtless brought about by the attacks made 
upon him in the discontented Whig journals, and, coming directly from 
popular gatherings, was the most effective reply to them. 

The anti-renters, learning wisdom by experience, were now turning 
their attention to political movements, instead of riotous resistance to 
law. In several localities they agreed that they would give their votes 
unitedly to such parties or candidates as were most favorable to their 
claims. 

The trials of persons concerned in the anti-rent outrages in Dela- 
ware County terminated in the conviction and sentence of the leaders. 
Their close in this manner was received with popular approval, as 
showing that the jury-system could be relied upon to punish crimes 
even when high political feeling and partisan interest ran in favor of 
acquittal of the wrong-doers. 

The election came on the 4th of November. As had been expected, 



764 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 



the Democratic preponderance of the preceding year was maintained, 
though in some districts the Whigs made slight gains. The result was 
claimed as a popular indorsement of the policy of the Administration 
in regard to Texas and Oregon, "the extension of the area of freedom," 
"and the whole of Oregon or none." One gratifying feature of the 
canvass was the overwhelming majority of one hundred and eighty 
thousand in favor of the convention to amend the State constitution. 

As soon as it was definitely settled that the constitution was to be 
revised, suggestions and arguments in reference to proposed changes 
began to engross public attention. Each of the parties or factions had 
favorite theories which it hoped to have ingrafted upon the funda- 
mental law. The especial themes of discussion were, the provisions in 
regard to canals and the State debt, the reorganization of the courts 
and Legislature, capital punishment and the pardoning power, the 
banking laws, and the extension of the right of suffrage to colored 
men. 

In his conversations, and in his letters to friends who were consult- 
ing him in regard to their course, Seward insisted that a favorable 
opportunity was now presented for securing universal suffrage. He 
maintained that colored men should have the same right to vote as 
white men, and that all discriminations against adopted citizens should 
be removed, so far as the naturalization laws would permit. The reor- 
ganization and simplifying of the courts had long been, in his judgment, 
a needed reform, and he had urged it in his messages. The policj" of 
general laws, instead of special acts and charters, he had advocated, 
not only for banks, but for all corporations. In these respects he and 
his friends now hoped for success, since many of the liberal members 
of the Democratic party entertained similar views. Upon the ques- 
tions of the State debt and canals there was little hope of any such 
accord, as the " stop-and-tax policy" of 1842 was diametrically opposed 
to his own. 

The project of an elective judiciary had his cordial support, though 
upon this point many of his own party differed with him. In regard 
to feudal tenures, codification of laws, abolition of superfluous offices, 
reduction of costs and fees, and, in general, all measures tending to 
simplify the cumbersome machinery of government, he was even more 
radical than the " Barnburners," who claimed to be radicals par excel- 
lence. Upon questions of internal improvement, singularly enough, the 
"Old Hunkers" were the progressive, and the "Barnburners" the 
conservative, branch of their party. Various suggestions concerning 
the rights of married women, and homestead exemption, were also 
talked of. In reference to them he remarked in a note to Mr. Weed : 

Statesmen must follow in the wako of philanthropists, and each step of 
human progress seems at first visionary and dangerous. We are in danger of 



1845.] RIDING AND DRIVING. 7G5 

going faster than will be safe ; but it seems to me that the public mind is ripened 
for one great and beneficent measure — a law to act only prospectively, securing 
to the wife and children a home which, if honestly bought and paid for, and 
devoted to that purpose, shall not be liable for debts, unless specifically mort- 
gaged. The Texas constitution adopts such a principle, or an approximation 
to it. 

Toward the close of the year, in accordance with his father's wishes, 
Seward made several visits to Orange County to aid in the establish- 
ment and organization of the S. S. Seward Institute. He had asked 
Miss Parsons, of Albany, to become its principal. Pausing at Pough- 
keepsie to attend to some professional business, he wrote thence to 

Mrs. Seward: 

Poughkeepsie, Sunday. 

Mr. Stevens having come from Albany to this place, I followed him here, 
where I have done my business, and am going to Florida to-morrow morning. 

I found Miss Parsons just breaking up her school, and on the wing for the 
South. Her brother joined me in thinking the Seward Institute might bo better 
for her ; so she came with me in the boat last night. 

Here I found a gentleman who has given me a nice pair of bay horses for a 
counsel-fee, and they are in the harness at the door. Borrowing a wagon, I 
start from here to-morrow, with Miss Parsons and my own horses, for Florida. 
Be not surprised if you hear of my figuring in this distant region with a lady 
and horses, neither of which the public know to be my own. Mr. Webster is 
here. I dine with him to-day. I have engaged to go to "Washington, in Decem- 
ber, to attend the United States Supreme Court. 

Two days later, at Florida, the school was duly organized, to the 
satisfaction of its patron and founder. Seward returned to his profes- 
sional work, sending the ponies by steamboat and railway to Auburn. 
They w T ere a serviceable pair, good and rapid travelers, though rather 
too spirited, as was attested a few months later by accidents to wagons 
and sleighs. Nevertheless they were general favorites. They were 
trained for use under the saddle, as well as in the harness ; and for 
some months he used to enjoy a morning gallop upon " Charlie " before 
breakfast on the occasional days that business allowed him to be at 
Auburn. 

He liked his horses as he did his birds and dogs. He was fond of 
carriage-excursions. He would take the reins himself, when neces- 
sary ; but driving was never one of his pleasures. He was not a con- 
noisseur in horses, and cared nothing about their speed, except when 
in haste to reach some destination. He liked to get rapidly over the 
ground, though he probably never took the trouble to time the speed 
of any horse by his watch. 

Congress, at its meeting on the first Monday of December, received 
President Polk's message stating the policy of his Administration. 
Its cardinal points were that Texas and Oregon should be held, even 



„qq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1845. 

at the risk of war with Mexico and with England. But it expressed a 
confident hope that hostilities with those countries would be avoided. 

The new Congress, like preceding ones, began its deliberations with 
a proposition to adopt the "gag-rule" against antislavery petitions. 
Then, early in the session, opened a period of memorable debate. The 
Texas and Oregon measures involved the question of the extension of 
slavery, and this was developing into a national issue. The estimates 
for national defense foreshadowed expectations of war. Remonstrances 
were presented against the admission of Texas as a slave State ; and 
the votes on their reference, showed that the Administration would 
have the support of a strong majority of Congress, though not without 
encountering sharp criticism and opposition. 

Mr. Douglas, as chairman of the Committee on Territories, reported 
a joint resolution for the admission of Texas. -The previous question 
was ordered, to cut off debate, and it went through the House by a 
majority of eighty-five. Three Democratic members joined with the 
Whigs in opposing it — Preston King, Bradford R. Wood, and Horace 
Wheaton, all from the State of New York. When it reached the 
Senate, Mr. Webster placed on record an emphatic protest against it ; 
but the resolution passed by a majority of seventeen. Before the year 
closed, President Polk appended his signature, and Texas was a 
State. 

The press throughout the country joined in the debate over this 
extension of slavery. As a part of the argument, there began to 
appear, in the columns of Whig and Democratic journals, paragraphs 
hitherto confined to abolition newspapers. Auction-sales of slaves, 
stories of fugitives, and cases of individual suffering, were cited to 
show the character of the " peculiar institution " which, instead of 
being left to gradually die out, as the North had fondly hoped, was 
to be taken up and extended into the new Territories, in order to keep 
up a perpetual equilibrium between the free States and the slavehold- 
ing ones. 

Hopes were entertained that the dissensions among the Mexicans 
themselves might prevent collision with the United States. It was an 
unfounded expectation, since all the contending factions in Mexico 
were alike hostile to what they considered a dismemberment of their 
republic. 

The extension of the lines of telegraph in an unbroken chain from 
New York to Buffalo was an enterprise which was exciting much atten- 
tion this fall. In December was published the prospectus of the first 
daily newspaper in Auburn. The invention of the magnetic telegraph 
proved to be a great advantage to the country press, as it enabled them 
to give their readers foreign and metropolitan news in advance of the 
city papers. 



1846.] A MONTH IN WASHINGTON. 767 

The railway also made a step in advance. There were henceforth 

to be two passenger-trains daily. 

The law-office, on its new footing, was doing an increased amount 

of work. 

Auburn, Decemher 20, 1st.". 

Our business here begins to take a satisfactory shape. Blatchford is prodi- 
giously effective as an attorney. For the first time, I begin to feel, as well as to 
enjoy, the dignity and ease of a counselor. I eat Thanksgiving dinners like a 
Christian, and even attend Mrs. Seward to parties occasionally, like a husband. 

On Thursday next, God willing, I go to Albany, and, after staying there a 
half-day or so, proceed to Washington, in entire uncertainty concerning how 
long I stay there, but expecting to spend all the month of January. I shall learn 
something at Washington. Do you know that I have seen more of the British Par- 
liament, and of London, than I have of Congress and of Washington? When I 
am to see anything new, or learn anything, there arises instantly a desire for 
sympathy with others. So I have invited Mrs. Seward to visit the capital ; but 
she declines. Next, I wish, for a thousand reasons, that you could be where 
I could compare notes with you. That is impossible, I suppose, since the inter- 
ests of the Evenin g Journal require you to be at Albany when the Legislature 
shall assemble. Moreover, the quidnuncs would believe that we visited Wash- 
ington as conspirators. I think I am not the most discreet man in the world ; 
but then I have had no such knowledge of the strange atmosphere of the na- 
tional capital as to learn that safety can only be secured by silence and reserve. 

Did you go to New York ? If you did, you left thunderbolts for one or two 
daily discharges from your editorial throne. 

So we are to buy California of Mexico. Mexico, a youthful state, a youthful 
American republic, has reached maturity, and is now declining to dissolution. 
The lesson is full of instruction. 

General Cass has appropriated all the glory of war and Oregon. It will in- 
spire his candidateship prematurely. But that is not all. These warlike demon- 
strations will, contrary to his expectations, awaken no opposition among the 
Whigs to the action of the Administration. 



CHAPTER LXI. 
1846. 



Washington Life. — Causes in tho Supreme Court. — The Oregon Question. — Stanley. — 
Washington Hunt. — The Adams Family. — Mrs. Oaines. — Mrs. Maury. — John M. Clay- 
ton. — Judge McLean. — General Scott. 

Called by his clients to argue their causes in the Supreme Court 
at Washington, Seward found himself at the capital in the midst of an 
important and interesting period, the session which was to determine 
the questions of peace or war with England and with Mexico. 

The claim for "the whole of Oregon or none," and "54° 40' or 
fight," had awakened the popular love of aggrandizement ; and, while 



7(33 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

there was coupled with it the dread of a war with England, yet the 
Administration party found it difficult to withdraw from their position 
without incurring, possibly odium, and certainly ridicule. But the 
feeling in favor of Oregon was, to a great degree, a Northern one. 
At the South the Texas question was of paramount importance. The 
Administration would be pardoned there for a change of front, and 
even for humiliation, in the Oregon matter, if that course was proved 
to be necessary to assure the retention of Texas, and the maintenance 
of slavery there. The first step, however, toward asserting claim to 
Oregon, would be to give to Great Britain the required twelve months' 
"notice " of intention to discontinue the existing provisional arrange- 
ment. This step, it was confidently expected, would be taken at once. 

Among the cases in the Supreme Court in which Seward was en- 
gaged were those involving the patent-rights of the Jethro Wood 
plough and of the Woodworth planing-machine. Chief in public con- 
sequence, as well as in interest to himself, was the Ohio slave-case, 
which had been set down for argument at this term. 

Washington was, as usual, thronged with winter visitors. Seward 
had never previously remained there for any lengthened period, and 
many of the scenes around him had the attraction of novelty. His let- 
ters home contained descriptions of his life there almost minute enough 
for a diary, especially when supplemented by his frequent notes to Mr. 
Weed, describing the progress of political affairs. 

Washington, January 1, 1846. 

All around me I hear salutations of the New-Year. Few of them rest with 
me, for I am a stranger. I gather up a thousand of these greetings and speed 
them to her whose joys and sorrows are mine own, who cannot be happy with- 
out making me glad, who cannot he grieved without making me disconsolate. 

It is only two hours that I have been awake at Washington, and therefore I 
have little to say of the capital. I will begin back at the commencement of my 
long journey. Miss Darling proved an intellectual and agreeable companion ; 
the weather was mild, and the road so fine that we scarcely noticed the flight 
of time until the day dawned upon us at Syracuse. We found breakfast at 
Utica; and then I discovered that in leaving Mr. De Zeng's, at Skaneateles, the 
night before, I had brought away a cloak similar to but not my own. This is 
somewhat inconvenient, for I think the exchange an unequal one. 

James Horner, with his broad, round, benignant face, met us at the depot at 
Albany, and took Miss Darling to his house. I repaired to the Eagle. The next 
day I did what was needful to be done at Albany ; and on Saturday morning I 
received your note about the lost carpet-bag, just as we were going to the cars. 
I dispatched a hasty note to you, and we left directions for the lost bag to follow 
us to New York. 

The snow-storm delayed us, so that I had not time to visit Maria Weed at 
Springfield. We had three hours at New Haven. I called upon Judge Daggett, 
and, with Mr. King, visited the family of Mr. Ingersoll. 

Mr. Collier was on board the boat with us to New York, loquacious, com- 



1846.] JOURXEY TO THE CAPITAL. 769 

placent, civil, and attentive. It was half-past four in the morning when the 
boat moored in Peck Slip. At seven I found myself snugly located in No. 11 at 
the Astor House. Taylor Hall came to breakfast with me, and we were soon 
joined by Bowen. We dined with the latter. 

I spent the afternoon at Webb's. The hours passed very pleasantly until 
Mr. Blatchford called for me, and in an hour I was surrounded by the shades of 
night and Hell Gate. Mrs. Blatchford made me tea, gave me a nice bed and 
breakfast, and I enjoyed them exceedingly. They expect to take lodgings at 
the Astor House before my return to the city. I saw Greeley, Roe, and some 
others, and left on Monday evening for Philadelphia. 

It was night and lonesome when I arrived at Jones's Hotel, in that city. At 
eleven o'clock, on glancing at the register, I found the names of Mr. and Mrs. 
Edward Stanley, of North Carolina. I saw them early next morning. Mr. 
Stanley accompanied me to dinner at Mr. Josiah Randall's, and to the theatre in 
the evening, where we had the greatest possible dramatic enjoyment, in seeing 
Mrs. Kean (formerly Ellen Tree) personate Viola in " Twelfth Night." 

Mr. and Mrs. Marvine are staying at the Markoe House. He had some of his 
friends of both sexes to receive me at one of the city assemblies. I repaired 
there at ten o'clock, after the play ; but there wa3 misunderstanding among the 
servants, and I was informed that Mr. Marvine could not bo found. I gladly 
availed myself of the just apology, and returned wearied to my lodgings. An 
hour afterward Mr. Marvine found me, in night-dress and slippers, but it was 
too late to go abroad in quest of occasions of gallantry. 

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley came on to Baltimore, where I left them. He is an 
agreeable and excellent man, modest and moderate in hi3 aspirations. He gave 
me a pamphlet containing a belligerent correspondence, in which ho has recently 
won a diplomatic victory over his successor in Congress. I sent it to you for 
your amusement. 

I am a great misfortune personified, and so I never travel single. Mrs. 
Stanley brought me into communication with an eccentric English lady— Mrs. 
Maury — who is the wife of Mr. Maury, of Liverpool, whose father was forty 
years the American consul there* Although the mother of eleven living chil- 
dren, she is traversing the United States from the St. Lawrence to the Rio 
Grande as a tourist and philosopher. She is attended by a lad of fourteen 
years ; is highly educated and sensible. The lady and her son came, under my 
care, to Coleman's. But I was even more fortunate than this. There was a 
plain, meek-looking female in the reception-room at Barnum's Hotel, Bal- 
timore. When all other persons had withdrawn, she spoke to me, told me 
a story of much truth and some deception, I think. She was the widow 
of a merchant, who died years ago, at Utica, leaving her with an infant 
child. She was a dress-maker. Her mother-in-law was harsh, and besides 
was determined to train up the boy (now eleven years old) in the Presby- 
terian Church, while the mother was a Catholic. She fled, with little money. 
Thus far, I think, she told the truth. She lost what little remained in the 
car coining from Philadelphia (you may believe this or not, as you please) ; 
she was now destitute, and appealed tome, a stranger, for advice. I begged her 
off at Barnum's, paid her expenses to Washington, and her pa^satre to Richmond, 
and she left us immediately on our arrival here. 

I found Mr. Hunt, last evening, on my arrival ; he was just going to an assem- 
49 



ffO LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

bly. This morning, at breakfast, I found Mrs. Saunders (the eldest Miss Bleecker, 
of South Pearl Street, Albany), recently married, and now with her husband on 
a bridal excursion. 

I attended Mrs. Maury to the door of General Van Ness's house, and returned 
to my lodgings. All the world are abroad, paying homage to Mr. and Mrs. Polk, 
to John Quincy Adams, to Mrs. Madison, and to Mrs. Hamilton. Although I 
cherish just respect for these illustrious persons, I prefer the privilege of re- 
porting my progress to you, above the attractions of the oourt. I shall not go 
abroad to-day. 

I have not seen anybody from whom to learn anything about the probable 
length of my stay here, but will inform you on that point to-morrow. 

Coleman has provided for me very pleasantly, and the dining-hall and bar- 
rooms show me many familiar faces. 

Draper has gone to New Orleans. I called at his house, but for once it 
was cheerless. I found Greeley, and had a brief but satisfactory interview with 
him. He sent S. McC. Smith to me. I explained to him where the danger lies, 

engaged him to write privately to A. S , of Utica, and to prepare and publish 

an appeal, such as that we contemplated. 

It will be done, in due time. He went to L. T , of New York, who in- 
formed him that third tickets would hardly be raised anywhere but in Madison 
County. I think all this business will be well attended to. 

Mr. Hunt and Mr. White, with their families, are staying at Coleman's. I 
have seen no other New York members in the House. Mr. Culver and Mr. 
Holmes have called upon me, as also Mr. E. Robinson. These make up the 
extent of my congressional acquaintance thus far. Of course I have no news 
nor speculations to write you. 

You will see Mr. Hunt's speech, which was dignified, moderate, and re- 
spectable. At Philadelphia I saw Chandler and Mr. Morris. The former was 
looking about for a candidate for President, to bring forward. He spoke of 
General Scott, and discussed McLean, without any partiality. There were kind 
things said to me by the Quakers, who are abolitionists. I promised to stay 
there a day, if I could, on my return. 

Washington, January 2, 1846. 

Time hurries on so rapidly here, amid civilities and excitement, that I am 
obliged to economize it, even at the expense of writing to you less often than I 
wished. My letters must be broken up into a diary. 

Last evening I spent three hours in the drawing-room. There were sev- 
eral agreeable persons, but only one character. That was Mrs. General Gaines, 
a young, voluble woman of forty, wife of a superannuated field-marshal. She 
is literary, and lectures (to promote her husband's fame) on the arts of fortifica- 
tion, as I understood. Besides this, she is distinguished for litigation, involving 
estates of almost inconceivable wealth. 

At eleven o'clock this morning I went into the Supreme Court room, and 
found the learned judges listening to a very clear argument ; but the question 
was not interesting, and there was no audience. Then I passed into the House 
of Representatives, where, in an hour, I made acquaintance with nearly all the 
Whig members. Mr. Adams received me kindly, and I engaged to visit him 
this evening. 

One of the soundest and wisest men 1 have found here, thus far, is John M. 



1846.] CLAYTON— POLK— ADAMS— SCOTT. 771 

Clayton, who lias won my high respect. He was in the library. I was casually 
passing, and was introduced to him by Hunt. He declared that he was exceed- 
ingly gratified at my arrival, wanted to see me alone, withdrew Hunt and myself 
to a private apartment, closed the door, and then unfolded a web of sagacious 
policy, designed to defeat Calhoun in his purpose of making the Whigs extri- 
cate the Administration party from the difficulty into which they were falling 

in regard to Oregon. He apprehended that Mr. W would be wrong, and 

appealed to me to use what he thought would be effective influence with him. 
Thus I found one statesman, of sound judgment, agreeing with the suggestions 
you so wisely made. But he feels fearful that the Whigs will be impracticable. 
I need not say I will do what I can to secure his views in this great emergency. 

From the Capitol I went to the White House, and was honored with a pres- 
entation to the President. He is a gentleman of fifty, of plain, unassuming 
manners and conversation, and does not at all inspire awe or respect. I cannot 
describe the impression he makes upon me better than by saying that I miss the 
dignity and grace of our reception by General Jackson. 

After visiting the President I paid my respects to Governor Marcy, now Sec- 
retary of War, and to General Scott. Both those 1 gentlemen treated me with 
much kindness, especially the latter. Thu3 ends the business of a day, and now 
to dinner. 

Saturday J F orning, January Zd. 

I spent last evening most singularly. Mr. Adams had made a speech, in 
which he demonstrated that the true way to secure peace was to show an undi- 
vided front of the whole country in maintaining our claims to Oregon, and a 
readiness to defend them, which would form the proper ground on which nego- 
tiations could be conducted with the aid and support, at least, of the Whig party. 
The Democrats applauded him to the echo. The Whigs straggled from him, 
stumbled, and fell. The evening brought all the New York Whigs to my room 
for consultation. They concluded unanimously to sustain him, but the Whigs of 
the other States are panic-struck. Still the like counsels prevail in the Senate, 
and will bo supported by all the Whigs except Mr. Webster. 

After that caucus I went to Mr. Adams's house, and had a very delightful 
evening tete-d-tete with the venerable statesman. 

You will see Mr. Adams's wise, sagacious, and noble speech. You will see 
that the New Y"ork Whigs, in the main, stand by him. They all will do so. 
But Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, and Kentucky Whigs are as credulous as 
all are honest. There is great danger that they may falter. The only way to 
secure peace, or save the Whig party, is to show harmony and unanimity in as- 
serting our rights and in readiness to defend them. The responsibilities will 
break down those who lead to danger, and we shall be able to negotiate safely. 
Calhoun and Webster are trying to effect an ill-starred coalition of nullifiers 
with Whigs, to save slavery and free trade. 

Washington, January 4th. 
I rose at six this morning, and commenced my studies in my great slave 
case. It is about bedtime, and I have scarcely withdrawn from my books. It 
is a great case. I shrink from it. Yesterday I dined with General Scott. He 
is now in full chase of the presidency. His " Life and Times " is in the press, 
and I have just read the proof-sheets of several chapters. The prevailing sen- 



^~o LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

i i - 

timent here is that he is to be the candidate, although that opinion has no very- 
great influence upon the result. 

This evening I made a call on Mrs. Madison. That lady lives very pleas- 
antly near the White House. She is tall, dignified, easy, and quiet in her car- 
riage, neither as handsome nor as intelligent as our dear grandmother, who had 
never seen a court. I had little opportunity, however, to judge of Mrs. Madi- 
son. But her dress, conversation, air, and everything, showed me that she was 
a woman to whom fashion was necessary in old age. I go to my books again. 
So good-night. No, no. I forgot to say that I called last evening on Mrs. Davis 
and her husband, "Honest John." They inquired particularly about you, and 
were very agreeable. 

Washington, January 6, 1846. 

I have informed you that General Scott's " Life " is in the press. His nomi- 
nation for the presidency is quite as near as the publication of his memoirs. I 
was solemnly invited into a council last night to mature that event. Tho mover 
was Mr. John M. Clayton, who, though the wisest man here, could not see 
that in just that way had been brought about the ruin of his friend Mr. Clay, 
who, he now insisted, must be thrown overboard. 

Washington is full of ladies, and ladies, too, of Whig -friends. Yet I 
scarcely ever enter the drawing-room at our own hotel. Jethro Wood's patent- 
papers have just come on, and I am becoming as fully occupied and as entirely 
a recluse here as at home. But I am a fustian old fellow, and nobody will care 
much. It amazes me to see with how little study and how little learning men 
who have ambition to figure on this great stage are content to arm themselves. 
I paid my respects last night to Mrs. Davis again, and to Mr. John M. Clayton ; 
and sought to find Judge McLean, but he was abroad. Business carried me on 
these visits, for I had not energy enough otherwise. I met for the first yes- 
terday Mr. George Evans of the Senate, and Mr. Winthrop of the House. They 
are very able and distinguished men, the latter an elegant man. 

Legislative bodies are all alike. It is quite doubtful whether the counsels 
of Webster and Winthrop will not prevail in bringing the Whig party into 
their lineal position as heirs of Federalism The majority are breaking down 
before the demonstrations of support the Administration receives from us. The 
North and West are already deserted by their unprincipled Southern allies. 

The Journal has little authority here, the Tribune still less. The Herald, 
the Courier and Enquirer, and the Commercial Advertiser, are potential. 

The iciness has thawed off from the members, and I am now intrusted with 
a partial insight into the political arrangements for the next four years. Under 
the lead of Clayton, Crittenden, and Mangum, of the Senate, Mr. Clay is pro- 
nounced Tiors de combat. General Scott is the Whig congressional candidate 
for President, and Mr. Corwin, of Ohio, for Vice-President. 

I was invited into a select circle last night, and the question was put on the 
proposition to announce, in some authoritative way, the general as the chosen 
candidate, with such dispatch and formality as would quiet the public mind, and 
prevent its being misled or confounded. 

Of course I advised otherwise, and the gentlemen were kfnd enough to say 
my reasons, drawn from the state of things in New York, were satisfactory. But 
they will not remain so long. I have but one rock of hope, which is Mr. Clay- 
ton's confidence in my prudence and sagacity. I shall see him alone. 



1846.] McLEAN— BENTON— MAX GUM— CRITTENDEN. 77;j 

How bitter will this desertion be felt by Mr. Clay! Ami how Btrange that 
the friends who forsake him so prematurely do not see that he will grow stronger 
by their defection ! 

Mr. Hunt is in the confidence of the general's friends, and reckoned as one 
of the leaders of the movement. I told him to-day that he Lad better try the 
effect of moderation. 

Washington, January 8, 1846. 

Yesterday morning I went before the Supreme Court, which is a very digni- 
fied and imposing tribunal. They preserve the forms and ceremonies of the 
British courts, and the judges wear robes of silk, not ermine. The crier pro- 
nounced bis proclamation with commendable solemnity, giving great effect to 
the words "oyez! oyez! " and closing with "God save the United States, and 
this honorable court ! " 

After being admitted and sworn, I made a motion for leave to make an oral 
argument in the "Woodworth patent-case, and this is contrary to the rules of the 
court, from which it was said they never departed. The court took time to ad- 
vise, and this morning, to the surprise of everybody, granted the motion. 

We are to make a great case of it. All the causes involving the same ques- 
tions are to be brought on together, and there will be a grand array of counsel. 
I have the honor to be associated with Mr. Webster, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, Mr. 
Latrobe, Mr. Henderson, Senator Phelps, etc. The day for argument is to be 
fixed this evening. I have just begun to grasp the Ohio slave-case. It is like to 
be readied in two or three weeks. My old friend Senator Morehead will be 
my antagonist. I have made a pleasant acquaintance with Judge McLean, who 
is a very agreeable, high-minded man. Last evening I attended a party at the 
Rev. Mr. Pyne's. It was a crowd of finely-dressed ladies and gentlemen. My 
acquaintance was so limited that I scarcely enjoyed it. On Monday next I dine 
with Mr. Adams. I hope that you enjoy such balmy weather as we are blessed 
with here. 

Washington, January 9th. 

You have indeed had a series of visitations from the king of terrors in our 
small social circle. They must have checked the joyous excitement which pre- 
vailed when I left. Alas! I no longer grieve for those who fall. I am so sure 
that rest is a blessing to any mortal that I sorrow not greatly when friend or 
neighbor enters the grave. 

Where did I leave off with my rambling narrations? I have avoided all 
society as far as possible, and have been even more secluded and more studious 
here than at home. 

Well, I have told you about Mrs. Maury, the English traveler, with her little 
boy. I attended her yesterday, at her request, to call on Mr. Packenham, the 
British minister, to whom she had letters from the ministry in England, and I 
introduced her also to Colonel Benton. The colonel was not displeased. Ho 
summoned his wife, a modest, venerable lady, and Mrs. Eremont, his daughter. 
She is the wife of Lieutenant Fremont, whose expedition to Oregon has excited 
so much attention. There was also a Miss Benton. 

Then I had a visit from Mr. Mangum, an excellent Whig, of the Senate, and 
from Mr. Crittenden, who has not remembered that he owed me an explanation 
for his leaving me to the tender mercies of the cabinet here about the McLeod 
affair. 



/--j. LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

In the evening I had a consultation with all of Wilson's counsel in that 
patent-case, including Mr. Webster, Reverdy Johnson, Mr. Latrobe, Mr. Hen- 
derson, and others, which closed with a supper, at which Mr. Webster was in 
the highest degree felicitous. 

I attended church; sat with General Scott, dined with him; called at Mr. 
Marcy's, but Mrs. Marcy was sick ; called on two members of Congress ; visited 
Senators Crittenden and Corwin, and Butler King, and other members of the 
House ; and arrived here this evening at nine o'clock to receive your sorrowing 
letter. 

General Scott had ascertained that Augustus had passed his examination 
safely, the general said " very creditably." Governor Marcy, who is now kind 
to me, spoke of the severity of the ordeal at West Point. 

"Washington, January 12, 1846. 

Alter making two printed volumes, I am, at last, to argue my patent-case 
orally, and to speak to certain parts of the case at large, leaving to others many 
topics over which I have labored. I am studious as ever, and I scarcely get 
time to look abroad. One of our friends is here, endeavoring to persuade the 
Whigs to sacrifice the interests of the party, to save the value of stocks in Wall 
Street. He succeeds in showing the Whig members that I am wise, but dishon- 
est (politically), as he thinks, and I am quite able to prove that he is unwise, 
however honest. 

My patent-case comes on the 26th of January. I hope to be tolerably pre- 
pared ; but it is an ordeal to take a part in a debate with Phelps, Henderson, 
Latrobe, Johnson, and Webster. If I do it well it may be useful to me. The 
slave-case will come I hardly know when. Last night I attended a party at Mr. 
Seaton's (the mayor). It was a gentlemen's " sociable." All the Whigs, mem- 
bers of Congress, judges, statesmen, etc., were there; Mr. Adams, General 
Scott, Judge McLean, all our friends but Mr. Webster. The occasion was very 
pleasant. R. M. Blatchford writes me that he will be here to-night. 

Washington, January 15, 1846. 
My brief in Wilson's patent-case is just completed. I breathe an hour or two 
before I resume the herculean task of preparing the argument in the slave-cause. 
We have reached that cause on the calendar, and if Governor Morehead were 
here I should begin it to-morrow, although my brief is in the roughest form. 
He is detained at Columbus by sickness. I have had the cause reserved, so that 
it can be argued when he arrives. On Monday I dined with Mr. Adams. His 
wife, his daughter-in-law (a widow), and her daughter, were the ladies. Mrs. 
Adams seems much younger than her husband, is tall, straight, lady-like in her 
carriage, and dignified and sensible in her conversation. All treated me with 
much respect and kindness, and repeated to me the kind accounts he had given 
them of his stay at Auburn. Mr. Adams had Mr. Corwin, Mr. Winthrop, and 
several other friends to meet me. Mr. Corwin is apparently about forty, perhaps 
forty-two or forty-three, of a very dark complexion, a free, generous, unpolished 
man, with a great deal of gentleness, and a countenance which wins your trust 
and confidence. He is regarded here as among the competitors for President, 
and is therefore adopted for Vice-President by the friends of General Scott. I 
think I told you I met the Whigs at Mr. Seaton's. It was the most intellectual 



1846.] CORWIN— HUNT— SEATOX. 775 

social party I ever met, and there were a thousand delightful tilings ahout it. 
There was, in the centre of the room, John Quincy Adams, the cynosure of all 
regards. Every one saluted him with respectful veneration. I was honored 
most delicately by being placed next him at the supper-table. " Come, sir," 
said I, " you will need rest when this term of Congress shall end. Will you not 
come quietly to "Western New York once more? " " Why, my (bar sir, a mem- 
ber of our House to-day, in answering me, said the time bad come when our 
young men saw visions, and our old men dreamed dreams. It would be a deli- 
cious dream, indeed, if I could dream that I should ever come to see you 
again." 

Yesterday Mr. Hunt, of Lockporf, made a dinner for me. lie brought 
together Senators Crittenden, J. M. Clayton, Mangum, Berrien, Greene, aud 
others, and Butler King and other members of the House of Representatives. 
It was a pleasant gathering. We discussed " notice " vehemently, for the edifi- 
cation and guidance of Senators. R. M. Blatcbford arrived night before last 
with Edward Curtis. He lodges with Mr. Webster. I am to dine there to- 
morrow. This evening I go to Mr. Tayloe's, who gives a party to the gentle- 
men in Washington. I did not attend Mrs. Tayloe's party last week. Mrs. 
Polk's first "drawing-room" comes off next week. I hear of balls announced 
by the ministers and secretaries, hut I have avoided all those dignitaries, and 
shall probably keep out of the way of compliments from those in authority. 

I can now see to the end of my sojourn here. My progress will be rapid 
when I once set out for home. I am already weary of long absence. I wish. I 
could know something of your occupations, your studies, your conversation, 
and your thoughts. Among the objects of art just now at Washington is a 
picture copied from Titian's " Venus of the Bath " at Florence. I meant to say 
something of Greenough's "Washington," but Blatchford and E. Curtis have 
just come in. So adieu. 

WASHts-GTox, January 16, 1840. 

I am going to-morrow morning to Richmond. Shall spend Sunday there, 
and go to Baltimore on Monday, and return to this city on Tuesday. 

Last evening I visited Mrs. Adams and her children ; and, at nine, went to 
a large gentlemen's party at the Tayloes. It was a congregation of the distin- 
guished men of the day — Mr. Adams, Mr. Cass, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Calhoun, 
General Scott, Mr. Clayton, Mr. Crittenden, Mr. Benton, and others. Mrs. 
Tayloe appeared and performed the honors in a most graceful manner. 

The debate on Oregon has been postponed in the Senate until there is time 
to hear from England. The resolution for "notice" will pass the House by a 
large majority. The Whigs approach it by cautious steps, each beginning with 
modifications ; but they will go the whole in the end. 

In the Senate, I now think that Mr. Calhoun, with Benton's aid, will try to 
defeat the motion altogether, or pass a resolution so pusillanimous as to be 
equally calamitous. 

Crittenden's resolutions are a ground of compromise, hut the Southern 
Whigs won't come up to them. They will fail altogether, and I look to see 
Calhoun take the Whigs with him. They all know my dissent, and they con- 
fess it expedient, but they are affrighted. It is in vain that I tell them that if 
"notice" passes in the House, and is defeated in the Senate, the Senators will 



h>~q LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

be instructed, and the obnoxious peace-offering will be the signal of a tempest 
that will sweep them all from their places. 

You will see, if our friends assume a false and untenable position, within a 
day or two, a compromise that will harm tbem, and do no good. 

I live like a hermit by day, and am in the fashionable drawing-rooms at 
night. My patent-case comes off on the 26th. At last I am ready for it. Our 
Ohio case is the next, but Morehead is still detained on the way. I hope to 
argue it next week. 

R. M. Blatchford and E. Curtis are here. I urged them both to show Mr. 
Webster that he ought not to let Mr. Calhoun win his prizes. But — but — Cur- 
tis was wiser than I, and Wall Street wiser than the sage of Quincy, or the new 
apostle of Delaware. 

General Cass has sunk by being for war, he being a soldier. General Scott 
gains strength by being for peace. 



CHAPTER LXII. 

1846. 



Trip to Richmond and Norfolk. — The Happiest People in the World. — Benjamin Watkins 
• Leigh. — President and Mrs. Polk. — Mr. Buchanan's Ball. — Governor Marcy and the 
Diplomats. — Colonel Benton. — The Calhouns. — Mrs. Madison. — Mrs. Hamilton. — The 
Oregon " Notice." 

Baenum's Hotel, Baltimore, Wednesday, January 21s£. 

If you will take up a map, you will see, in tracing my course, that I have 
had scarcely time enough, since I left Washington, to send you any words of 
greeting on my flight. I left Coleman's at ten o'clock in the evening, having 
dined in a very quiet way with Mr. and Mrs. Webster. We slept, or tried to 
sleep, on the boat at the wharf until the hour of departure (three) next morn- 
ing. Whom should I find on board, to my surprise, but Harvey Baldwin with his 
wife? Others there were, known to me, but not to you. The boat surrendered 
us to the railroad at Fredericksburg — a place you may recollect resting in when 
we were in the South. The cars conveyed us to Richmond across a consider- 
able part of Old Virginia. Here and there I saw a clean, neat, and thrifty- 
looking plantation, with a large dwelling surrounded by negro-huts. But, gen- 
erally, the land was sterile, the fences mean, and a universal impress of poverty 
stamped on all around me. 

We reached Richmond at twelve o'clock, and I took a room in the basement, 
while Mr. Wilson roosted in the attic, of an hotel apparently almost as spacious 
as the Astor. The Legislature and courts were in session. There are few 
hotels, and they, of course, were crowded. Without scarcely waiting to look at 
my toilet, I set out for the Capitol to see the Legislature of the Ancient Domin- 
ion. On the route I stopped at the Whig office, and was told I would find Mr. 
Gallagher, the editor, at the Capitol. I repaired there, sent for and brought 
him from his reporter's desk. He showed me a seat, and soon after left me. 
The Capitol at Richmond stands on a hill that overlooks a great part of the 
town, the James River, and, beyond its banks, a long tract of beautiful country, 



1846.] VISIT TO RICHMOND. 777 

north, west, and south, highly cultivated and embellished. I know no situation 
more decidedly beautiful in America. The Capitol is a Grecian structure, after 
the Parthenon, with a porch and Ionic columns, without turret, steeple, or 
dome. In a rotunda, which may perhaps be as large in diameter as the dome 
of our Court-House, was a statue of Washington; not like Grcenough's and 
ethers, dressed in Roman costume, but in the dress of a Virginia gentleman. 
The House of Delegates consists of one hundred and thirty-four members, who 
are crowded into a room not so large, I think, as our court-room at Auburn, 
with a small gallery, and without ventilation. Across the rotunda, I found the 
Senate-chamber in a hall of dimensions contracted in an equal degree. The 
Senate consists of thirty-two members ; and I thought that the intelligence, 
capacity, mannors, and tone of the debates, as well as the dress and carriage of 
the members generally, were quite similar to those in the New York Legis- 
lature. Indeed, I thought they rather excelled our own. Yet the House of 
Delegates was engaged in debating the foundation of a system of common 
schools for white children, leaving the African race excluded, of course ; while 
the Senate was discussing the construction of a Macadam road as a great work 
of internal improvement. I soon became satisfied that, in a country where 
nearly half of the population are doomed to ignorance, it is not possible for the 
privileged class to maintain common schools. 

I entered the Executive-chamber without finding a porter to introduce me, 
and I had no letters. Three gentlemen were sitting in an apartment as large as 
the hall of the Capitol at Albany. I selected and addressed the more promi- 
nent person as Governor Smith, saying that my name was Seward. I was of 
New York, and, being in the city, had called to pay my respects. The person 
thus selected introduced me to a man of rather shabby exterior as the Governor. 
He genially asked me to be seated, and treated me with marked respect. He 
argued with me the danger of amalgamation at the North ; and when I told 
him that commerce of the races was less frequent there than in the South, he 
forgot the question, and extolled that commerce as freeing the white race from 
habits of licentiousness. Such was the Governor of Virginia! Yet he was 
sagacious. In defending myself, I said we had learned what abolition we had from 
Washington and Jefferson. He replied, " No ; they did not teach it." I insisted. 
" Oh, yes," said he, "but it was all kept within the covers of a book, then." 

On the way I visited Benjamin Watkins Leigh, to whom I took a letter from 
Mr. Webster. Mr. Leigh is upward of sixty. He seemed to me to look like 
Abbott Lawrence, and to be a man of capacity and sincerity. But he had 
learned to look unfavorably on everything, because everything worked contrari- 
wise. He spoke despondingly about the dangers of Avar, and the decline ot 
freedom. Of course, we might have debated such questions, but I deferred, 
and acquiesced when I could without sacrifice of principle. He showed that 
he had read the entire history of the masonic outrages on William Morgan, and 
solemnly argued that, although there was such a man as Morgan, he was never 
imprisoned, nor even abducted, and of course was never murdered. He did not 
answer where he thought Morgan was. Mrs. Leigli was a daughter of Mr. Wick- 
ham, one of the counsel of Aaron Burr. She is graceful and lady-like, and her 
children appeared very well — there were seven or eight of them. The evening 
wore away rapidly during the pleasant hours I spent in this intellectual and 
agreeable society. 



778 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1840. 

The next morning I went to church, and afterward surveyed the town. 
Richmond is situated on the rapids of the James River, at the head of sloop- 
navigation. It is built on the summits and the declivities of several hills. The 
buildings are of brick, substantial and elegant. There are many very tasteful 
and handsome dwellings and gardens. The population is about twenty-five 
thousand. There are many flouring-mills, and several factories. The city re- 
sembles Rochester in bustle, spirits, and activity. It is a Northern hive trans- 
ferred to a Southern clime. I noted one flouring-mill that manufactured one 
thousand barrels of flour daily. The operatives in the mills are negro children. 
What wonder that Virginians think the manufacturing system at the North is 
a slave system ? I spent the evening with James Lyons, Esq., a lawyer of Rich- 
mond, and member of the Legislature, a clever, excellent man, who had a wife 
and five children, all very agreeable and sensible. Occasionally they would 
require me to censure the agitation about slavery in the North. But I told 
them frankly I owed it to consistency and truth to declare myself an agitator, 
though not of the third party. Gradually we learned to forbear discussing 
topics on which Ave could not agree. Several other gentlemen of consideration 
visited me at Richmond. 

On Monday morning we bade adieu to the city at an early hour, and it was 
soon my good-fortune to discover the happiest people in the world. You will 
be surprised to learn that, after traversing so many regions, I should have found 
the happiest people in the world inhabiting Old Virginia, so long forsaken, as 
she has been, by the spirit of her ancestors. It was in this wise: There were 
a dozen, more or less, cabin-passengers. I saw a well-dressed white man lead 
on board, from the wharf, into the steerage-cabin, a long retinue of young men, 
young women, and small children of both sexes. They appeared neat, in shabby, 
second-hand clothing. All seemed smart, and each had a bag, bundle, chest, or 
bandbox, containing evidently all their worldly gear. I heard a gentleman in 
the cabin observe, to a modest and pretty young lady under his care, that 
"we have seventy-five negroes on board;" and she replied that they were 
" not pleasant fellow-travelers." As the boat left the wharf, and the cab- 
men, porters, and others, returned to the town, I saw persons adjusting and 
carrying away handcuffs, which had been worn by some of those " unpleasant " 
people. 

The seventy-five wretches, huddled together on the lower deck, looked with 
puerile curiosity and gratification at all that surrounded them. They saw a 
steamboat und trod its deck for the first time. They were traveling, and had 
the excitement of novelty, of change, of knowledge newly acquired. "We 
floated many miles down the river, till we reached the port of entry, where 
ships anchor. There lay a broad, capacious ship waiting to receive our "un- 
pleasant " fellow-passengers, and carry them to New Orleans, there to be held 
in the slave-market until sold out to such purchasers as their well-trained, vig- 
orous limbs, and meek and gentle countenances, might attract. There were 
already one hundred and twenty-five on board the infernal barge, which, lashed 
to ours, received its contribution. A man of fair complexion and fashionable 
exterior now left us, and, assuming the office of captain of the ship, gathered in 
its cargo. As I stood looking at this strange scene, a gentleman stepped up to 
my side and said : 

"You see the curse that our forefathers bequeathed to us." 



1846.] "THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD." 779 

I replied, "Yes," and turned away to conceal manifestations of sympathy I 
might not express. 

" Oh," said my friend, '"they don't mind it; tliey are cheerful ; they enjoy 
this transportation and travel as much as you do." 

" I am glad they do," said I ; " poor wretches ! " 

The lengthened file at last had all reached the deck of the slaver, and we cut 
loose. The captain of our boat, seeing me intensely interested, turned to .me 
and said: "Oh, sir, do not be concerned about them; they are the ha] 
people in the world ! " I looked, and there they were — slaves, ill protected 
from the cold, fed capriciously on the commonest food — going from all that was 
dear to all that Avas terrible, and still they wept not. I thanked God that he 
had made them insensible. And these were " the happiest people in the world ! " 

The sable procession was followed by a woman, a white woman, dressed in 
silk, and furs, and feathers. She seemed the captain's wife. She carried in her 
liaml a, Bible/ Whether she was partner in the accursed traffic, I knew not ; 
but I hoped, for her sake, for humanity's sake, for woman's sake, that she was a 
volunteer minister of consolation. 

Waskixltux, Frid /. Jan "try 23d. 

My last epistle took a sudden flight from Baltimore. I had told you already- 
all I had to say about my r excursion in Virginia. But I must not omit to say 
that far down the river, below the place where I found "the happiest people in 
the world," the river wound round toward the cast, presenting directly before 
us a bold shore. On the right, quite near the bank, was a modern, substantial, 
brick farm-house, of respectable dimensions; on the left was an antique brick 
cottage, weather-beaten and dilapidated. Midway between them was an arched 
doorway, the ruin of the church built by the English colonists, the life of 
whose chivalrous captain was saved by Pocahontas — the church, for aught I 
now know, that witnessed the baptism of the Indian maiden. This is James- 
town. This is all that remains of the first settlement of Virginia. 

When we had passed this, a Democratic Virginia Senator on board in- 
vited me to go home with him. And where do you think was his home ? At 
Yorktown ! I was within ten miles of Yorktown, offered a ride there, enter- 
tainment there, conveyance away from there — and yet I could not go. We 
passed on until we entered the broad basin of Hampton Roads, formed by the 
junction of the James, Elizabeth, and Nansemond Rivers. And these roads 
have a gate. The "Rip Raps" and "Old Point Comfort" are the lintels 
which contract the passage, and they are fortified. Passing up the Elizabeth 
River we landed at Norfolk, a thriving town of fifteen thousand people. Ports- 
mouth lies on the opposite hank. It is about as large as Auburn, but is de- 
clining. The navy-yard is at this place. I found the officers hospitable and 
civil. They showed me everything, and sent me back to Norfolk in their boat. 
One-fifth of the navy of the United States was lying at Norfolk, needing re- 
pairs, but neglected, while Congress was discussing the expediency of seizing 
the whole of Oregon, and defying the whole world ! 

'•James Grey's Private Jail" w T as ostentatiously spread out in large 1< 
on an edifice as largo as the jail at Auburn. Tins was the dungeon for offend- 
ing slaves, for whom there is no writ of habeas corpus, no jail-delivery, but 
the cupidity r of their masters. Time would fail me to tell of hospitalities at 
Norfolk. We left that city at five o'clock ; were overtaken by a snow-storm in 



7S0 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [184G. 



Chesapeake Bay ; lost our way, and got on soundings; but accidentally regained 
our course, and reached Baltimore at nine, the next day. 

I am again at home at Coleman's. It has been a profitable and instructive 
excursion. 

There is a judicial blindness concerning slavery throughout Virginia. But 
the subject is too broad for discussion here. The South is panic-struck concern- 
ing war with England ; and boldness is regarded as madness and guilt. 

The commercial influences are prevalent here, and I hope little from the 
wisdom of our friends. You will have seen Mr. Rockwell's speech. Our excel- 
lent friend G has been made to write to me ; and he has written, of course, 

an ill-tempered letter, charging me with supporting Allen, of Ohio, and war. I 
suppose this letter the opening of a large correspondence, got up by our friends 
here to control me. Hunt says he thinks Crittenden's resolution will pass the 
Senate. But while our own friends are acting so unwisely, there is, thank 
Heaven, some indication of fluttering on the part of the Administration. 
Brother Jonathan can threaten Bull, when he is held by a Tory premier. But a 
"Whig premier can safely give the ferocious animal rope enough to let him take 
an assailant upon his horns. Since the arrival of the unexpected intelligence 
from Europe, the President's counselors are understood to whisper caution and 
apprehension. " Notice " was peace before. Now they fear it may be war. 

The Western " Oregon men " are easily excited, and have been very suspi- 
cious of the President and his Cabinet. 

They gave me a princely welcome at Norfolk. I did not remember, until I 
arrived there, that it was the scene of the abduction of the poor, shivering 
slave, by his three freed brethren, which produced the sad breach between 
the State of New York and the Old Commonwealth. The people there seemed 
to believe I had been wrong, but firm and honest. 

It is now probable that the Van Zandt fugitive-slave case will go over until 
next year, because of the sickness of Governor Morehead, who is of counsel 
for the plaintiff. My great patent-cause comes off on Monday next, and Will 
continue a week. 

Duer's vindication brings up fresh to my mind the laborious arguments I 
held, to convince him of positions which he now maintains with ability and 
grace. 

Washington, Saturday, January 24th. 

I have spent the day in walking and driving about town, leaving cards in re- 
turn for the civilities bestowed upon me by the bean monde. There is half an 
hour before dinner. I give it to you, since it is the only way of dividing with 
you what pleasurable excitement I find here. On Thursday, the day after my 
return from the South, I dined with Governor Marcy. His guests were Mr. 
Packenham, the British; Mr. Bodisco, the Russian ; Don Calderon de la Bafca, 
the Spanish ; M. Paget, the French minister ; with some other diplomats. The 
ladies were Mrs. Marcy, Mrs. Walker, the wife of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
Mrs. Tayloe, and I must not forget the presence of Mr. Secretary Walker, Sec- 
retary Bancroft, and Mr. Tayloe. It was a pleasant party for me. Governor 
Marcy entertained the company with reminiscences of passages in New York 
politics. He lives in the past already, and evidently feels that he is descending 
the ladder on which he mounted so rapidly, so high. The party will follow its 
Southern, not its Northern leaders. " See, my son," said Oxenstiern, " with how 



1S46.1 MR. BUCHANAN'S BALL. YS1 

little wisdom mankind are governed." The foreign ministers were all amiable, 
polite, respectable gentlemen. Mr. Bodisco is a very general favorite in the 
fashionable circles. 

These representatives of the chief states in the world rose at no time during 
dinner to the discussion of a question higher than the great ball to be given by 
Mr. Buchanan, except an aside conversation between Mr. Bancroft and Don 
Calderon, in which the latter asserted the despotism of public opinion in Amer- 
ica, and the former admitted the soft impeachment. 

Yesterday was signalized by Mr. Buchanan's party. It was on a new prin- 
ciple, or new at least here. He is a bachelor of sixty, and keeps house; but, on 
this occasion, he hired Carusi's saloon — the assembly-room of the city — and gave 
a general ball. It was .given by, and in the name of, the Secretary of State 
alone. He sent out thirteen hundred cards of invitation, and denied applica- 
tions, direct and indirect, for two hundred more. Ever since I came here every- 
body that arrived in town seemed to be engaged, directly or indirectly, in 
soliciting the honor of an invitation. And so the great affair came oft' at last. 
I thought there were seven hundred persons present, but others estimated the 
crowd at a thousand. And a brilliant scene it was. Most of the ladies I thought 
overdressed. I am sure I see more beauty in a village dancing-school than was 
permitted by fashion to reveal itself here. But the celebrities of toilet and 
character were there in great force. Bancroft, the historian, and even Web- 
ster, the orator, wandered at times unknown and undistinguished in the multi- 
tude. I attended Mrs. Marcy to the ball, and acted as her constant cavalier 
until she retired. I thought this disposition of myself nlost proper and becom- 
ing. You often jest me for my great reverence of the sex. I must confess my 
faith in them was tried on this occasion. There was a stage, or elevated plat- 
form, at one end of the hall, upon which fifty or sixty persons might stand. I 
attained this eminence with Mrs. Marcy ; and the presiding divinity there was 
Mrs. Madison, who cannot be less than eighty years old, a widow, relict of a 
founder of the Constitution, of a President of the United States. All the world 
paid homage to her, saying that she was dignified and attractive. It is the 
fashion to say so. But, I confess, I thought that more true dignity would have 
been displayed by her remaining, in her widowhood, in the ancient country 
mansion of her illustrious husband. Descending from the stage which I have 
described, and passing toward the porch, midway, on a sofa elevated so as to 
lift its occupant somewhat above the crowd, was the widow of Alexander 
Hamilton, the daughter of Philip Schuyler, mother of many children, ninety 
years old, they say ; dressed— Heaven be praised! — not with plumes, but with 
antiquated starched ruff and cap — receiving the salutations of a crowd of friv- 
olous persons whom curiosity brought around her. Mrs. Webster appeared 
admirably. She has under her care Miss Jaudon, of New York. Mr. Bodisco 
presented me to madame. He is a Prussian, of fifty or more, lie found her a 
child at Georgetown, very beautiful, and married her as soon as she was mar- 
riageable. This was, perhaps, four years ago. She has grown large, but some 
youthful sweetness and beauty remain. She visited Russia with him, and now 
excites the envy of her sex by appearing with brilliant necklace, bracelets, etc., 
of diamonds. From this lady and her suite I turned to Mrs. John Adams, a 
widow, and daughter-in-law of John Quincy Adams. I attended her to the 
table; she is a diffident, amiable lady. My arm was then taken by Mr-. Walker, 



Arg2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

wife of the Secretary of the Treasury. I led Mrs. Loudon, of Charlestown, from 
the room, and Mr. and Mrs. Hunt brought me home. Thus ends the account of 
the ball— the grand ball of the season. 

Sunday, January 2i>tk. 

I paid my respects yesterday to about all my acquaintances in the city, 
chiefly, however, by pasteboard, for it was a sunny day after the snow-storm. 
I had the honor to make acquaintance with Mr. Calhoun, his wife, and niece. 
They are kind, plain, well-disposed persons. Greatness like his is seldom more 
full of condescension. Honest John Davis has been quite sick ; Mrs. Davis was 
out when I called there. I hope to bring on my cause to-morrow ; it will last 
some days. 

The opposition of the "Whigs to "Woodward w^as effectual. I did not care 
that it should be so, because I know no reason to hope that any better man will 
be presented by the President. The injunction of secrecy will be taken off. It 
will appear that every Whig voted against the confirmation, while twenty Demo- 
crats voted for it. Even Archer voted against it. 

The news from England is so unexpectedly indicative of a pacific disposition 
on the part of John Bull that our managers here will wax bold enough to dis- 
gust sensible men everywhere. But, unhappily, just by so much as they bluster 
will they fail to excite Bull, wdiile they will terrify our commercial city friends, 
and the few allies we have in the South. Look out, then, for boldness on the 
Democratic side, and for pusillanimity on ours. Our New York friends here 
have shaken the Whigs of the Senate much. Crittenden's resolutions will hardly 
be acceptable to the Democrats now, while our Southern and some of our New 
England friends will stick a white feather into them, pacific as they are. You 
see that the General Committee of New York are instructing the Whig mem- 
bers of the Legislature to vote down the resolutions of instruction. 

The heart of the "Whigs here is good, but the flesh is weak. "Webster and the 
National Intelligencer both talk peace. When I go away, the foundation of all 
the firmness of our few wise friends may be shaken. Let the New York instruc- 
tions come ! If the legislative Beg#ncy refuse to pass them, let the "Whigs send 
them. I have suggested to Hunt to take them and offer them as an amend- 
ment. I think he will adopt this course. 

I trust I have done something to arrest the folly of premature nominations 
for the presidency. I have shown the old body-guard of Clay that their leader 
was at Elba, not at St. Helena. I dined a few days since with Governor Marcy. 
He speaks of the blunders of Wright, and predicts his fall and total overthrow, 
lie hears much of Scott, and sees the mistake he is making, for he said to me 
without prompting, " Clay will be your candidate next time." The people say 
that what I have said has strengthened Mr. Clay very much, which is not very 
much liked by the Scott men. It has only shown that he had strength, when 
they thought him powerless. 

S. McCune Smith hardly caught the one thought to which all others pre- 
sented in his address are auxiliary. But the question is going very well. I wish 
I had been able to prepare a report of my speech here. It would have answered 
every purpose at home. The audience seemed to understand and concede my 
position, not as a favorer or flatterer of Ireland, but as an advocate of universal 
emancipation and suffrage. 

Since I wrote you I have extended my acquaintance, chiefly among Demo- 



1846.] CALHOUN— WEBSTER— BENTON. 783 

crats, who, strange to say, show me more respect than my own Mends. I have 
met Buchanan, Calhoun, Ingersoll, Walker, Bancroft, etc. 

Our slave-cause is like to go over. I regret this. It was a fair case for argu- 
ment that would tell on the country. Our patent-cause is expected to come on 
to-morrow. 

Monday Morning, January 2G^A. 

Stevens is here, and we are ready for our argument in the patent-cause ; 
but the court has let in a privileged State cause before us. We may get it to- 
morrow or nest day. 

An amendment to Crittenden's resolution was offered by Mangum, and, pro- 
voking opposition to negotiation by arbitration, will close up this best avenue to 
peace. Fatal mistake! Butler King is to introduce it in the House. Ash- 
man and all our friends are to go for it, except the New-Yorkers — it is said. 
The Calhoun men are to go for it, and then we are to make the ill-starred 
coalition, and be "beaten on it; for the Administration " notice " will puss in 
both Houses. 

Washington, January 2*JtTh. 

The court still keeps before me, but my time is fixed. I shall have a hear- 
ing next Tuesday. There is little to be said that would interest you, although 
the city is full of excitement. Mr. Buchanan, the Secretary of State, retires to 
the bench, which renders a reorganization of the cabinet needful. It is sup- 
posed that a Southern statesman will take the cabinet; and so we come to a 
pacific state. Mr. Calhoun is a frank, unsuspecting man. He has no secrets. 
He sat down by me to-day, and in twenty minutes told, without reserve, all 
his thoughts and speculations, about Texas and Oregon, as if I had been of his 
party. I went last night to call upon Mrs. Polk, who is praised by all people 
here as a fine person, of unobjectionable ways, and excellent deportment and 
manners. She is rather quiet, and she is certainly handsome. 

Colonel Benton made a very able, and another Senator a very ridiculous, 
speech to-day. 

The political situation is becoming infinitely complex; Woodward's rejection 
brings Buchanan on the bench. He was to be nominated to-day, and I suppose 
has been, but I am not advised. 

I am told that this is a very agreeable way of getting rid of a Northern man 
who is for 54° 40', and no less. Mason, now Attorney-General, or some other 
Southern peace man, will be appointed Secretary of State — at which the North- 
west will be angered. 

I am able to say to you, but to no one else, that the British ministry may 
be expected to offer (have done so) arbitration, by crowned or uncrowned heads, 
as an alternative. 

Mangum and Butler King block up the way, by offering an amendment 
instructing the President to arbitrate; which the majority will regard as a 
Whig "Hartford Convention" measure, and vote down. Voting for "no- 
tice" with such an alternative is voting against "notice." Yet it is beyond my 
power to hold our friends from committing themselves to it, at least many of 
them. Clayton, Corwin, and Crittenden, stand firm, and are much out of pa- 
tience with Mangum. I believe that I have satisfied Mr. Webster that he bas 
a duty. He has engaged to bring Ashmun, Truman Smith, and Huntington, to 
see the arbitration as I do. If he keeps right on, as now, all will be very 



Yot 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1S46. 



right. But peace-partyism doth readily beset him, and the bankers in Wall 
Street hold him by strong sympathies. Benton is a great man. He made a 
sensible and effective speech to-day, against a war-equipment of the navy. 

Judge McLean spent last evening with me, talking wisely. He specially 
desired me to go to him to renew it, as I shall do to-morrow. 

Be sure that now the Oregon question is in a way of being settled. Gree- 
ley fails once again about this "notice." Why cannot any sensible man see 
that if the President wishes to arbitrate, and must arbitrate, he can do so 
easier without congressional dictation than with it ; that Whigs voting for it 
oblige Democrats to vote against it, and thus we lose everything? 

Thursday, 29th. 

The case of Ehode Island vs. Massachusetts was begun in Supreme Court 
to-day, and it was half opened. The counsel agree, with a majority of the 
judges, to let me in to deliver my speech before Massachusetts replies. 

Here is trouble about Buchanan's appointment ! It is said that Vroom, of 
New Jersey, and Green, of Pennsylvania, are candidates. 

House of Representatives, January 30, 1846. 

Of all uncertainties, that of attending the court here is the most perplexing. 
The letter I have sent to Morgan and Blatchford will inform you of the deci- 
sion of the court which keeps me here until Thursday. Mrs. Davis made a 
nice little sociable last night. I believe it was for myself. It was a very pleas- 
ant evening. Mrs. Alexander Hamilton was of the party. She told me she 
was eighty-eight years and upward. She talked sensibly of her husband and her 
papers ; but her memory of current events and contemporaneous persons has 
ceased altogether. She forgets in a minute what is said to her. 

I am listening, as well as any member, to a speech by Mr. Hague, of Illinois, 
for Oregon, and " all of Oregon." 

The Oregon question begins to drag. The panic of Wall Street has begun 
to wear off there. It will appall some of our friends here a while longer, 
but I think we are safe from the peace-party attitude being forced upon us by 
the Democratic gamblers. 

President-making is the business of both parties here, and there is a con- 
venient number of candidates. Mr. Buchanan expects to go on the bench, and 
renounce the field. 

The "Hunker" party are here from New York, in the persons of Seymour? 
Bosworth, McVean, and others. 

John Davis is right about Oregon. So is our excellent friend Dixon. 

Washington, February 2d, Monday, p. ir. 
The Ehode Island cause was not finished on Friday. The Chief-Justice was 
sick this morning. The counsel in that cause were not willing to go on in his 
absence. We were ; so the court heard me. I have opened on the first three 
points in our cause, and then the court adjourned. I am to resume and close 
to-morrow, and leave here so as to be at Auburn on Saturday night. 

As soon as his argument in the patent-case had been concluded, 
he returned home— the Ohio slave-case having been postponed. At 
Auburn fresh responsibilities awaited him. 



1846.] WYATT'S CASE. 785 

CHAPTER LXIIL 

1846. 

Wyatt's Case.— "Winter Journey to Florida.— The Van Nest Murder. — A Bloody Mystery.— 
Popular Excitement. — Attempt to lynch Freeman. — A Solemn Appeal. 

TiiEiiE was a convict in the State-prison at Auburn, named Wyatt, 
who, since his imprisonment, had killed a fellow-convict, and was lying 
under indictment for murder. Without friends or money r he was un- 
able to procure counsel to defend him on the trial, which was to take 
place in February. Two days before the appointed time, he sent a 
message to Governor Seward, imploring his aid. Seward went over to 
the prison, found the manacled man lying upon the floor, and asked 
what he could do for him. " Only to see, Governor, that I get a fair 
trial for this," said Wyatt, holding up his fettered hands. 

Seward conversed with him about his life, the details of his crime, 
and his own crude notions about its justification, and finally promised 
to see that he had competent counsel. Returning home, and thinking 
over the case, he decided to undertake it himself. About the homicide 
there was no question ; the facts were admitted, and the evidence was 
clear. But various incidents of his prison-life, as narrated by keepers 
and fellow-convicts, seemed to warrant the belief that the morbid state 
of mind which led to the commission of the deed Avas actually insanity. 
Careful study of this phase of the matter satisfied Seward that Wyatt 
ought to be examined by medical experts, and their testimony as to his 
sanity would probably determine his fate. But the prisoner had no 
means, and the law provided none for this purpose. Seward wrote to 
physicians at the Utica Lunatic Asylum and elsewhere, and at his own 
expense secured the attendance of the necessary scientific witnesses. 
The trial occupied eight days, Seward conducting it to the best of his 
ability in behalf of the accused. The jury went out, but were divided 
in opinion, and could not agree upon a verdict. They were discharged, 
and Wyatt was remanded to prison to await another trial. 

In response to a summons from his father, who desired his aid in 
business matters, Seward left Auburn immediately after the Wyatt 
trial, to go to Orange County. It was a tedious winter journey, the 
most available route being a circuitous one through New England. 
He wrote after his arrival : 

Florida, February 21, 1846. 
After perils by storms and calms, by snow on the earth, and by snow in the 
air, wo arrived here just in time. We left Albany <>n Friday morning in a severe 
snow-stenn. By dint of perseverance we reached Pittsfield at midnight, after 
being fifteen hours on the road. The next morning found us fifteen miles farther 
on our way. "We arrived at Springfield at noon, and at Ne\\*York at six, on 
50 



fr$Q LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

Sunday morning, having lost just twenty-eight hours. We crossed to Jersey 
City, and went to Paterson by railroad. Then, at the cost of twenty-two dol- 
lars, I took a sleigh to bring us to this place ; but the horses gave out, and left 
me at Polidore's at eleven o'clock that night. I arrived here at an early hour 
yesterday morning. My father is as well as usual, but he is very infirm. The 
school flourishes, to the great satisfaction of all parties This is the day of sale of 
the real estate. It is cold and clear, with a bright sky. 

He remained at Florida until about the 14th of March, when he 
went up to Albany. On that day he read in the papers a brief an- 
nouncement of horrible and unaccountable murders,, said to have been 
committed near Auburn, by a negro, named Freeman. Apparently 
without any provocation, or any desire for plunder, he had killed Mr. 
Van Nest, a respected farmer, living on the shore of the Owasco Lake, 
and several, if not all, of his family. In the course of a few days came 
further details. The newspapers described the bloody scene, the fright- 
ful wounds of the victims ; gave a diagram of the house, and a picture 
of the murderer ; narrated his flight, pursuit, and capture, and the pro- 
ceedings of the coroner's inquest ; but could give no explanation of the 
motives that led to the deed. He had been wounded in the bloody 
struggle ; had stolen a horse to escape, stabbed him, and stolen another; 
had stopped at the house of a relative thirty miles from Auburn ; was 
easily traced, captured, carried back to the house where the crime was 
committed, and confronted with the wounded survivors ; had not only 
acknowledged the crime, apparently without remorse or compunction, 
but had even laughed in the faces of his captors and his victims. The 
sight of the murderer, and the story of his cold-blooded indifference, 
had inflamed the popular indignation to the highest pitch. When the 
sheriff had undertaken to bring him down to the village, and through 
its streets to the jail, the gathering throng in wagons, on horseback, 
and on foot, had pursued him with cries for vengeance. Some had 
hastily prepared a rope to hang him to the nearest tree, and all had 
clamored for his instant execution without waiting for the tedious 
forms of law. Only the sheriff's swift horse and prompt dexterity had 
been able to elude the mob, and lodge Freeman safely behind the bars 
of the jail. Such was the startling tale from Auburn that reached 
Seward at Albany. 

A day or two later came, a letter from Mrs. Seward, saying : 

The occurrence of that fearful murder has made me feel very much alone 
with the little ones. You have, of course, read all that the newspapers can tell 
about the frightful affair; nothing else has been thought or talked of here for a 
week. 

There is still something incomprehensible about it, to my mind. I cannot 
conceive it possible for a human being to commit a crime so awful without a 
strong motive, either real or imaginary, for the act. In this case no such motive 



1846.] A BLOODY MYSTERY. 787 

has been discovered. Bill Freeman is a miserable, half-witted negro, but re- 
cently emancipated from the State-prison, and did not know by sight the mem- 
bers of the family he has murdered. It is supposed that some one by the name of 
Van Nest was instrumental in sending him to prison; but this does not appear 
at all certain, though his imprisonment is all the reason he assigns for the com- 
mission of the horrible deed. He says he should have murdered others, had lie 
not been disabled; and, also, that it was his intention to set fire to the house. 
He manifests no remorse or fear of punishment. If it was an act of revenge 
alone, why so long delayed? He sought no peculiar opportunity, but walked 
into the house in the evening, while most of the inmates were still up and all 
awake! He has been out of prison six months, and has had the same oppor- 
tunity every night; and then, when he first left the prison, would have been 
the time that any other man, believing himself the object of an aggravated in- 
justice, would have chosen to wreak his vengeance upon an enemy — then, while 
smarting with the severity of prison discipline. No! I believe he must have 
been impelled by some motive not yet reve'aled. There was a terrible commo- 
tion in the village as he was carried through; it is a matter of wonder to me 
now that, in that excited state of popular feeling, the creature was not mur- 
dered on the spot. Fortunately, the law triumphed; and he is in prison await- 
ing his trial, condemnation, and execution — which so many felt unwilling to 
defer for an hour. I trust in the mercy of God that I shall never again be a 
witness to such an outburst of the spirit of vengeance- as I saw while they were 
carrying the murderer past our door. 

Rumors now canto thick and fast to explain the tragedy. It was 
said that Freeman had an enmity against the Van Nest family ; that 
they were witnesses against him at the time he had been sent to 
prison ; that he had received former injuries from them, etc. But 
each of these, when carefully sifted, proved to be utterly without foun- 
dation, and the mystery grew deeper instead of clearer. That he was 
not in his right mind few were willing to believe, especially when they 
remembered how methodical was his action, both in planning and ex- 
ecuting his crime, and how eager ho seemed to be to escape from its 
consecpiences. Then, too, came into play that instinct of self-preser- 
vation which thrills through every community where a murder is com- 
mitted ; bringing, as it does, to every household the appalling thought 
that the crime may next be repeated in their midst. Of such feelings 
were born the impatient exclamations, heard everywhere in Auburn, 
that "the brute ought not to live another hour ! " Furthermore, he 
was a negro, and a degraded one, a convicted thief. Why prolong 
his worthless life, and endanger the safety of the community? If he 
was crazy, it only made the danger greater ; and, whether era- 
"hanging was too good for him." Nobody dreamed that he would 

Lpe prompt conviction and execution ; but people chafed to think 
that the law interposed any delay before that desired consummation. 

The funeral of the victims at the " Sand-Beach Church," on the 
shore of the Owasco Lake, was an occasion of deep and thrilling inter- 



788 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 



est. A multitude of people flocked thither from Auburn, and from the 
surrounding farms. Four coffins were ranged side by side in front 
of the pulpit, and over them the clergyman preached a sermon which 
closed with an appeal : 

If ever there was a just rebuke upon the falsely so-called sympathy of the 
day here it is! Let any man in his senses look at this horrible sight, and then 
think of the spirit with which it was perpetrated, and. unless he loves the mur- 
derer more than his murdered victims, he will — he must — confess that the law 
of God which requires that " he that sheddeth man's blood by man shall his 
blood be shed," is right, is just, is reasonable. . . . 

The wretch who committed this horrid deed has been in the school of a 
State-prison for five years, and yet comes out a murderer ! Besides, it is an 
undeniable fact that murder has increased with the increase of this anti- 
capital-punishment spirit. It awakens a hope in the wretch that, by adroit 
counsel, law may be perverted, and jurors bewildered, or melted by sympathy ; 
that, by judges infected with it, their whole charges may be in favor of the ac- 
cused; that, by the lavisliment of money, appeals might be multiplied, and, by 
putting off the trial, witnesses may die. 

"Why, none of us are safe under such a false sympathy as this ! . . . I appeal 
to this vast assembly to maintain the laws of their country inviolate, and cause 
the murderer to be punished ! 

Every word of this appeal, made under such solemn and mournful 
circumstances, fell upon the ears of the excited gathering like words 
of inspiration. It was fervently responded to, talked over, and praised 
— was printed, and thousands of copies scattered gratuitously far and 
wide. 



CHAPTER LXIV. 
1846. 



St. Patrick and his People.— Convention Delegates. — General Taylor marching to the Eio 
Grande. — Oregon Compromise. — Webster and Adams. — " 54° 40', or Fight ! " 

Before Seward had concluded his business in Albany, St. Patrick's 
day came round, and nothing would satisfy his warm-hearted friends 
among the Irishmen but that he should attend their national festival. 
He went to the dinner, and proposed to remain a quiet spectator of 
the proceedings ; but presently a toast was offered recounting his 
praises, and thereupon the impulsive and enthusiastic company broke 
into round after round of applause, and rose to give cheer after cheer. 
The din grew greater until, with a smile, he rose and said : 

" It is manifest, Mr. President, that I shall be allowed to be silent 
no longer." Then, alluding to the toast, he remarked they had exer- 



1846.] SILAS WRIGHT. 7S9 

cised their " national privilege to flatter and mistake," and that at 
least he was "fortunate in his misfortunes." Then, turning' to the 
Governor, Silas Wright, who was also one of the guests, he asked him 
whether the most fortunate event in the life of a Governor of New 
York was not his retirement, and " whether I am not more fortunate 
than himself , in having earlier passed through the storms with which 
he is buffeting, and in having found a calm and secure harbor?" 

To this Governor Wright, smiling, bowed assent. Seward then 
alluded to the history of Ireland, from the time when St. Patrick found 
its people heathens and barbarians. He referred to its hundred years 
of struggles ; its five ancient kingdoms — Leinster, Munster, Ulster, 
Connaught, and Meath; its divisions of the people into tribes; its con- 
quest by Henry II. ; its Parliament; and its devastation by the Lords 
Lieutenants, who, as Queen Elizabeth was assured, "had left little to 
reign over but ashes and carcasses." He described the code inter- 
dicting religious faith under penalty of disfranchisement ; its mere 
shadow of a constitutional legislature, and the final subversion of that ; 
its trade, so poor that "even now, when the country is visited by a 
famine, not a cargo of corn from America can reach that unhappy 
country, except it be unloaded on the docks of England;" and its 
laborers, "whose landlords are in England or in Italy." Avowing his 
desire that the Irish people should have free and equal suffrage, in the 
choice of representatives in Parliament, he said : 

I may be told that Irishmen are incompetent to govern themselves. Let 
them try. It is certain they could not govern themselves worse than England 
governs them. . . . But I am asked, " Would you give the ballot to every man 
learned or unlearned, bond or free?" Yes. ... I would indeed prefer that the 
school-master should precede the ballot-box ; but universal education is sure to 
follow universal suffrage. 

He closed by giving as his toast, " Suffrage and education." 
Toward the close of the month, the decision of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, in favor of his client, Wilson, in the suit in 
regard to the planing-machine patent, was announced. It was an au- 
gury of success, as well as an encouragement to perseverance in that 
branch of legal practice. His professional occupations kept him closely 
engaged in his room or in the courts, and he had but little time to 
look in upon the Legislature, now in session at the Capitol. The chief 
subject of legislative debate, this year, was the question of constitu- 
tional amendment. The longer the debate went on, the more the 
breach between the two Democratic factions seemed to widen. Gov- 
ernor Wright, anxious to preserve the unity of his party, had endeav- 
ored to pursue a middle course, and avoid becoming identified with 
either " Hunkers " or "Barnburners." But the drift of events drew 



Yqo LIFE AND LETTERS - [ 184 °- 

him o-raclually toward the side of the radicals, or, as they now named 
themselves, the " Progressive Democracy." 

The Whig minority, though apparently powerless, during these 
years of Democratic discord gave their support alternately to which- 
ever faction most nearly accorded with their own views. Thus, in 
regard to internal improvements and finance, they and the " Hunkers " 
acted together ; while in regard to slavery, popular rights, and reforms, 
they were frequently combined with the " Barnburners." There was 
no formal coalition at any time, but by concert of action any two out 
of the three parties could for a time sway the Legislature. Occasion- 
ally, the two Democratic factions would combine, especially upon ques- 
tions of patronage. 

The Constitutional Convention, which had received the popular 
sanction at the fall election, was to assemble during the coming sum- 
mer. Already the politicians in the various counties were discussing 
their candidates for delegates, and projects of amendment which they 
should be instructed to support. Seward's Whig friends naturally 
came to him, both in Albany and in Auburn, for advice upon these 
subjects. He counseled them to adhere to the ground they had advo- 
cated in regard to internal improvements and State finances ; to aid in 
reforming the judiciary system, in diminishing official patronage, in 
modifying and ultimately doing away with the feudal tenures ; and 
especially to labor for free schools and universal suffrage. 

Personal friends urged that he and Mr. Weed should take part in 
the proceedings of the convention in person, and offered to nominate 
both for seats. They claimed that they could elect Mr. Weed a dele- 
gate, even in Albany ; and that Seward could be chosen from some 
locality in the western part of the State. Yet, while such action 
would give an opportunity to place himself again on record in behalf 
of constitutional reforms, that would be all. It would be unavailing, 
so far as achieving those reforms was concerned, for those sharing his 
views in regard to the canals and free suffrage would evidently be in a 
minority in the convention. But a more fatal objection still was the 
probability that the presence of " Weed and Seward " in the conven- 
tion would stimulate fresh discords among the Whigs, discordant 
enough already. Writing to Alvah Worden about this, he said : 

Auburn, March 23, 1846. 
The demonstration in favor of "Weed, which you speak of, would indeed be 
useful ; and if the triumph at the polls could end the consequences, it would be 
wise. But the convention must follow, and the appearance there of the person 
referred to would be the signal, I fear, for organizing a faction against him and 
us, that would defeat the great purposes of that august assemblage. It does not 
seem necessary that he should have his vindication in that way, or that it should 
come now. 



1846.] THE NATIONAL FUTURE. 791 

And a few days later, writing* to Weed, he said : 

Auburn-, March 23, 1846. 

Haggles writes me, offering a nomination from Chautauqua to the conven- 
tion. I shall of course decline, as soon as I get time. 

The world are all mad with me here, because I defended Wyatt too faithfully. 
God help them to a better morality! The prejudice against me grows, by reason 
of the Van Nest murder. 

He availed himself of the opportunity to give, in his letter declining 
the Chautauqua nomination, his views in regard to free suffrage and 
the national future : 

A part of the community hesitate to adopt the principle of universal suf- 
frage, and weakly imagine that democracy in the State of New York can be 
wisely clogged a little longer. The opponents of universal suffrage have fallen 
back upon the plea of the hopeless debasement of the African race With the 
aid of mistaken philanthropists, they hope to defeat the enfranchisement of the 
colored man, by the artifice of submitting an article for that purpose to the 
people, separately from all other amendments to tho Constitution. . . . 

We have reached a new stage in our national career. It is that of territorial 
aggrandizement. The people have instructed the President to maintain the 
American title to the whole of Oregon. 

The President thereupon requires tho consent of Congress for the proper 
■ to G.reat Britain. Congress debates and hesitates until the effect of the 
notice is altogether lost. It is slavery that ''(loth make cowards of us all," 
and justly so. New York, without a discontented citizen or subject within her 
borders, would be stronger alone than all the twenty-eidit States. Massachu- 
setts detied England seventy years ago. She has only one statesman who would 
dare to commit her to such a conflict now, and he belongs to the Revolutionary 
age rather than to this. 

I want no war. I want no enlargement of territory, sooner than it would 
come if we were contented with "a masterly inactivity." 1 abhor war as I 
detest slavery. I would not give one human life for all tho continent that re- 
mains to bo "annexed." But our population is destined to roll its resistless 
waves to the icy harriers of the north, and to encounter Oriental civilization on 
the shores of the Pacific. The monarchs of Europo are to have no rest while 
they have a colony remaining on this continent. Franco has already sold out. 
Spain has sold out. We shall see how long before England inclines to follow 
their example. 

It behooves us, then, to qualify ourselves for our mission. We must dare 
our destiny. We can do this, and can only do it by early measures wh'ch shall 
effect tho abolition of slavery without precipitancy, without oppression, without 
injustice to slaveholders, without civil war, with the consent of mankind, and 
the approbation of Heaven. The restoration of the right of suffrage to freemen 
ia the first act, and will draw after it, in due time, the sublime catastrophe of 
emancipation. 

Meanwhile, intelligence from Washington showed that the Texas 
question was rapidly coming to a crisis. The Administration, in Jan- 



hq2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

uary, had ordered General Taylor to cross the river Nueces, which 
had been understood to be the Texan boundary, and to march to the 
Rio Grande, thus occupying the broad strip of territory between the 
two rivers, which, even in Texas, had been regarded as debatable 
ground. In obedience to these orders, General Taylor had promptly 
marched from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande, a distance of a 
hundred miles or more, and his army was now called the "Army of 
Occupation." Mexico had protested against the annexation of Texas, 
as a hostile act. This seizure of two thousand square miles more of 
Mexican territory, it was at once felt, must provoke war, unless the 
Mexicans were ready to surrender their whole country piecemeal. As 
the head of the column of the " Army of Occupation " pressed for- 
ward, the Mexican garrisons hastily fled across the Rio Grande. Gen- 
eral Taylor's troops at once erected batteries to defend their position, 
which commanded the public square in Matamoras on the other side 
of the river. 

General Ampudia, the commander of the Mexican forces, requested 
General Taylor to return to his former position on the Nueces, " while 
our Governments are regulating pending questions relative to Texas." 
Of course, General Taylor replied that he was acting under the orders 
of his Government. Among other news came reports that the Ameri- 
can consul at Matamoras had been imprisoned ; that the American 
squadron in the Gulf, under Commodore Conner, had orders to cooperate 
with Taylor in the struggle ; and, further, that John Slidell had been 
sent by the President on a special mission to Mexico, to endeavor to 
adjust the national differences, maintain peace, and hold Texas. 

As to Oregon, the Government was committed apparently to a simi- 
lar course, and, if consistent, would now order troops to march to the 
parallel of 54° 40'. The debate on the proposal to give notice to 
Great Britain of the termination of the joint occupancy of Oregon 
resulted at first in a disagreement between the two Houses. A 
conference committee, however, adjusted a form of compromise of 
the " notice," which was adopted by Congress, and approved by the 
President, toward the close of April. But it had already become mani- 
fest that the Administration, while intent upon securing Texas for the 
extension of slavery, even at the cost of war, was by no means so tena- 
cious of the northern territory, where slavery was not likely to go. It 
began to be rumored that the Administration was willing to recede 
from " 54° 40' or fight," and take, instead, a compromise-line on the 
forty-ninth parallel. 

In April a letter to Weed announced a proposed Western tour : 

Aubhrx, April 5tk — Sunday. 

Wilson has summoned me to meet him at New York, or Washington, to at- 
tend Mm to Cincinnati. I am crowded for time, weary of waiting in Albany 



1816.] THE OREGON QUESTION. 793 

and the East, and have concluded to go westward from this point. Thus is one 
of the dreams of my life realized — a visit to the Mississippi. I have now an 
opportunity of securing its accomplishment. I wish that you could be with me; 
but we are buckets — one drops into the well as the other rises to the earth's sur- 
face. The nomination of you by the Albany County Convention was fortunate 
and honorable. I am glad that you declined. We must bring the "Whig party 
into complete ascendency before they will forgive us. 

The convention has been precipitated by the feuds of the Democratic party, 
and finds us not quite prepared for the suffrage question. It will ripen soon, 
however. I am alarmed by the fear of the Oregon question coining back upon 
us, and finding us unable to resist its weight. If I know anything aright, I can- 
not be mistaken in supposing that it is right, as it is wise, to cement an alliance 
with the West. You may think me poetical or imaginative, but I believe time 
will rapidly vindicate my notions. I think it needful to make, now, our separa- 
tion from the Webster and Southern Whigs on this head. It seems necessary 
for us, to protect ourselves against responsibility for our allies. 

I shall probably land at Erie, take staire-coach ninety miles to Beaver on the 
Ohio, thirty miles below Pittsburg, ascend to that place, descend then five hun- 
dred miles by steamboat on the Ohio to Cincinnati, appear there in court before 
McLean, and then descend to Lexington, and, I hope, to Xew Orleans. I go 
to-morrow evening at nine. I hope to manage so that no notaries public will 
resume correspondence with you, on my account, during my absence. But, if 
they do, you need not fear them. 

The Oregon question was approaching- its conclusion, through the 
evident determination of Congress to make the "notice" a prelimi- 
nary to negotiation, instead of a step toward hostilities. The will- 
ingness of the Administration to compromise with Great Britain upon 
the forty-ninth parallel was now apparent. Great Britain having 
claimed to the Columbia River, and the United States to 54° 40', this 
line of 49°, it was now urged, was about midway between their respec- 
tive demands, and therefore might be accepted by both. At the opening 
of the Administration, the Democratic party bad asserted the title of 
the United States up to 54° 40' to be clear and unquestionable. Mr. 
Webster, Mr. Crittenden, and Mr. Benton, in their speeches on the 
question, counseled avoidance of war with Great Britain, and inclined 
toward a peaceable solution by concession. In this they gained favor 
at the South, and among conservatives at the North. But .Mr. Adams, 
and the antislavery Whigs, had preferred to offer no opposition to 
an effort to secure free territory. They said that if the Administra- 
tion was sincere, and its claim was just, then it was entitled to patri- 
otic support by men of every party. If its claim of 54° 40' was a 
mere pretense, it was right that the responsibility of backing down 
from it should rest upon the Administration, rather than be thrown 
upon the Whigs. 



794. LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

CHAPTER LXV. 
1846. 

Western Tour.— Pittsburg.— The Ohio Eiver.— "Wheeling.— Cincinnati.— Louisville.— Lex- 
ington. Cassius M. Clay. — Henry Clay at Ashland. — Southern Indiana and Illinois.— 

Vineennes. Vandalia. — The Prairies. — Butler Seward. — St. Louis. — Steamboat-Life on 

the Mississippi. — Memphis. — New Orleans. — Volunteers for Mexico. — War proclaimed. 
—Palo Alto an J Resaca de la Palma.— The Future. 

A few days later Seward was on his way to the West. His letters 
home, as usual, described the journey and its incidents. 

Erie, Pa., Wednesday, April 8, 1846. 

Thus far my route is familiar to even your untraveled eyes. Hawley will 
accompany me to Pittsburg. Franklin is situated sixty miles from this place, 
on the Alleghany River — Pittsburg seventy miles lower down, as you know. 
We have information, not altogether reliable, that steamboats at this early 
season ascend to Franklin. The road to both places is one, until you reach 
Meadville. I should be very glad to take a trip down the Alleghany, as the 
country is nearly connected with "Western New York, and is comparatively 
unknown to me. With this view we leave this place, reserving a decision as 
to our route from Meadville until we shall have more accurate information con- 
cerning the condition of navigation. The voyage from Buffalo here was ob- 
structed somewhat by ice in the harbor, and a high wind, which arose as we 
approached this port. The boat was small, and I was glad to part with the 
capricious god of the shallow sea. 

Pittsburg, April 11, 1846 — Saturday. 

The route from Erie brought us comfortably along the turnpike-road through 
a country quite new, and marked with no extraordinary evidence of enterprise. 
A ridge of less than ten miles' extent intervenes between the valley of the Alle- 
ghany and the lake. Meadville is a large, well-constructed town. We hurried 
through that place and Mercer, an old shire-town in a thinly-inhabited region ; 
thence through a still more quaint-looking place, called Harmony, in Butler 
County, where our road clambered continually across, and along, and around, 
stupendous hills, the uneasy cradle of the Allegheny River. These elevations, 
not unlike those in the southern part of Onondaga County, were more frequent 
and confused until we arrived within a few miles of this extraordinary place. 
It was nightfall ; we rose on an eminence of three hundred feet. Before us, at 
that depth, lay Pittsburg, wrapped in a cloud of dense smoke, through which 
streams of fire broke forth irregularly, marking the site of the " Iron City." 
With all caution in the application of the brake to the wheels of our ponderous 
carriage, we rattled down the steep declivity, entered a covered bridge, passed 
over the Alleghany River, and through long streets filled with forges and shops, 
and brought up at the St. Charles Hotel. Our journey had been thirty-six 
hours; we slept five at Mercer on buffalo-robes spread upon the floor, all the 
beds being occupied by persons attending the County Court. Mr. Wilson ar- 
rived at the same house, after a journey of four days on the Southern route, and 
met me at breakfast. 



1846.] PITTSBURG AND ITS MANUFACTURES. 79;, 

Pittsburg and the adjacent country are inhabited by a population unlike that 
of New York or New England. They are colonized by people from Eastern 
Pennsylvania (mostly Germans), and from Southwestern New York. When you 
arrive within five miles of the city, you discover excavations in the hill-sides a 
hundred or more feet above the town. These are the entrances to coal-mines. 
They bring that valuable mineral from any hill-side down into the valley. ' The 
Alleghany comes in a southwesterly course at the foot of a high, abrupt ridge; 
its waters transparent and wholesome. The Monongahela, drawing its fli 
from a more southerly ridge of the Alleghany Mountains, pours a turbid stream 
into the Alleghany. The two are the long arms with which the Ohio grasps tin 
States of New York and Virginia, and, in spite of all political obstructions, binds 
them together in an indissoluble union, if not of affection, at least of intere t. 
The calamity which fell upon Pittsburg a year ago, when a large part of the 
city was reduced to ashes, is yet fresh in the memory of its citizens. But the 
town has repaired its losses in a good degree. There are only ruins enough re- 
maining to indicate the locality, though not the extent, of tin' desolation. 

The friend of national industry can find no place on the continent, I think, 
more full of interest. There are eleven large founderies where iron is cast in 
every form of utensil, or is rolled and manufactured. I have spent hours in 
visiting these great establishments. I saw them yesterday prepare the mould 
and cast a Paixhan gun of seventy-pound shot. The mould is contained in two 
iron covers, each of the shape of half aeaunon cut longitudinally. Each of these 
is filled with wet sand. A wooden frame of wood is impressed in this sand, and 
thus it is made to take a hollow form of the shape of the ordnance. When these 
moulds are thus prepared they are nicely adjusted, and clasped with strong iron 
bands. The whole is then lifted by a crane, and let down endwise into a pit in 
the foundery, the largest end downward. Then an iron tube, coated with 
on the inside, is stretched along from the furnace to the mould; the liquid 
metal is admitted into this tube, and, passed into the mould, fills up the entire 
space, and remains cooling there four days. Then the mould, and the iron con- 
tained within it, are lifted by the crane from the pit. The solid iron mass, un- 
covered from the mould, is transferred to an iron bed. An auger is applied to 
the small end of the casting, and this, constantly propelled by steam-power, 
boresthe cannon. This boring operation requires a week, and is done with the 
use of two augers, the last larger than the first. After this process, the opera- 
tion of smoothing and finishing the cannon takes place. Then it is tested, and 
is ready for delivery. 

Among other curious things here are a wire suspension bridge over the Mo- 
nongahela, and a, wire suspension aqueduct across the Alleghany. The wire is 
small, but is formed into a strand of perhaps a thousand threads, and thus is 
made to resist any conceivable pressure. The whole is painted and pro; 
from tlie weather. 

I went through an extensive glass-manufactory yesterday. The operation of 
blowing glass is familiar to us all, hut we are not so well acquainted with that 
of pressing the glass into the shapes it assumes on our table. This i> dune by 
iron moulds, applied while the glass is yet fluid. You know that the cutting is 
performed by the grindstone. I no longer wonder at the expense of cut-glass 
after seeing the labor of bringing it to perfection. 

Since I began this desultory letter, I have had a walk of a quarter of a mile 



hqq LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

through subterranean coal-fields. The vein is horizontal. It opens into a side- 
hill, and an aperture is made about six feet high and six feet square. This is 
drained by a ditch that leads the water to the surface. Planks are laid down 
over the drain. The collier has a small, low car, which will hold about twenty 
bushels. lie harnesses two stout mastiff dogs to this car, puts a lamp into his 
hat, whistles to his team, and they draw the car along the subterranean railroad 
until he comes to the diggers. There they blast the coal from its bed, shovel it 
into the car, and the dogs draw it out again, and then claim their well-deserved 
meal. The dogs, always docile, resented the intrusion of strangers into their 
horrid den. We leave this place on Monday morning for Wheeling. I have 
found collegiate friends here, who have made my visit very agreeable. But I 
must arrest my pen. 

Steamboat Hibeknia, on the Ohio, ) 
Wednesday, April 15, 1846. ' f 

If yon will look upon the map, I think you will find a place named Gallipolis, 
about three hundred miles below Pittsburg, which will indicate my route. We 
left Pittsburg on Monday afternoon, in a small boat that trades between that 
place and Wheeling. It delivered us at the latter place at daylight on Tuesday 
morning. The Ohio is a clear, shallow stream, flowing between high banks, and 
is scarcely wider than the Mohawk at Schenectady. The banks are well culti- 
vated, and you can scarcely imagine, as you glide past the pretty farm-houses 
and brick villages, that you are nearer the Mississippi than the ocean. There 
are many islands, but none so beautiful as the gems of the Mohawk. Wheeling 
contains about ten thousand people, is ambitiously built, and is, I think, more 
prosperous than any town in Virginia, except Eichmond. Several citizens, 
among whom was the mayor, called upon us, and spared no effort to make our 
visit agreeable. We visited the iron-manufactories, glass-furnaces, and other 
establishments, and were amazed by the exhibition of so much capital so effectu- 
ally employed. 

The boat Ilibernia, descending from Pittsburg, received us last evening at 
sunset in a rain-storm. Night soon closed in upon us; and, when I awaked 
this morning, we had passed Blennerkassett's famed island, and Marietta, the 
cradle, if I remember rightly, of Ohio. I have heard much of the splendor of 
steamboats on the Western rivers, but my experience thus far does not justify 
their praises. Here is a vessel of eighty feet ; all the lower deck is devoted to 
machinery, freight, fuel, and a steerage-cabin. Ascending a flight of stairs, you 
enter a saloon, sixty feet long, at the forward end of which is a baggage-room, 
and at the aft end a ladies' cabin. The sides of the saloon are occupied by 
state-rooms, with a promenade on the outside. There is a dry deck-roof. In 
this small space are crowded a hundred passengers. The rooms are badly ven- 
tilated, and the table defies description. 

We are now below latitude 39°, lower than Cape Henlopen. The weather is 
damp and uncomfortable. The forest is yet dreary ; but the elms, willows, and 
sycamores, are green ; the peach-trees and cherry-trees are in full blossom. One 
may easily see how "snags" and "sawyers" are multiplied in the Western 
rivers. The banks are composed of a sandy soil, without rocks, or even clay. 
This river rises twenty-five feet high, and washes the earth away from the roots 
of huge trees. The subsiding flood leaves the base of a tree exposed. Every 
year removes the earth between it and low-water mark ; and at last it falls 



1846.] CINCINNATI AND THE OHIO RIVER. 797 

into the river, and is carried down toward the sea. Perhaps it fixes its roots 
in the muddy basin of the river, while it lifts its head almost to the water's edge. 
Boats, passing it, sharpen its branches, and at length it becomes a pointed stake, 
which penetrates the hull of some passing boat, and then there are affliction and 
mourning. "We are promised that we shall reach Cincinnati to-morrow morn- 
ing in time for breakfast. 

I hope you read the passages in the Senate between Mr. Ingersoll and Mr. 
Webster. I think Congress hardly excels the Legislature of New York. 

Cincinnati, April 19, 1846. 

My last letter was an attempt at one, committed on board of the steamer 
descending the Ohio from Wheeling. We lost much of the pleasure, or the 
"luxury of the voyage," as tourists describe it, by reason of the cold weather, 
which drove us into the crowded cabin, with its monotony of feeding the pas- 
sengers. 

It was at Pittsburg that I first observed a peculiarity in the Western towns 
as to their appearance from the river. It was not until we came to Gallipolis 
that this peculiarity became distinctly understood. Instead of finding the town 
brought down close to the river, and crowding its channels, you see a wide, 
long, open space, paved, extending one-third or one-half the length of the city ; 
and the stores and houses are built on the sides of this area. As the Ohio flows 
between high banks, and is now twenty feet lower than high-water mark, this 
space is much wider at this season. This is the " Levee " of which we read in 
descriptions of New Orleans, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. In the busy season it 
is crowded with merchandise waiting delivery from or to the steamboats. 

There are no sailing-vessels on this river. Commerce is carried on exclu- 
sively in steamboats. With an immense manufacturing population, in Pittsburg, 
Wheeling, and Cincinnati, there is not one mill operating with water-power. 
Bituminous coal supplies steam at a cheaper cost than water-power is obtained 
in our towns. 

There was a story about a locality called "Hanging Rock," on the Ohio side, 
which called us all up from the tea-table. There was a neat, spacious dwelling- 
house, with buildings appurtenant. The story ran that, fifteen or even more 
years ago, the owner, being about to die, appealed to his wife to promise him 
that she would not marry after his death, which she refused. He made his will, 
that he should be placed in a stone coffin above-ground, so that his presence 
might deter her from giving her hand to a second lord. This was executed. 
He remained thus, sleeping in the garden, until last year, when the coffin was 
lowered into the earth, and a monument is now being erected over the grave. 
The wife is still a widow. The wild mountain scenery nicely adjusts itself to 
this queer little romance. 

Cincinnati is a great town, a beautiful city. It is Rochester tripled in popu- 
lation and in proportions. I think it numbers eighty thousand people, and swells 
every year. It is bounded on the north by high hills. One-fourth of the peo- 
ple are Germans; nearly all the servants and laborers are so. The business-men 
in all professions are, in large proportion, natives of Xew York. Colleges, acad- 
emies, and theological institutions, meet you on every side, and there are sixty 
or seventy churches. Sandford is a druggist here. He joined fortunes with 
Park, from Oneida County. They set up their shop here four or five years ago. 



^ 98 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

and have been successful. They bought jwfarm of three hundred acres in Ken- 
tucky five miles from this city. There they have erected a beautiful brick 
cottage and fitted and furnished it tastefully. They have employed any number 
of Germans who are converting its declivities into vineyards, of which they will 
have a hundred acres ; and there they are engaged in making the Catawba wine, 
and raising peaches and strawberries for this market. I spent a night there 
pleasantly. I found Frankenstein completing your bust. He is a very accom- 
plished artist, and his landscapes are in high estimation. My room is so full of 
company that I have scarcely a moment's leisure. 

I have seen many of the gentlemen of all parties here, and they are very 
civil. I am, moreover, engaged in Wilson's patent-business, which exacts much 
time. Mr. Garniss is one of the men of wealth and fashion here. He has been 
very civil to me. So has Judge McLean. And whom should I meet here but 
Mrs. Maury, who is engaged in her ambitious pursuits, and visits clergy, laity, 
and all public institutions? I have to argue a motion for an injunction for 
Mr. Wilson some day this week. That matter disposed of, I shall go to Lexing- 
ton, then to St. Louis, and then to New Orleans. 

Louisville, Sunday, April 2Uh. 

Hurried as I am when separated from Mr. Wilson, and engrossed with his 
business when with him, I cannot even write to you without the utmost diffi- 
culty. The people of Cincinnati were exceedingly kind to me. A public dinner 
was offered and declined. 

I took passage in a steamboat, with Hawley and Smith, for Maysville, a 
small city on the south side of the river. It w^as a balmy, beautiful day. Civil 
friends, of whom the elder favored me for my support of Mr. Clay, and the 
younger for principles that are working deeply in the public mind, made the 
voyage agreeable. I was displaced from my seat at the dinner-table, on board 
the boat, to make room for a "lady," who had been overlooked. When she 
came forth, lo ! it was a chamber-maid of the hotel where I lodged at Cincin- 
nati. I resigned cheerfully, and rejoiced inwardly at the tendency of civiliza- 
tion, which, beginning with the gallantry of the chivalric age, may be expected 
to promote, by-and-by, the courtesy which can spring only from a due estima- 
tion of the natural rights of man. Maysville is half as large as Auburn, but it 
is a town where slave-labor excludes the voluntary system that is building up 
great towns in Ohio. I visited a manufactory of hemp, which is there con- 
verted into bagging and ropes. 

On Thursday morning we set out for Lexington, sixty-three miles distant. 
We traversed a land of unequaled fertility, over a road of great smoothness and 
beautiful curves. We all rode on the outside of the coach. The planters near 
the Ohio cultivated hemp and tobacco ; farther on, wheat and maize ; and, near 
Lexington, hemp chiefly. Paris, in Bourbon County, is a fine, substantial, and 
in.t town, founded during the Revolution. The town and county received 
their now unmeaning names as an expression of gratitude to France and Louis 
XVI. for their aid in the Revolutionary War. The name of Lexington was bor- 
rowed by Virginians, about the same time, from the scene of the first strife for 
liberty in Massachusetts. Having heard so much of the beauty of the environs 
of Lexington, I persevered in keeping my outside place through a heavy rain, 
which greeted us as we entered the town. 



1846.] AT LEXINGTON AND ASHLAND. 799 

Immediately after passing from the State of Ohio, the echoes of freedom 
and emancipation died away; the praises of Cassius M. Clay were lost; and 
civilities and kindness attended us everywhere only because we are recognized 
as pilgrims to Ashland. I heard no mention of the young reformer until we 
were driving down the turnpike into Lexington, when the driver said to me : 

"I reckon yon have heard of Cassius M. Clay? " 

"Yes," I answered. 

" That is his house," said he. 

As soon as I had breakfasted I strolled up the street. The negroes, with 
evident alacrity, pointed out the way, and the gate of their friend. 1 entered a 
beautiful park, in the centre of which was an elegant stone cottage embowered 
with shade-trees and shrubbery. A gentleman of thirty-five, tine, straight, and 
respectable in his look, came forth in a wrapper when 1 rang the hell. 

"Have I the pleasure of seeing Mr. Clay { " 

"That is my name." 

"Mine is Seward, from New York. I have come to see you." 

••Not William II. Seward?" 

"Yes, sir. I expected to see an older person." 

"And I expected to find one of more youthful aspect." 

"We were soon "well acquent."' I had not much misconceived him. My 
visit seemed very grateful to him. I found him sensitive, and not a little 
grieved by the alienation of friends, neighbors, and virtually the whole com- 
munity. He accompanied me to town to find Hawley and Smith, to invite them 
with me to spend all the time we could here at his house. We found them 
riding out with Mr. Smith. That gentleman was one of the mob that over- 
threw the press; and he, with his polite neighbors, finding that this means 
had not been successful in converting Mr. Clay to the peaceful way in which 
he should walk, had concluded to taboo the advocate of emancipation. Thus 
it soon became apparent that, in Lexington, there was no neutral or common 
ground. I must either drop Cassius M. Clay, or elevate him, in my demonstra- 
tions of respect, to an equality with the sage of Ashland. You will readilj 
believe that I did not hesitate. I closed gladly up to his side, rode with him, 
walked with him, dined with him, and made my visit to Ashland under his 
auspices. 

"We found Henry Clay, just arrived from the South, healthy, vigorous, 
cious, and impressive. He is evidently looking forward again to another trial 
for the presidency, and yet, by habits of thought, action, and association, in- 
creasing the ohstacles in the way of his ambition. Ashland is a. tine old manor, 
and the mansion is one of easy and graceful hospitality. We did not see Mrs. 
Clay. There is no communication between C. M. Clay and J. I!. Clay. 1 saw 
nothing of that young gentleman, and, indeed, received no calk from any per- 
son but his father and General Coombs. It was evident that 1 was no very 
welcome guest at Lexington; nor did I need anybody to explain to me that I 
am regarded with distrust, or a more unkindly feeling, by those who are inter- 
1 in defending slavery. But I am not seeking praise of men, and certainly 
not theirs. 

I wish you could see the forests of this county at this season. There is a 
heavy growth of beech and maple; hut the woods are embellished with flower- 
ing trees, the white blossoms of the buckeye and the dogwood, of the wild- 



gQQ LIFE AND LETTERS. [1646. 

cherry and the -wild-plum, mingling with the brilliant purple clusters of the 
Judas-tree. I leave to-morrow morning for St. Louis, and break off here to 
consult about the route. From that place I descend to New Orleans, and return 
home by the way of Washington. 

Yincennes, Indiana, April 2§th. 

I arrived here this afternoon at half-past one, and am sitting on the bank of 
the Wabash, waiting for the stage, which, at five, will carry me over the prairie 
to St. Louis, with a digression of fifty miles to the home of the Sewards, in the 
centre of Illinois. 

I left Louisville yesterday morning at five, and have traveled through the 
southern part of Indiana. The country is new, and more than half the way 
the roads are indescribably bad. Indiana, at least the part of it I have seen, 
has a medium soil and genial climate, a population dense, but very poor. The 
stage is at the door, and I am off. 

Yandalia, Illinois, Thursday, 2Iay, 1846. 

There is a blank in the date which I cannot fill without an almanac, or an 
arithmetical calculation too severe for a wearied traveler. I let fly a hurried 
note from Vincennes, but gave you only information of my route. The portion 
of Kentucky that I saw excels in fertility and improvement any region in the 
West. Louisville is at the falls of the Ohio. The larger class of vessels never 
ascend beyond that place; but there is a broad, deep canal, two miles long, 
which admits the mass of vessels into the Upper Ohio, and, in very high water, 
boats descend, and perhaps ascend, through the natural channel. Crossing the 
river by a ferry, you land at New Albany, a county-town in Indiana. You 
climb wearily up a long, winding road until, at the distance of three miles from 
the river, you reach the summit. A turnpike-road has been constructed through 
the country for forty miles. The resources and credit of the State failed to 
complete the road farther, although it is mostly graded to near Vincennes. 
Seneca County, New York, or rather Eomulus, at the date of your earliest 
memory, was more populous and highly cultivated than any part of the region 
through which I have passed after leaving New Albany. Greenville is a poor, 
small village. Paoli, fifty miles on the way, is a little more respectable. The 
country is what is called "rolling," and the roads horrible from that place to 
Vincennes. The farmers are chiefly from Kentucky and the Carolinas, unable 
to work well without slaves, and deprived of that resource. The houses are 
rude log cabins, old and comfortless. For three hundred miles I have scarcely 
seen a new house, or cabin, or farm. The church has log edifices for worship, 
and. as for school-houses, I have been able to distinguish but two. A county 
is twenty-four miles square, and has one central village, with here and there 
another settlement. A whole county, if populous, has as many inhabitants as 
the village of Auburn. The soil is a light loam, underlaid by metamorphic lime- 
stone. Southern Indiana is pronounced very poor, but I am inclined to think 
that the inferiority of the region results from the character of its inhabitants 
chiefly. The rain overtook me, a solitary passenger in the stage-coach, half-way 
on my route to Vincennes, and has followed me ever since. 

The journey has left no point in Indiana impressed on my memory but Vin- 
cennes, situated on the Wabash, which is navigable to that place for small steam- 
boats in quite high water. We are told that Vincennes was built in a prairie, 



1846.] ON THE PRAIRIES. 801 

the first of those wonderful formations that you reach. Bui long cultivation 
has given to the locality the aspect, common to all towns built on plains. Vin- 
cennes may have five or six hundred inhabitants. An ambitious school, two 
banks, and few pleasant and tasteful dwellings, contrast with spacious streets 
vacant of people. The Wabash flows between low banks, which, on the west 
side, are quite inundated by the early and the latter rains. 

The coach-boy, abandoning the ponderous and top-heavy stage-coach, drove 
up a wagon, roomy, and covered with Russian duck, well oiled. 1 was the only 
passenger; the hour of departure was four. The weather was sultry. 1 was 
heated with the exercise of traveling the streets of the "city," and tools at out- 
side seat for coolness, and to catch the first possihle glimpse of the prairie. Our 
way lay, for a mile, over an embankment raised above the floods, with frequent 
sluice-ways covered with dilapidated ami dangerous bridges. My driver, a young, 
married man, was born in Goshen, and graduated as a stage-driver under Sher- 

w 1. He had never seen nor heard of me; hut he was an exile, mournin 

return to his native land. My heart went out to him, and he drove me, Jehu- 
like, in return. The prairie in April, and near Vincennes, was the very oppo- 
site of all that I had dreamed. The last year's grass was standing in stubble; 
the new crop was just above the ground; the rain had tilled the whole -round 
with standing water ; the "timber" crowded the great meadows on all = 
and they were fenced into lots, and disfigured with the dried corn-stalks of last 
year. 1 gave the driver a douceur at parting, and walked on. lie replenished 
himself and the next driver with rum; and when the latter overtook me, 
although a native of New York and a pupil of Sherwood, he was too drunk, out 
of regard for me. to he aide to tell me his story. The wind changed. I rode 
until nightfall ; went into the wagon, shivering with ague, winch was followed 
by a fever. I borrowed a buffalo-skin, and stretched myself under it, and so 
slept away my first night on the prairies. When 1 awoke in the morning I was 
at sea on a vast meadow of stunted grass tilled with water, which also filed the 
road. Here ami there a few miniature flowers were -ecu. At length w e reached 
a "timber." The habitations there were mean, and the women mourned their 
destiny, which had sent them there to suffer themselves, and to bring up weak 
and sickly children in a far-oil' and unwholesome climate. Such as this was, 
with one exception, the storj id' every woman 1 have met. But, on the other 

band, either they were thriftless, or their husbands were, and lost their homes 
in their native lands. They come to Illinois, where the farm lies subdued and 
prepared to receive them. A month's labor supports a family well during the 
whole year. The men become indolent, listless, slovenly, careless. There is 
neither excitement for them, nor society. They lose ambition, pride, self-respect, 
and become mere drones. 

We passed no town worthy of mention until we arrived at Salem, half-way 
from Vincennes to St. Louis; I -topped there, and the stage went on. I inquired 
for my cousins. Butler Seward and Israel Seward, whom 1 have not seen since 
1812 or 181 1. Everybody knew them, spoke highly of them: hut, -ad to say, 
everybody spoke of the former a- "the old man." and told me of the endless 
multiplication of my cousins of other generations, until I was fatigued with an 
effort to remember the hranches of this very recent shoot from the genealogical 
tree of the Sewards. M ,t energy and liberality procured a wagon, to 

bring me from Salem to this place to-day; and here they failed. To-morrow 
51 



gQ2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

morning I take Butler Seward's stage to Hillsborough, where the family live, 
distant twenty-eight miles from here, as this place is distant twenty-eight miles 
from Salem. 

To-day I have traversed the Grand Prairie. Its expanse and its greenness, 
its scattered "timber" (small groves) looking like islands, and its solitary trees 
looming up like ships on the sea, have filled me with delightful amazement. The 
carpet, though now too wet to tread, is beautifully fresh and verdant. It is covered 
with flowers of various hues; but, like those which are known to us at this 
season at home, they are low and delicate. I counted twenty kinds in blossom, 
and many more, which these copious rains, with sunshine following, will call out 
from their hiding to-morrow. Cattle and horses roam the praries with apparent 
freedom ; the dove, the sparrow, the clamorous jay, the shrill lark, the w T ren, 
the blackbird, the oriole, the prairie-hen, the quail, the pheasant, the wild-goose, 
the turkey, the buzzard, and how many more I cannot remember, dwell peace- 
fully on this broad expanse. The common idea of the prairies is — or, at least, 
mine was — that they are lowlands, and that the small groves which they encircle 
are elevated, and like islands. The reverse of this is true. Kivers, and streams 
of smaller note, traverse the prairies, and of course seek their lowest levels. The 
forest clusters on the banks of the rivers. 

Here I must close this long epistle. I go to-morrow to the home of the 
Sewards. After one day, I pass to St. Louis, sixty miles thence; and, within 
one or two days, I shall be floating downward on the great Mississippi. Heaven 
bless you and Fred, and Clarence and "Willie, and the wee one, and grandpa, 
and preserve you and me, until I meet you and recount the wonders of "my 
journey ! " 

Ox the Mississippi, below Memphis, Tennessee, ) 
Steamboat "White Cloud, May 8, 1846. ) 

If I remember aright, my last was from Yandalia. I left that town, on the 
first day of May, and passed on to Hillsborough, at which place I arrived in the 
evening. My cousin Nancy, who was of Jenning's age, and my cousin Jane, 
who is only one year my elder, live there. I found Hillsborough a pretty, 
flourishing, country village, as large as Ovid, and a pleasant contrast to all that 
I had seen in Indiana and Illinois. I presented myself at the door of a 
respectable dwelling, and was met there by a lady looking and speaking, for 
all the world, so like Mary Evans that I knew she was my cousin, although I 
had not seen her since 1814. She brought me to the acquaintance of her hus- 
band, Mr. Glen, a very sensible, affectionate man. 

My fever and ague being exorcised by brandy-and-coffee, I went with my 
cousin Glen to see Mrs. Nancy. She had brick house and "things to suit," all 
her own, and enough to attract another husband. When told "who I was, she 
embraced me, and said : " Why, my dear cousin ! How yon have grown ! " I 
spent the evening pleasantly witli these friends; and next day we all set out 
on a family ride, in a nice covered carriage, drawn by mules. Two miles from 
Hillsborough we found my cousin Maria (now Mrs. Burnap) delightfully situated 
on a farm, with a husband and six children. Mr. Burnap harnessed his mules, 
and overtook us at Israel Seward's, a short distance ahead. Here our party, 
taking in Miss Burnap, " Uncle John," and " Cousin Israel " and his wife, pro- 
ce< ded to Butler Seward's, where we found that person with a wife and eight 



1846.] RIDE TO ST. LOUIS. 803 

children, a farmer of great enterprise and notorious wealth. We dined there, 
made arrangements for my journey to St. Louis, and then returned. 

I remained that night at Israel Seward's. He and Butler severally own what, 
is called a "mound" or eminence, on which they have erected very respectable 
dwellings, and extended their farms into the prairies at pleasure. Their children 
have been coming to manhood successively, and each plants his dwelling on the 
side of the mound, and runs his fences as far as he sees lit into the prairies. 
This is the whole operation of making a farm in that country, except, the labor 
of first breaking the prairie soil, which is not severe, [ndian-corn, and hi 
and cattle, are the chief products. The country is fertile, and the climate agree- 
able. But the same complaints of fever and ague prevail everywhere. Quack 
doctors and quack medicines figure in all conversations. The market of this 
region and Hillsborough is at St. Louis, and lam sorrj to say that prices are 
exceedingly low. A bushel of corn is worth a " bit" (twelve and a half ce 
and a horse which in Auhurn would be worth one hundred and twenty dollars 
is worth sixty. 

On Monday morning, at eleven, I took leave of all these affectionate kinsmen 
and kinswomen, and, departing with Butler Seward, in his great market-wagon, 
filled with brooms, deer-skins, and dried beef, not forgetting supplies fur our- 
selves and horses, I set out for St. Louis. ( lux ride was chiefly over the prairies, 
and nothing could be more beautiful. These great meadows were of various 
widths. The broadest was fourteen miles. They were enameled with flowers, 
and their wild inhabitants started continually from before as as we drove along. 
The mystery of this extraordinary formation of smooth meadow-land is, that 
from a period earlier than the settlement of the country by white men, or even 

the memory of Indians, great fires occurred, which swept oil' whatever of w 1 

or timber was growing on these plains, and left only the trees standing on the 
banks of the rivers. These fires have annually recurred, and have prevented 
trees and shrubs from taking root. I am satisfied that this is a true explanation, 
because the fires still continue to recur, [fa hillock, or other space, is spared 
by the fire, as sometimes happens on a change of wind, oaks and walnut I 
spring up, and grow until the next annual conflagration destroys them. The 
farmers fence in their lands, and, earlier in the season, burn a space around them, 
which prevents the fire of the autumn from entering their inclosures. 
forest appears spontaneously and luxuriantly when the farmer permits and - 
it. I need not detain you with an account of the rain-storm, and the abomiE 
roads which delivered me on the hank of the Mississippi. 

1 approached it through a long vista on the very level .if the river, and 
overflowed by it. The river was a, mile wide, turbid, even muddy, strewed 
with misshapen trunks and fragments of trees, and flowing with a rapid current. 
On the opposite side, on an eminence of forty feet (here called a " bluff"), the 
city of St. Louis lifted its towers and spires. It was just at sunsel as this vision 
extended itself before me, and I thought I was satisfied with it; but far oil' in 
the horizon there arose a cloud, the last of those which had spent their wrath 
upon me. If gathered itself into the shape of a castle, with dome and turret-. 
The setting sun lent them his glorious gilding, and I imagined that this gorgeous 
scene lay beyond the Rocky Mountains. 

"How do you do, Governor Seward'" said half a dozen not unfamiliar 
voices, as soon as I appeared in the Planl I. St. Louis, it was (dear, was 



gQ4 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

an Eastern colony, in which New York had a full representation. Among those 
whom I found here was Dr. Morgan. The doctor has a practice, a fashionable 
and reasonably profitable one. His daughter is just verging to womanhood ; 
Ins sou a student in college. 

St. Louis has about thirty-five thousand people, and seems, at length, begin- 
ning to realize the glowing anticipations which have attracted immigrants for 
nearly a hundred years. The imagination lags when you attempt to conceive 
the greatness and capacity of the region tributary to its trade. At the "Levee" 
or wharf lay, perhaps, forty or fifty steamboats. Lead, cotton, corn, beef, 
whiskey, sugar, and tropical fruits, covered the wharf, and a more discordant 
mass of human figures was never seen than the boatmen and draymen. No 
boat from below passes St. Louis. So it is a place of universal transshipment. 
You would think yourself in a seaport to see and hear the bustle of trade: 
steamboats departing, not merely for New Orleans, but for the Ohio River, the 
Illinois, the Upper Mississippi, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Missouri, and the Yellow- 
stone. Here, as one is accustomed to suppose, at the head of navigation on the 
Mississippi, you see, with wonder and amazement, steamboats arriving from 
voyages on this river and its tributaries of one to eight or nine hundred miles ; 
and yet Iowa and Wisconsin are Territories, Illinois a thinly-settled State, Mis- 
souri but partially colonized, while none but adventurers have entered the 
Western Territories. What a change will a century bring over this bewildering 
scene ! 

Ox the Mississippi, Saturday, May 9th. 

The distance from St. Louis to New Orleans is something over twelve hun- 
dred miles. There are no regular packets exclusively for passengers. Boats 
are continually passing. They carry vast freights on the lower deck, while the 
passengers have a saloon, surrounded by comfortable state-rooms, on the upper 
deck. The boats arrive and depart without regularity or precision. I left 
St. Louis on Wednesday at 4 p. m. It is now Saturday at nine. We have 
floated at the rate of ten miles an hour down the river, which is attaining its 
height, being more than twenty-five feet above low-water mark. We have left 
the Slate of Missouri far behind us, bid adieu to Kentucky, and are passing be- 
tween the banks of Arkansas and Mississippi. The river is unlike anything I 
have ever seen. The waters are turbid, strewed in all directions with logs and 
driftwood, green as well as dry. The banks are alluvial, and there are more 
than one hundred islands of various sizes. The current of the river is four or 
five miles an hour, and the channel is irregular. You seldom find it in the 
centre, but, on the contrary, the flood is continually wearing off one bank, and 
carrying earth, timber, trees, and sometimes houses, to the other. In August 
and September, when the river falls twenty or thirty feet, the water is deficient, 
and 1'oats often fasten upon "snags" and " sawyers," and are ingulfed in the 
river. But at this season the navigation is quite safe. 

The banks of the river are generally low, and often overflowed. At the dis- 
tance of one to twelve miles you may find natural embankments, and where these 
do not exist artificial dikes are thrown up to save the low country from devasta- 
tion. Occasionally the natural embankments crowd the river, and then you have 
a precipitous " bluff" rising fifty, sixty, or eighty feet above the water. All In- 
diana is covered with beech, maple, and trees generally like our own. Illinois and 
Missouri, as far as I saw them, produce chiefly oak of many species, and walnut 



1846.] OX THE MISSISSIPPI. mi.- 

of various kinds, black hickory, and pecan trees. Descending into Tennessee and 
Arkansas, the banks of the river exhibit everywhere a growth chiefly of " Cot- 
tonwood," a species of poplar, and cypress, a lovely evergreen. The precarious 
condition of the bottom -lands prevents, generally, any considerable improvement 
of them, and so the voyage is mostly through a forest, broken only by cleai 
made in procuring wood for the steamboats. 

But when you get a glimpse of a plantation on higher ground, you find that 
it is oftener surrounded by the tall canebrake or reeds, ami the ground is covered 
with crops of corn, cotton, and tobacco. The planter"- house is a low. i 
white, wooden edifice, spacious, with outer kitchens and other offices detached; 
and, at a distance, small buildings of framed timber, or logs, neatly constructed 
for the slaves. In the county through which we are passing in Mississippi, the 
slaves are almost as numerous as the free inhabitants. 

On all the Mississippi and its tributaries, there is nor a vessel driven by the 
wind; steam is the only agent. From St. Louis you descend about three hundred 
miles before reaching the mouth of the Ohio. That river, comparatively clear 
and free, pours its flood into the Mississippi through a broad channel 

contest for mastery is kepi up for many mile-, when the turbid tl 1 prevails. 

At the mouth of the Ohio, there is an attempl to build a city, named Cairo. 
But the floods, and the poverty of Lower Illinois, prevent it- success. Nothing 
appears on the voyage, thu- far, to relieve the monoton that, on .-, 

bluff, in the State of Tennessee, rises up before yon an infant city at Memphis. 
It pi*esents an imposing aspect, and is the emporium of the cotton-trade of that 

State. 

We are now below the mouth of the St. Francis, and I leave this dull I 
to look out for the mouth of the Arkansas. Ourvoyage, at the presenl rati', will 

end Tuesday next, when, after a single day in New Orleans, I shall proceed 
with all dispatch to rejoin you, profited by my survey of the great central region 
of the country, and hoping- to compensate for Ion-- absence by renewed assiduity. 

New Oeleans, I - 16. 

Oar little boat was by no means swift so the name imported. The Balloon 
would have beaten if, and the White and even the Black ( loud let': it, out 
of 3ight. We arrived here at three o'clock yesterday, having been five days anil 
twenty-three hours on the voyage. Here, al length, [ am on the thirtieth par- 
allel of latitude, lamenting that the season of strawberries lias passed, and con- 
soling myself with green peas, new potatoes, fresh oranges, and other lus 
of the climate. It is all well; but sickness is in every exhalation that rises from 
the earth, and at night I creep under my mosquito-bar, and adjusi it tightly to 
exclude the insects' that assert their title so clamorously to all the land around 
me; while here and there an alligator is seen in the river contesting the dominion 
of the waters. 

I can add little of interest to my description of the Mississippi. The excur- 
sion I have made has been only a creeping along the trunk, with apausi 
of its mighty branches to look indistinctly al the ramification of the \r,-<-. My 
voyage was twelve hundred miles long, hut the Ohio and Alleghany extend 
navigation imperfectly twelve hundred miles eastward. The Wabash, the Kas- 
kaskia, and the Illinois, reach to the very rim of the basin of Lake Michigan. 
The Mississippi stretches its arm to the borders of Superior, while the Missouri 



806 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846 



receives the floods which descend from the Rocky Mountains. Then there is 
the Arkansas, little thought of among us, navigable, and approaching Mexico. 
Of the capacity of this vast region I can give no just idea. Its climate is mild, 
its soil everywhere fertile ; a horse or a mule draws the plough for the deepest 
furrow, and a woman or a child may guide him. 

This would seem to assure New Orleans of the commercial, and Louisiana of 
the political, ascendency of the continent. Yet the city is secondary, and the 
State unimportant. For reasons — why? The navigation of the Mississippi and 
its branches is hazardous and expensive, and can never be rendered otherwise. 
New Orleans is unhealthy, and not likely to be made salubrious ; but, above all, 
commerce and political power, as well as military strength, can never perma- 
nently reside, on this continent, in a community where slavery exists. 

The Mississippi flows through a channel worn in upon a ridge elevated above 
the surrounding country. This mysterious formation was described to me, but 
I could not realize it. The evidence here is irresistible. The river is diked 
here. The city is built upon lands reclaimed from swamps. Every drain and 
sewer in the town conducts its filthy waters not to the river, but to the surround- 
ing swamps. The city seems as flat as a meadow or thrashing-floor. 

Memphis is a large town on the east bank of the river, and very prosperous. 
They describe Nashville and Baton Rouge as very beautiful, but I passed them 
in the night. 

New Orleans and all Louisiana are filled with martial excitement, arising 
from the breaking out of war in Texas. Everywhere trade seems at a stand-still. 
Huge flags, suspended from the windows, sweep the ground with a proud defi- 
ance of the Mexicans. The Exchange is nightly crowded with mass-meetings, 
inflamed by the oratory of patriots, who seldom forget to stimulate volunteers 
through the lust of conquest and of spoils. Companies of volunteers parade the 
streets. You wake to the music of the drum and fife, and are put to rest at 
midnight by the undying notes of the same clamorous instruments. 

I shah follow this letter within two days, straight and fast. 

Events had been hurrying* on the Mexican War. Sliclell's mission 
had proved a failure. He had been refused a reception, and had re- 
turned. The Army of Occupation had trained its guns to bear on 
Matamoras ; the fleet was assembling in the Gulf. Then came the cor- 
respondence between General Ampudia and General Taylor ; the 
stealthy attacks upon American outlying parties ; the death of Colonel 
Cross, and presently the requisition of the American commander upon 
Louisiana for four regiments of infantry. It was in answer to this call 
that New Orleans w^as in a fever of military excitement when Seward 
arrived there. On his journey homeward he read in the papers the 
news that war with Mexico had actually commenced ; that President 
Polk had sent in a special message announcing that fact, and asking 
Congress to provide men and money ; that Congress had responded, and 
tint, in the debate, Clayton, Crittenden, Moreheacl, and other leading 
'Wliiu-s, while deploring the war, declared their determination to "stand 
by their country, right or wrong." 



1846.] THE MEXICAN WAR. §07 

Every nation that goes to war feels its position stronger if it can 
show itself to be the party attacked. The Presidenl claimed that 
" Mexico had invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our citizens 
on our own soil;" and Congress indorsed this view of the case by 
almost unanimously agreeing to the declaration that, " by the act of 
the Republic of Mexico, a state of war exists between that Govern- 
ment and the United States." Men and money were freely voted; 
and it was evident that even at the North, where the opposition to the 
war and the extension of slavery was strongest, there was a general 
feeling that it would be unpatriotic to thwart or defeat the Govern- 
ment when engaged in actual conflict with a foreign power. 

Then, too, the love of military triumph, of victory and conquest, 
and the natural sympathy with friends and neighbors going out to 
battle, under their country's flag, strengthened the war-feeling, and 
made the country, for the time at least, practically unanimous. The 
few men of advanced opinions, in behalf of peace or freedom, who 
expressed dissent or proposed action to embarrass the Administration, 
were charged with being "Mexican sympathizers, and aiders and abet- 
tors of the public enemy." 

In all the Southern cities through which Seward was now traveling 
the war-fever ran high. Volunteers were flocking to places of rendez- 
vous; flags were stretched across the streets, and im] ' I oratory 
stimulated the populace. The air was full of thick-coming rumors of 
skirmishes on the frontier — of the dangers to which Taylor's little army 
was exposed in its advanced position. There were reports thai sick- 
ness was decimating them; that Mexican armies were outnumbering 
and surrounding them; that their supplies were cut off; that they were 
driven back and in need of succor — all of which tended to in- 
flame the popular excitement and hasten the organization of reinforce- 
ments. 

From the Mexican side came Ampudia's proclamation, accepting 
battle, but insisting that Mexico was invaded and assailed, quite as 
earnestly as Congress had insisted on the contrary opinion. 

On the night that Seward arrived at Auburn, extra editions of the 
newspapers brought intelligence of actual engagements and victory at 
Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. The community were divided 
between exultations over the success of American arms and anxiety 
for the fate of individuals, as they scanned a long list of killed and 
wounded. Taylor's dispatches, a few days later, were pronounced 
models of military clearness, brevity, and modesty ; and the Mexican 
accounts, which came still later and claimed partial successes, were 
pronounced utterly unreliable and untrustworthy. At West Poinf the 
class about to graduate felicitated themselves that they were at once 
to have an opportunity for active service, and the succeeding class were 



g 0g LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

hoping that the war might last a year, to give them a like opportunity. 
Civilians, ambitious of military glory, found even a shorter road to it, 
by obtaining, through political influence, commissions at Washington, 
or earning them by active efforts to organize regiments. 

There was still some uneasiness about the possibility of trouble with 
England ; but these apprehensions diminished as it became manifest 
that the cabinet would compromise. The Whig papers seized the 
opportunity for jest and ridicule at the expense of their adversaries, 
who had so boldly and defiantly declared " Fifty-four, forty, or fight ! " 
and who were now content to step back to " Forty-nine," expressly to 
avoid the "fight." But public sentiment was lenient. It saw that dis- 
cretion was the better part of valor in such an emergency, and had no 
disposition to demand so Quixotic a policy of the Administration as two 
foreign wars at once. Mr. Webster's course and his speeches on the 
subject had gained great popular favor, and a public dinner was given 
to him at Philadelphia. 

The returns were now in from the election of delegates to the Con- 
stitutional Convention. The Democrats had a large majority. The 
list was published, and showed that among those chosen were many 
who had before been prominent in the councils of the State : Ex- 
Governor Bouck ; John Tracy, of Chenango ; George W. Patterson and 
Richard P. Marvin, of Chautauqua ; Ambrose L. Jordan, of Columbia; 
George A. Simmons, of Essex; Michael Hoffman, of Herkimer; Charles 
O'Conor, Robert H. Morris, Samuel J. Tilden, and John A. Kennedy, 
of New York ; Charles S. Kirkland, of Oneida ; Robert C. Nicholas and 
Alvah Worden, of Ontario; Gouverneur Kemble, of Putnam; James M. 
Cook and John K. Porter, of Saratoga ; James C. Forsyth, of Ulster ; 
William B. Wright, of Sullivan ; and Edward Dodd, of Washington. 
Altogether it was a public body containing an unusually large number 
of experienced men. The convention was to meet on the 1st of June, 
and the journals were filled with discussions of what would or ought 
to be its action. 

That action, it was plain, would be chiefly swayed by Democratic 
theories. Indeed, the Democrats, both in the State and Federal Gov- 
ernment, felt that the declaration of war had given new strength to 
their party, now identified with the cause of the country. Its members 
were elated, and the Whigs correspondingly depressed, for they saw 
themselves obliged to support and aid a war they had done their best 
to avert, and one which, if successful, would be claimed as the tri- 
umph of Democracy and of pro-slavery men. It was felt that the 
slaveholders had gained an advantage, which would protract for years, 
perhaps indefinitely, any efforts in the direction of emancipation. 
" This war lias put the country back twenty j^ears, materially and mor- 
ally," was a common expression of feeling. Seward's letters after his 



1846.] RETURX TO AUBURN. 809 

arrival at home reflected his views in this season of depression and dis- 
aster to the cause with winch he was identified. 

Aubukn, May 28, 1846. 

I thank you sincerely and earnestly for the frankness and candor with which 
you exposed to me the adverse aspects of my political position. I doubt not 
the accuracy of the picture yon have drawn. "Why should I \ acipa- 

tion (piestion lias not ripened; I saw that. \ saw the Whig party, as well aa 
the abolitionists, would be unfaithful, while the Democratic party would be 
boldly base. I wanted to stand before tl and the future faithful. Of 

course I expected and strove for tli ttion of thefaithlt ?s. If that ques- 

tion shall have no day in my lifetime, then I am to have none, as I 
want none. If there be a day for the rights of man, then all is safe; while, in 
any event, I am sure that I have written and reasoned as was due to the con- 
sistency of my own character. 

I do not expect to see the Whig party successful in overthrow ing an Admin- 
istration carrying on a war, although only against Mexico, and a | m for 
Oregon, in which the Whig party and its statesmen are found apologizing for 
our national adversaries. 

I cannot go with such friends, for my sense of patriotism forbids, ever more 
than policy. If they will go their way. I certainly must follow mine. ! do uot 
want more preferment ; but I am determined to live ami die faithful to all my 
past life and opinions. I cannot, I will not change, to win the highest honors 
of the republic. 



CHAPTER LXVI. 

1S46. 



The Trials for Murder. — Public Eeeling. — Wyatt. — Arraignment of Freeman. — His i !o 
— His Story. — Sane or insane? — Witnesses. — John Van Buren. — The Argument. 
vietion ami Sent. nee. — Seward's Epitaph. 

Grave and stern duties now requir li liate attention. A spe- 

cial term of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, ordered by the Governor, 

was to be held by Judge Bowen Whiting, to dispose of the cases of 
both Wyatt and Freeman. 

Shortly after the first trial of Wyatt, and during Seward's absence 
al Albany, the Freeman murder had been committed, and now on his 
m from his Southern trip he found that the excited state of popu- 
lar feeling had taken on new phases. The public mind, unbalanced by 
the second and more horrible crime, was no longer able to reas m im- 
partially about, either criminal. Instead of tin 1 doubt about Wyatt's 
mental condition, reflected in the verdicl of th ■ February jury, there 
was now an almost universal belief that he was sane, and his offense 
willful, wicked, and deliberate. His counsel had come in for a si; 
of the popular animadversion. It was pronounced a wanton and wicked 



glQ LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

misuse of his intellectual powers by Governor Seward that he should 
have tried to screen such a murderer from the gallows. It was freely 
stated that he was in one sense to blame for the crime of Freeman ; 
that Freeman had been one of the auditors in the court-room during 
Wyatt's trial, and had learned there how easily he might commit mur- 
der and escape punishment. Of course, this story was not only false, 
but impossible ; yet it served its purpose of arousing public indigna- 
tion against Seward to the highest pitch, when it was rumored that, 
besides continuing in his defense of Wyatt, he was also intending to 
take charge of that of Freeman. Threats of personal violence against 
him were freely indulged in ; and the friends who met him at the rail- 
way-station on his return from New Orleans were apprehensive that 
he might not be able to reach his home in safety. 

Arriving there, he learned that the feeling against him had been 
temporarily appeased by the assurance of his law-partners that he 
would not engage in the defense. No one else was likely to undertake 
that task, in the face of a storm of public opposition ; and the negro 
would be hurried to the gallows as swiftly as the merest forms of law 
would allow. 

When he at once declined to yield to the popular demand, and ex- 
pressed his sorrow to find the city of his residence hurried away by 
such mad unreasoning passion, the storm broke out afresh. There was 
but one topic in the streets. He was denounced in public and in pri- 
vate. He was declared to deserve to share the fate of those whom he 
defended. His friends remonstrated with him, pointing out that the 
task was thankless, and hopeless. Even if Freeman were insane, they 
said, nothing could save him ; and to attempt his defense was only to 
incur popular odium. In a letter to Weed, he remarked : 

Aububn, May 29, 1846. 

There is a busy war around me, to drive me from defending and securing a 
fair trial for the negro Freeman. People now rejoice that they did not lynch 
hiui ; but they have all things prepared for an auto-da-fe, with the solemnities 
of a mock trial. No priest (except one Universalist), no Levite, no lawyer, no 
man, no woman, has visited him. He is deaf, deserted, ignorant, and his con- 
duct is unexplainable on any principle of sanity. It is natural that he should 
turn to me to defend him. If he does, I shall do so. This will raise a storm of 
prejudice and passion, which will try the fortitude of my friends. But I shall 
do my duty. I care not whether I am to be ever forgiven for it or not. 

It is not likely that I shall be asked for advice about the convention, and I 
certainly shall not volunteer it. If I were to advise, I should insist on the 
Whigs ^oing for universal suffrage ; and I am satisfied a large number of the 
Whig delegates will not. I should the more strenuously insist on doing so myself 
if I had a seat there, though I should vote alone. 

On the 1st of June, when the special term opened, Judge Whiting 



1846.] ARRAIGNMENT OF FREEMAN. Sll 

and the associate judges took their seats. The court-house was dense- 
ly packed with an eager and excited auditory. The crier made procla- 
mation in the usual form, and the judge directed the sheriff to bring in 
William Freeman for arraignment. When he obeyed, bringing up to 
the bar the stolid-looking negro, spectators leaned forward and jostled 
against each other in their eagerness to get a glimpse of so brutal an 
assassin. District- Attorney Sherwood arraigned him, in the usual form, 
upon the several indictments for murder. There was a pause. Then 
Seward rose, and tendered in his behalf a plea of insanity. Judge 
Whiting, after listening to remarks pro and con, by Seward and Sher- 
wood, reserved his decision as to the proper method of determining 
whether he was insane or not. The district attorney had urged that 
he was sane, and that the court would probably be satisfied of that 
fact, as he was, by personal, examination. Seward s ted a trial 

by jury. He, like the district attorney, had made personal examina- 
tion of the prisoner, and had been convinced by it of Freeman's in- 
sanity. 

The judge remanded Freeman, who apparently had ithing 

that had been said, back to jail ; and so the question, for the present, 
went over. As yet, Freeman had no counsel. Should the court de- 
cide that he was insane, he would need none, fur lie would not be tried. 

Seward had taken such steps as it seemed n . that some one 

should take in such a case, and which, it was evident, no one else 
would. He visited Freeman in his cell, endeavored to converse with 
him, and found him hardly more than idiotic. Unwilling to rely solely 
upon his own impressions, he asked his friends to go to Freeman's cell 
and bring him a report of such conversation as they found they could 
have with him. They did so, and their experience confirmed his own. 
Freeman was deaf, was stupid, was unable to talk connectedly, or to 
any sensible purpose ; had an idiotic laugh upon his face ; and, ap- 
parently, was ignorant of, or indifferent to, his own situation. 

Pursuing his investigations among those, white and black, who had 
met or known Freeman, and among his family and friends, Seward grad- 
ually learned, little by little, the whole of the poor wretch's miser; 
history. He had been a few years before a bright, intelligent boy, had 
worked as a laborer for various people, had been arrested <;ii suspicion 
of stealing a horse, thrown into jail, tried, and sent to State-prison for 
the offense, upon the testimony of a negro, who afterward turned out 
to be himself the thief. Overwhelmed with grief, astonishment, and 
indignation, at his unjust conviction, Freeman had asserted his inno- 
cence to constables, justice, jailer, and keepers, and to whoever i 
would listen to him, begging, of course vainly, for reh i prison. 

So persistent was he in his declarations that he "had done nothing," 
and "didn't want to be punished," that the keepers deemed him insub- 



g 12 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

ordinate, shirking, or quarrelsome. One of them, in an altercation, 
struck him on the head with a board. The blow split the board, and 
left him deaf ever afterward, or, as he expressed it, " knocked all the 
hearing off, so it never came back again." Thenceforward, he ap- 
peared downcast, sad, sullen, and stolid. Repeated scoldings and flog- 
gings failed to arouse him to either mental or bodily activity ; and 
when his brother-in-law and mother took him home from prison, at the 
expiration of his sentence, in September, 1845, they found him weak, 
foolish, and deranged. Brooding over his unjust imprisonment, how to 
obtain redress for it became his besetting idea — his monomania. He 
went about, seeking, as he said, " to get his pay." 

He went to the justice's office for a warrant, but was unable to co- 
herently explain his errand. He went to Mrs. Godfrey, whose horse 
he had been accused of stealing, but, forgetting his grievance, was ap- 
peased by a morsel of cake that she gave him. Finally, as the mania 
grew upon him, he sought reparation in a way that could find lodg- 
ment in no brain but a lunatic's. He had been wrongfully imprisoned 
five years by the State. The State would not pay him, and so he 
would "kill them all." He stealthily set out to commence this wild 
massacre by killing an innocent family of utter strangers to him, and, 
after his capture and imprisonment, explained with difficulty to his in- 
terrogators that he had only just " begun his work," that he meant to 
kill more, had not his hand been disabled. Perhaps the most appalling 
feature of the ghastly deed at Van Nest's was, that, instead of its be- 
ing the end he was seeking, it was but the beginning. 

Wyatt's trial now commenced. All the past doubts in his favor 
seemed to have been supplanted by positive belief in his guilt. Each 
of the two cases reacted upon the other. Wyatt was guilty, because 
Freeman had imitated him. Freeman was guilty, because he imitated 
Wyatt. 

As Wyatt's counsel, Seward saw that an impartial trial there was no 
longer possible. He sought postponement and change of venue, with- 
out effect. The Attorney-General, John Van Buren, had been sum- 
moned to aid the district attorney, and the impaneling of a jury 
began. The process was long and tedious. Up to the 15th of June 
only two jurors had been obtained, and more than half the peremptory 
challenges were exhausted. At last the court decided to permit jurors 
to be sworn, even though they confessed an opinion in regard to the 
prisoner's guilt ; and, by this process, at the end of the third week, a 
jury was obtained. In a hasty note, Seward said : 

Cotjkt-IIouse, Wednesday Horning. 
In this court I am fighting a battle in which I ask no sympathy or sup- 
port. 

The court will convict "Wyatt, by breaking down rules established by the 



1846.] WYATT FOUND GUILTY. 813 

Supreme Court, and the conviction may ultimately be reversed. Freeman is 

a elemented idiot, made so by blows, which extinguished everything in his 
breast but a blind passion of revenge. lie should be acquitted at once, and 
with the public consent. 

Meanwhile the doctors came, whom Seward had invited to examine 
Freeman's condition, and to testify what they thought of his case. 
Among them was Dr. Brig-ham, then in charge of the Utica State 
Lunatic Asylum. His opinion was clear and decided that Freeman 
was not only insane, but that his disease, as not unfrequently happens, 
had now taken the form of dementia, nearly approaching to idiocy. 
Dr. McCall and others concurred. Dr. Doane, the former Health-Officer 
at New York, was also among them, and shared in their opinions. 

The testimony in Wyatt's case was brief. The homicide was ad- 
mitted. The defense rested upon the single point of the prisoner's 
insanity, and that had been prejudged by court and jury. 

On Monday, the 29th, Seward occupied ten hours with the defense. 
Most of the following day was occupied by John Van Buren's able 
speech for the prosecution. 

The judge charged the jury very strongly against the prisoner. 

One of the jury, supposed to be favorable to Wyatt, fainted during 
the charge. But the verdict was brought in, unanimously, in less than 
half an hour. In a letter to her sister, Mrs. Seward wrote : 

They have brought in a verdict of guilty. Wyatt is made to answer for the 
murder committed by Freeman ; and it is more than probable that Freeman, 
although insane at the time he perpetrated the horrid deed, and now rapidly 
sinking into a state of idiocy, will be another victim to satisfy popular vengeance^ 

The village is said to bo full of joy in anticipation of Wyatt's execution. He 
received his sentence this morning in the presence of a thousand men and two 
or three hundred women. The day of execution is the 18th of August. The 
next movement of the court is to hurry on the trial and sentence of Freeman. 
Henry is, of course, advised to cease all efforts to prevent so desirable an end. 
He will do what is right. He will not close his eyes and know that a great 
wrong is perpetrated, without offering any remonstrance ; and yet, tin- is the 
course advised by many who call themselves his friends. I can conceive of no 
spectacle more sublime than to see a good man thus striving to win. to deeds of 
mercy and benevolence, the perverse generation among whom his lot has fallen. 

Even before Wyatt's sentence, haste was made to proceed with the 
trial of Freeman. The judge announced, on the 24th, his decision to 
try the question of sanity or insanity as a preliminary issue by a jury. 
The Attorney-General and district attorney appeared as counsel for 
the people — Seward with his law-partners, Morgan and Blatchford, for 
the prisoner. They had also an accession of strength, in the person of 
David Wright, a philanthropic lawyer, an old friend of Seward, who, 
like him, volunteered his gratuitous services. The jury was impair- 



814 



LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 



eled, the witnesses called, and the trial proceeded. It lasted a fort- 
night. Freeman's relatives and acquaintances were examined, and tes- 
tified to the difference in his character and behavior, before and after 
he came out of prison, his foolish talk and laugh, his moody brooding 
over the idea of pay for five years' enforced labor. Drs. Brigham, Cov- 
entry, Doane, McCall, and the other medical witnesses, pointed out the 
methods by which science distinguishes real from pretended insanity, 
and unhesitatingly affirmed Freeman's deranged mental condition. 
Searching cross-examination failed to shake their testimony. 

There was an array of witnesses on the other side whose testimony 
showed that they did not believe, or did not want to believe, that he 
was insane ; though, necessarily, they had few opportunities to watch 
his behavior, and most of them were little learned in that branch of 
medical science. Nevertheless, great as was the weight of evidence on 
the side of his insanity, it was more than counterbalanced by the over- 
whelming desire for his execution that pervaded the community. The 
close of this extraordinary preliminary trial was described by Seward : 

That jury was selected without peremptory challenge. Many of the jurors 
entered the panel with settled opinions that the prisoner was not only guilty of 
the homicide, but sane ; and all might have entertained such opinions, for all 
that the prisoner could do. It was a verdict founded on such evidence as could 
be hastily collected in a community where it required moral courage to testify 
for the accused. Testimony was excluded upon frivolous and unjust pretenses. 
The cause was submitted to the jury on the 4th of July, and under circumstances 
calculated to convey a malicious and unjust spirit into the jury-box. It was a 
strange celebration. The dawn of the Day of Independence was not greeted 
with cannon or bells. No lengthened procession was seen in our streets; nor 
were the voices of orators heard in our public halls. An intense excitement 
brought a vast multitude here, complaining of the delay and the expense of what 
was deemed an unnecessary trial, and demanding the sacrifice of a victim who 
had been spared too long already. For hours that assemblage was roused and 
excited by denunciations of the prisoner, and ridicule of his deafness, his igno- 
rance, and his imbecility. Before the jury retired, the court was informed that 
they were ready to render the verdict required. One juror, however, hesitated. 
The next day was the Sabbath. The jury were called, and the court remonstrated 
with the dissentient, and pressed the necessity of a verdict. That juror gave 
way at last; and the bell which summoned our citizens to church for the evening 
service was the signal for the discharge of the jury, because they had agreed. 
Even thus a legal verdict could not be extorted. The eleven jurors, doubtless 
under an intimation from the court, compromised with the twelfth, and a ver- 
dict was rendered, not in the language of the law, that the prisoner was "not 
insane," but that he was " sufficiently sane, in mind and memory, to distinguish 
between right and wrong " — a verdict which implied that the prisoner was at 
least partially insane. 

On the following morning, the 6th of July, the district attorney 
rose and moved that the prisoner be brought into court and arraigned. 



1846.] TRIAL OF FREEMAN. 815 

The judge overruled all objection, saying- that it was for the court 
alone to say whether they were satisfied that the prisoner was sane, 
and that the verdict, although not precisely a verdict of sanity in form, 
had satisfied the court that the prisoner should be tried. ( )nce more 
the sheriff brought the prisoner to the bar. His idiotic smile, wander- 
ing gaze, and stolid insensibilit} r , might have convinced an unbiased 
observer that he knew and cared nothing of the purport of the solemn 
scene in which he was the central figure. 

The district attorney, shouting in his ear, bade him rise, and, read- 
ino- to him one of the four indictments, asked loudly, " Do you plead 
guilty or not guilty to these indictments ? " 

Freeman. " Ha ? " 

District Attorney. (Repeating the question.) 

Freeman. " I don't know." 

District Attorney. " Are you able to employ counsel ? " 

Freeman. " No." 

District Attorney. " Are you ready for trial ? " 

Freeman. " I don't know." 

District Attorney. " Have you any counsel ? " 

Freeman. " I don't know." 

District Attorney. " Who are your counsel ? " 

Freeman. " I don't know." 

The prisoner responded with a stupidity that astonished even his 
prosecutors. 

" Will any one defend this man ? " inquired the court. 

There was a pause of death-like silence. David Wright arose, and 
declaimed he could not consent longer " to take part in a cause which 
had so much the appearance of a terrible farce." The spectators 
looked at each other in breathless silence, broken only when Seward, 
pale with emotion, but with inflexible determination in every feature, 
rose and said : 

" May it please the court, I shall remain counsel for the prisoner 
until his death." A murmur of indignation ran round the crowded 
court-room at this continued defiance, as it was regarded, both of pub- 
lic opinion and of public justice. 

The trial at once went on. As Freeman was incapable of pleading 
either guilty or innocent, the judge directed the clerk to enter a formal 
plea of " not guilty," in order that the case might proceed. Seward 
moved a postponement of the trial till another term, when a calmer 
state of feeling might prevail. The motion was denied. He moved 
that the indictment be quashed, interposing a plea to that effect. The 
pica was overruled. He challenged the array of the panel. The court 
overruled the challenge, and ordered the prisoner to be put upon trial. 

The jury was impaneled. The district attorney opened the case, 



gl g LIFE AND LETTERS. LlS^G. 

and the witnesses were called. The horrible scene of the murder was 
reproduced by their descriptions in all its bloody details. The neigh- 
bors of Van Nest testified to the shocking sight that greeted them at 
the house, and their passing glimpses of the flying murderer. Helen 
Holmes, the young girl who was staying with the family, described 
how she was roused by the fearful attack. The wounded man, Van 
Arsdale, pale and enfeebled, narrated the struggle of the encounter 
which had nearly cost him his life. The doctors described the gaping 
wounds in the bodies of the slain. The constables testified to the pur- 
suit and arrest of the murderer. There was no denial of any of this 
proof ; already the case seemed made up. 

Mr. Wright, who at the solicitation of the court had again con- 
sented to take part in the case, opened for the defense. Witnesses 
were called, who demonstrated the prisoner's unsoundness of mind. 
Ethan A. Warden, president of the village, John R. Hopkins, Rev. 
John M. Austin, Ira Curtis, Justice Paine, Warren T. Worden, James 
R. Cox, and other prominent citizens of Auburn who had known Free- 
man, or who had had interviews with him in prison since his crime, 
described his confused replies, his idiotic look, his lack of all remorse, 
or even of consciousness of his condition. 

Their testimony was fortified by that of the doctors. Auburn phy- 
sicians — among them Drs. Fosgate, Briggs, Hermance, Bigelow, and 
others — pronounced him insane. The medical gentlemen summoned 
from abroad, to whom were now added Drs. Hun and McNaughton, of 
Albany, strongly corroborated their views, and pointed out the indica- 
tions which, as experts, they deemed infallible. Then followed the 
touching evidence of his mother, Sally Freeman ; of his youthful asso- 
ciates, Deborah and John Depuy, and Mary Ann Newark ; and of his 
friends, David Winner and Aaron Demun. All were straightforward 
and truthful in their narrations of such incidents in domestic life as 
betray insanity to intimate friends. That the whole case might be 
clearly laid before the jury, the prison-keepers and others were sum- 
moned, who narrated his unjust conviction, five years' imprisonment, 
flogging, deafness, loss of intelligence, and monomania on the subject 
of " getting his pay." 

All the proceedings were followed by the crowd, not only within, 
but all around the court-house, with close interest. There were no dis- 
putes or outbreaks of violence, for the gathering was nearly all of one 
mind, and intensely anxious for the prisoner's condemnation and exe- 
cution. Maledictions and denunciations of his counsel were common 
enough ; they, and the little body of friends who had come by this 
time to believe that Freeman was insane and that Seward was right, 
were like an isolated group of prisoners in a hostile camp, needing to 
guard their utterances. The counsel for the people were under no such 



1846.] DR. BRIGHAM. §17 

restraint. Every word of scorn, invective, or ridicule, they chose to 
bestow upon the poor fool or his defenders, found ready echo in the 
breasts of audience, jury, bench, and bar. Their sallies of wit were 
applauded ; their dogmatic assertion accepted as convincing- proof. 
The Attorney-General, keen, able, and adroit, was the popular idol of 
the hour ; to him the community looked for protection against assas- 
sins and their defenders. The torment of witnesses under his scath- 
ing cross-examination seemed actually to give pleasure to the admiring 
throng. One witness, however, was more than a match for his exam- 
iner. Dr. Brigham, who had passed so many years of his life in firm 
yet kindly dealing with an asylum full of lunatics, was not to be dis- 
turbed, even by rebukes and pungent witticisms from an Attorney- 
General. His equanimity was unruffled. With clearness, pi'ecision, 
and polished courtesy, he seemed not to tire of again and again pre- 
senting scientific facts that were invulnerable to attack. Each time 
his cross-examiner would ingeniously seek to draw him into contradic- 
tion of some previous statement, his reply would be an illustration 
that made the matter clearer. 

" Suppose, doctor," said the counsel, with a sneer, " that I should 
go out and steal a hundred dollars, and then come in again and sit 
down here, would you swear I was insane ? " 

" I think I should," calmly replied the doctor. 

" Why should you swear so ? " 

" Because it would be so contrary to your character." 

" Do you consider yourself a better judge of insanity than Squire 
Bostwick ? " 

" I think I can judge of it better than one who has observed it 
less." 

" Don't you believe his mother, who is a common drunkard, is un- 
safe evidence ? " 

"No. If drunkards were never to be believed, a great many peo- 
ple would never be permitted to testify." 

" Is suicide contagious ? " 

" I think it was in the French army until Napoleon put a stop to it." 
A titter in the audience, and the Attorney-General renewed the charge. 

" Are hysterics contagious ? " 

"They seem," said the doctor, placidly, "to be catching." 

Adverting to the escape as a proof of sanity, the Attorney-General 
said, " Does not the celerity of his getting thirteen miles In fourteen 
hours strike }-ou as being speedy under the circumstances ?" 

Answer. "I do not think it was very fast traveling on horse- 
back." 

The doctor was said to be a New England man, and, in the course 
of the cross-examination, the Attorney-General said, " Is not the ask- 
52 



g lg LIFE AND LETTERS [1846. 

ing of many questions peculiar to a certain class, to the Yankees, as 
they are called ? " 

Answer. " I think not peculiar to the Yankees, although it has been 
so stated. I, however, think it a slander. The English, as a general 
rule, ask more questions than we do." 

" How is it with the Turks ? " 

Answer. "I have no acquaintance with them." 

" How do you know that the prisoner's smile is without a prompting 

motive ? " 

Answer. "I am not omniscient, and therefore do not know." 

"Suppose he should happen to think of hooking eggs, sixteen 
years ago, might he not smile ? " 

Answer. " Yes, he might ; but I regard his constant smiling as in- 
dicating insanity, rather than a recollection of hooking eggs." 

" Suppose he thought he was blowing us all up in this trial, would 
he not smile ? " 

Ansicer. "If he knew what was meant by such a remark, he 
might," 

" "Would not a sane man, if he thought so ? " 

Answer. " I think a sane man, situated as Freeman is, would not be 
very apt to say so, nor to smile at it." 

So, day after day, the weary, unequal contest went on. It drew at 
last to an end in the closing days of July. Seward's argument, the 
most impassioned that ever passed his lips, fell upon unheeding ears : 

For William Freeman, as a murderer, I have no commission to speak. If he 
had silver and gold accumulated with the frugality of Croesus, and should pour 
it all at my feet, I would not stand an hour between him and the avenger. But 
for the innocent, it is my right, my duty to speak. If this sea of blood was 
innocently shed, then it is my duty to stand beside him until his steps lose their 
hold upon the scaffold. 

I plead not for a murderer. I have no inducement, no motive to do so. I 
have addressed my fellow-citizens in many various relations, w T hen rewards of 
wealth and fame awaited me. I have been cheered on other occasions, by mani- 
festations of popular approbation and sympathy ; and where there was no such 
encouragement, I have had, at least, the gratitude of him whose cause I de- 
fended. But I speak now in the hearing of a people who have prejudged the 
prisoner, and condemned me for pleading in his behalf. He is a convict, a 
pauper, a negro, without intellect, sense, or emotion. My child, w T ith an affec- 
tionate smile, disarms my careworn face of its frown whenever I cross my 
threshold. The beggar in the street obliges me to give, because he says, " God 
bless you," as I pass. My dog caresses me with fondness, if I will smile on him. 
My horse recognizes me when I fill his manger. But what reward, what grati- 
tude, what sympathy and affection can I expect here ? There the prisoner sits. 
Look at him! Look at the assemblage around you! Listen to their ill-sup- 
pressed censures and their excited fears, and tell me where among my neighbors 



1846.] THE ARGUMENT. §19 

or my fellow-men, where even in his heart, I can expect to find the sentiment, 
the thought, not to say of reward, or of acknowledgment, but even of recog- 
nition. ... 

I would disarm the injurious impression that I am speaking merely as a law- 
yer speaks for his client. I am not the prisoner's lawyer. I am, indeed, a 
volunteer in his behalf; but society and mankind have the deepest interests. 
I am the lawyer for society, for mankind ; shocked, beyond the power of ex- 
pression, at the scene I have witnessed here, of trying a maniac as a male- 
factor. . . . 

Gentlemen, you may think of this transaction what you please, bring in 
what verdict you can ; but I asseverate, before Heaven and you, that, to the 
best of my knowledge and belief, the prisoner at the bar does not at this 
moment know why it is that my shadow falls on you instead of his own. . . . 

An inferior standard of intelligence has been set up lure as a standard of 
the negro race. Indications of manifest derangement, or at least of imbecility, 
approaching to idiocy, are therefore set aside, on the ground that they har- 
monize with the legitimate but degraded characteristics of the race from which 
he comes. You, gentlemen, have, or ought to have, lifted your souls above the 
bondage of prejudices so narrow and so mean as these. The color of the 
prisoner's skin, and the form of his features, are not impressed upon the spirit- 
ual, immortal mind which works beneath. In spite of human pride, lie is still 
your brother and mine, in form and color accepted and approved by hi-- Father, 
and yours, and mine; and bears equally with us the proudest inheritance of our 
race — the image of our Maker. Hold him, then, to be a man ; exact of him all 
the responsibilities which should be exacted, under like circumstances, if he he- 
longed to the Anglo-Saxon race; and make for him all the allowances, and deal 
with him with all the tenderness, which, under the like circumstances, you would 
expect for yourselves. . . . 

Is there reason to indulge a suspicion of fraud here? Look at this stupid, 
senseless fool, almost as inanimate as the clay moulded in the brick-yard ; and 
say, if you dare, that you are afraid of being deceived by him! Look at me! 
You all know me. Am I a man to engage in a conspiracy to deceive you, and 
defraud justice? Look on us all! Is any one of us a man to be suspected? 
The testimony is closed. Look through it all. Can suspicion or malice find in 
it any ground to accuse us of a plot to set up a false and fabricated defense? I 
will give you, gentlemen, a key to every case where insanity has been wrong- 
fully and yet successfully maintained: gold, influence, popular favor, popular 
sympathy, raised that defense, and made it impregnable. But you have never 
seen a poor, worthless, spiritless, degraded negro, like this, acquitted wrong- 
fully. I wish this trial may prove that such a one can be acquitted rightfully. 
The danger lies here. There is not a white man, or white woman, who would 
not have been dismissed long since from the perils of such a prosecution. . . . 

An excited community, whose terror has not yet culminated, declare that. 
whether sane or insane, he must be executed to give safety to your dwellings 
and theirs. I must needs, then, tell you the law, which will disarm such cow- 
ardly fear. If you acquit the prisoner, he cannot g<> at large, hut must he com- 
mitted to jail to be tried by another jury fur a second murder. Your dwellings, 
therefore, will be safe. If such a jury find him sane, he will then he -cut to his 
fearful account ; and your dwellings will be safe. If acquitted, he will he re- 



32Q LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

mantled to jail, to await a third trial; and your dwellings will be safe. If that- 
jury convict, he will then he executed; and your dwellings will be safe. If 
they acquit, he will still be detained to answer for a fourth murder ; and your 
dwellings will be safe. Whether the fourth jury acquit or convict, your dwell- 
ings will still be safe : for if they convict, he will then be cut off ; and if they 
acquit, he must, according to the law of the land, be sent to the lunatic asylum, 
there to be confined for life. You may not slay him, then, for the public secu- 
rity, because the public security does not demand the sacrifice. No security for 
home or hearth can be obtained by judicial murder. . . . 

When the prisoner was discharged from the State-prison, two dollars, the 
usual gratuity, was offered him, and he was asked to sign a receipt. " I ain't 
going to settle so." For five years, until it became the ruling thought of his 
life, the idea had been impressed upon his mind that he had been imprisoned 
wrongfully, and would, therefore, be entitled to payment on his liberation. 
This idea was opposed " ~by the judgmt nt and sense of all mankind." The court 
that convicted him pronounced him guilty, and spoke the sense and judgment of 
mankind. But still he remained unconvinced. The keepers who flogged him 
pronounced his claim unjust and unfounded, and they were exponents of the 
"sense and judgment of all mankind." But imprisonment, bonds, and stripes, 
could not remove the one inflexible idea. The agents, the keepers, the clerk, 
the spectators, and even the reverend chaplain, laughed at the simplicity and ab- 
surdity of the claim of the discharged convict, when he said, " Pre tcorked fite 
years for the State, and ain't going to settle so." Alas ! little did tb,ey know 
that they were deriding the delusion of a maniac. Had they been wise, they 
would have known that — 

" So foul a sky clears not without a storm." 

The peals of their laughter were the warning voice of Nature for the safety of 
the family of Van Nest. . . . 

There is proof, gentlemen, stronger than all this. It is silent, yet speaking. 
It is that idiotic smile which plays continually on the face of the maniac. It 
took its seat there while he was in the State-prison. In his solitary cell, under 
the pressure of his severe tasks and trials in the workshop, and during the so- 
lemnities of public worship in the chapel, it appealed, although in vain, to his 
taskmasters and to his teachers. It is a smile never rising into laughter, without 
motive or cause — the smile of vacuity. His mother saw it when he came out of 
prison, and it broke her heart. John Depuy saw it, and knew his brother was 
demented. Deborah Depuy observed it, and knew him for a fool. David Win- 
ner read in it the ruin of his friend Sally's son. It has never forsaken him in 
his later trials. He laughed in the face of Parker while on confession at Bald- 
winsville. He laughed involuntarily in the faces of Warden and Curtis, and 
Worden and Austin, and Bigelow and Smith, and Brigham and Spencer. He 
laughs perpetually here. Even when Van Arsdale showed the scarred traces of 
the assassin's knife, and when Helen Holmes related the dreadful story of the 
murder of her patrons and friends, he laughed. He laughs while I am pleading 
his griefs. He laughs when the Attorney-General's bolts would seem to rive his 
heart. He will laugh when you declare him guilty. When the judge shall pro- 
ceed to the last fatal ceremony, and demand what he has to say why the sen- 
tence of the law should not be pronounced upon him, although there should not 



18-16.] THE SENTENCE. S21 

be an unmoistened eye in this vast assembly, and the stern voice addressing him 
should tremble with emotion, he will, even then, look up in the face of the 
court, and laugh, from the irresistible emotions of a shattered mind, delighted 
and lost in the confused memory of absurd and ridiculous associations. Follow 
him to the scaffold. The executioner cannot disturb the calmness of the idiot. 
He will laugh in the agony of death. . . . 

I have heard the greatest of American orators. I have heard L»aniel O'Con- 
nell and Sir Kobert Peel. But I heard John Depuy make a speech excelling 
them all in eloquence : " They have made William Freeman what he is, a brute- 
beast; they don't make anything else of any of our people but brute-beasts; 
but when we violate their laws, then they want to punish us as if we were 
men !".... 

Although we may send this maniac to the scaffold, it will not recall to life 
the manly form of Van Nest, nor reanimate the exhausted frame of that aged 
matron, nor restore to life and grace and beauty the murdered mother, nor call 
back the infant boy from the arms of his Saviour. Such a verdict can do no 
good to the living, and carry no joy to the dead. If your judgment shall bo 
swayed at all by sympathies so wrong, although so natural, you will find the 
saddest hour of your life to be that in which you will look down upon the grave 
of your victim, and "mourn with compunctious sorrow " that you should have 
done so great injustice to the " poor handful of earth that will lie mouldering 
before you/' 

Seward was followed by the Attorney-General, who summed up in 
a long-, elaborate, and powerful argument. The judge's charge to the 
jury was accepted as leaning strongly toward conviction, but the jury 
needed no additional spur. They went out, and promptly re! urnei 1 wit h 
a verdict of "Guilty." The judge announced that he would pronounce 
sentence upon the prisoner the next morning, at half-past six o'clock. 

The sun had hardly risen on the morning of July 24th, when the 
impatient crowd gathered in and around the court-house for the last 
time, to hear the doom pronounced, and be assured that their wishes 
were accomplished. It was a grim spectacle for a summer morning. 

The poor idiot, roused from his cell, was brought into the court- 
room, and ordered to stand up. As he was so deaf, the judge directed 
him to be brought close to his side, and, leaning over from the bench, 
said to him : 

" The jury say you are guilty. Do you hear me ?" 

" Yes," replied Freeman. 

"The jury," repeated the judge, "say you are guilty. Do you un- 
derstand ? " 

" No," said the negro. 

"Do you know which the jury are?" inquired the court. 

" No," answered the prisoner. 

"Well, they are those gentlemen down there," continued Judge 
Whiting, pointing to the jurors in their seats ; "and they say you are 
guilty. Do you understand ? " 



g 2 2 LIFE AND LETTERS. [1846. 

" No;' 

" They say you killed Van Nest. Do you understand that ? " 

" Yes." 

" Did you kill Van Nest ? " 

"Yes." 

" I am going to pass sentence upon you. Do you understand 
that ? " 

" No." 

" I am going to sentence you to be hanged. Do you understand 
that ? " 

" No." 

It was so manifestly a mockery to address a sentence of death to a 
creature who could not comprehend a word of it, that the judge, de- 
parting from the usual form, addressed it over his head to the audience. 
Speaking of the prisoner at the bar in the third person, he informed 
them that Freeman, on Friday the 18th of September, would be taken 
to the place of execution, and hanged by the neck until dead. The vast 
crowd dispersed exultant, and the only one in the court-room who was 
unconscious of the result of the trial was taken to his cell to await the 
time when he should be token to the gallows. 

SeWard walked sadly to his home, though he had anticipated no 
different termination. In his argument on the preliminary trial in ref- 
erence to Freeman's insanity, he made allusion to the feeling which had 
been kindled against him for his fidelit}' in a cause where he was 
doomed to defeat : 

In due time, gentlemen of the jury, when I shall have paid the debt of 
Nature, my remains will rest here in your midst, with those of my kindred and 
neighbors. It is very possible they may be unhonored, neglected, spurned! 
But, perhaps, years hence, when the passion and excitement which now agitate 
this community shall have passed away, some wandering stranger, some lone 
exile, some Indian, some negro, may erect over them an humble stone, and 
thereon this epitaph, " He was faithful! " 

More than a quarter of a century has passed since these painful 
scenes. Judge and culprit, prosecutor and defender, all have gone to- 
gether to their long account. The passion and excitement which 
agitated the community at that hour have long since passed away, and 
he from whom this appeal was wrung sleeps peacefully in their midst, 
not unhonored or neglected, for no day passes that his grave is not 
visited by reverent hearts, or strewed with flowers by loving hands. On 
the marble above him is carved the epitaph of his choice : 

"He was Faithful." 



MR. SEWARD'S LONG-LOOKED-FOR BIOGRAPHY. 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



WILLIAM III1I S1WAM 



(lSOl-1834), 

WITH A LATER MEMOIR BY HIS SOX, FRED ERICH W. SEWARD, 
LATE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE. 



*,* The public have long looked for the publication of this exceedingly in- 
teresting work. It will give a true insight into the career of the ureal Goveenob, 
Senator, and Secretary, the Philanthropist, Statesman, and Patriot, whose 
history is so closely identified with the history of his country. 

GriT 3 Among the illustrations of those who figure in the work, besides those of 
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Quincy Adams, Zachary Taylor, Eliphalet Nott, Winfield Scott, Henry Clay, Gen- 
eral Lafayette, Thurlow Weed, Abraham Lincoln, Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, 
Charles Sumner, Hamilton Fish, Salmon P. Chase, Charles Francis Adams, Anson 
Burlingame, William 31. Evarts, Andrew Johnson, Edwin M. Stanton, and other 
Patriots and Statesmen. 



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Govern Seward's Wonderful Jouruey Arouufl the Worn 

as written in his own words, and completed a few days before his lamented death, giving the 
record of Travels, and his Political, Social, Moral, and Philosophical Observations and Reflec- 
tions, together with his Interviews and Talks with President?, Kings, Emperors, Sultaus, 
Khedives, Tycoons, Mikados, East Indian Potentates, and His Holiness the Pope. Crossing 
nearly all the Mountains, Rivers, and Oceans of the Globe, Mr. Seward was received in the 
countries which he visited as no private tourist has ever before been received in all history, 
accompanied by the largest demonstrations of respect — Emperors and Kings vying with each 
other in extending courtesies due only to the most distinguished guests— furnishing to his coun- 
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It is the most elegantly printed and illustrated Book of Travels ever issued from the Amer- 
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representing the places, people, scenes and customs of all the countries visited by the Eminent 
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CONTENTS. 

CHAP. 

I.— EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA— 1846-1848. 
II.— EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA {Continued)— 1849-1850. 
III.— MISSOURI, LOUISIANA, AND CALIFORNIA— 1850-1855. 
IV.— CALIFORNIA— 1855-1857. 

V.— CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, AND KANSAS— 1857-1859. 
VI.— LOUISIANA— 1859-1861. 
Vn.— MISSOURI— APRIL AND MAY, 1861. 

VIII.— FROM THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN TO PADUCAU— KENTUCKY AND 
MISSOURI— 1861-1802. 
IX.— BATTLE OF SHILOE— MARCH AND APRIL, 1862. 
X.— FROM SHILOH TO MEMPHIS— APRIL TO JULY, 1862. 
XL— MEMPHIS TO ARKANSAS POST— JULY, 1862, TO JANUARY, 1863. 
XII.— VICKSBURG— JANUARY TO JULY, 1863. 

Xni.— CHATTANOOGA AND KNOXVILLE— JULY TO DECEMBER, 1863. 
XIV.— MERIDIAN CAMPAIGN— JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1864. 
XV.— ATLANTA CAMPAIGN— CHATTANOOGA TO KENESAW— MAY, 1864. 
XVI.— ATLANTA CAMPAIGN— BATTLES ABOUT KENESAW MOUNTAIN. 
XVII.— ATLANTA CAMPAIGN— JULY, 1864. 

XVIIL— ATLANTA CAMPAIGN— AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, 1864. 
XIX— ATLANTA AND AFTER— SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1S64. 
XX.— THE MARCH TO THE SEA— NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1864. 
XXL— SAVANNAH AND POCOTALIGO— DECEMBER, 1864, AND JAN., 1865. 
XXII.— CAMPAIGN OF THE CAROLINAS— FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1865. 
XXIII.— END OF THE WAR— APRIL AND MAY, 1865. 
£XIV.— CONCLUSION— LESSONS OF THE WAR. 

D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 

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General Sherman and General Joe Johnston, 



jl New Wor?c of Intrinsic 'Value. 



THE LIFE 



• 9 

INVENTOR OF THE 



Electro-Magnetic Recording Telegraph; 

President of the National Academy of Design; Professor of the Literature of the Arts of Design in tho 

University of the City of New York ; President of the American Asiatic Society ; Chevalier of the 

Legion of Honor, France ; Knight Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, Spain ; 

Knight of the Order of the Tower and Sword, Portugal ; Knight of the Order of 

Saints Lazaro and Mauritio, Italy; Knight of the Dannebrog, Denmark; 

Member of the Turkish Order of Glory. 

By SAMUEL IRENiEUS PRIME, S.T.D., 

President of the New York Association for the Advancement of Science and Art; Corresponding Member of the New 
York Historical Society ; author of " Travels in Europe and the East," " The Alhambra and the Kremlin," etc. 



This volume presents the most romantic and extraordinary story in the annals of science and art. 

It is a popular and authentic account of the greatest discovery and invention of ancient or modern 
times. v 

On the death of Professor Morse, his family and executors united in requesting the author of this 
volume, long a personal friend of the great inventor, to take his books and papers and prepare a biography 
for general reading. The author is widely known as an editor, and by his numerous volumes of travel, 
etc. 

The Biography of Professor Morse gives a sketch of his remarkable ancestry, with anecdotes illus- 
trating the genius and learning of the family. 

The volume is illustrated with portraits of Morse, Humboldt, Lafayette, Arago, pictures of Morse 
under various circumstances, copious drawings of the several parts of the Telegraphic Apparatus, each 
step being illustrated by a drawing made by Morse himself for the purpose, the whole series exhibiting a 
perfect and intelligible history of the invention, development, introduction, progress, and triumph of the 
American Telegraph, which is now employed upon ninety-five of every hundred miles of line on the globe. 

The original documents necessary to the fullest vindication of the truth are here given. And all the 
descriptions and illustrations, with diagrams, are presented, that the general reader and the student of 
science may readily apprehend the origin and advancement of the most wonderful of all human inventions. 

The life of Professor Morse herewith offered to the public will become a permanent source of knowl- 
edge and entertainment in every intelligent household, and should form a part of every public and private 
library. 

The work makes a neat octavo volume of 788 pages. 

Price, in neat Cloth, $5.00; Sheep, $6.00; Half Turkey, $7. SO. 
X>. jlJPJPLETON & CO., G?iibUs7iers, 

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The only Biography authorized by Mr. Chase's Family. 



THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE, 

Late Chief-Justice of the United States ; 
Formerly United States Senator, Governor of Ohio, and Seen tary of the Treasury. 

By J, W. SCMUCKERS, 

FOR MANY TEAKS PRIVATE SECRETARY TO Mi:. CHASE. 

Willi tie Eulogy on Mr. Ctee. delivered at Darlnioiilli. June 24. liy Hon, fin, M, Evans. 



New York, July 10, 1871. 
Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. 

Gentlemen: We are gratified to learn that the "Life and Public Services of 
Salmon P. Chase, late Chief-Justice of the United States," by Mr. J. W. Schuck- 
ers, and lately announced by you, is on the eve of publication. We hope it may 
find a large sale. 

Mr. Schuckers's long and close association with Mr. Chase, in a confidential 
capacity, having been for many years his private secretary, peculiarly fits him, in 
our judgment, for writing a history of Mr. Chase's Life. 

We know that this book is approved, by all the members of Mr. Chase's family, 
and those of his friends who have examined advance sheets. 
Very truly yours, 

Hiram Barney (late Collector of Port of X. Y.). 
John J. Cisco (late Assistant Treasurer V. S.). 
Edwards Pierrepont (late TJ. S. Dist. Attorney). 
Ciias. C. Franckltn (Agent ofCunard Line). 
William Orton (Pres't Western Onion Telegraph). 
AViiiTLi.Aw Reid (Editor New York Tribum i. 



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Nearly 200,000 Copies of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible have been sold 
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SMITH'S COMPREHENSIVE 

DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, 

WITH MANY 

IMPORTANT ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS 

FROM THE WORKS OF 

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SCHOLARS, COMMENTATORS, TRAVELERS, AND AUTHORS IN VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS. 

DESIGNED TO BE A COMPLETE GUIDE 

IN REGARD TO 

The Pronunciation and Signification of Scriptural Names ; the Solution of Difficulties respecting the ] 
Interpretation, Authority, and Harmony of the Old and New Testaments ; the History and 
Description of Biblical Customs, Events, Places, Persons, Animals, Plants, Min- 
erals, and other things concerning which information is needed for 
an intelligent and thorough study of the Holy Script- 
ures, and of the Books of the Apocrypha. 

Illustrated with Five Hundred Maps and Engravings. 

Edited toy Rev. SAMUEL W. BiVrWNTUJM. 

The "Comprehensive Dictionary," on which nearly three years of editorial labor have been expended, 
owes its origin to a settled conviction, on the part of the Editor and Publishers, of the need of such aj 
modified abridgment of Dr. Smith's original work as should make the results of modern scholarship 
generally accessible, and, it is believed, presents these results in a more complete, intelligible, and reliable 
form than either of the several other abridgments of Smith's Dictionary, or than any other Dictionary of 
the Bible in our language. It is designed to be, in all respects, a Standard Dictionary for the People. 
Its leading features and points of superiority may be summed up as follows : 

I. It contains a History and Description of Biblical Customs, Events, Places. Persons, Animals. Plants, Minerals, and 

other things concerning which information is needed for an intelligent and thorough study of the Holy Scriptures. 
II. It is a Complete Guide in regard to the Pronunciation and Signification of Scriptural Names, and the Solution of Diffi- 
culties respecting the Interpretation, Authority, and Harmony of the Old and New Testaments. 

III. It is a Complete Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary, all words being divided into their syllables, and the etymolo- 

gies and significations carefully given. 

IV. It contains over two hundred more pages than any other Abridgment of Smith's original Dictionary, and each page 

contains more words. 
V. It has about two hundred more Maps and Illustrations than any other Abridgment, and more than the original work. 
VI. It contains numerous Important Additions from the latest American, English, and German Authorities. 
VII. It. has a greater range of topics than any other work of the kind. 

VIII. The significance and meaning of every Greek or Hebrew word are given in English, which is not done in other Dic- 
tionaries. 
IS. It presents the results of modern scholarship in a more complete, intelligible, and reliable form than any other Dic- 
tionary of the Bible in our language. 
X. In mechanical execution, type, paper, illustrations, and binding, it is superior to the other Abridgments. 
XI. It lias been commended in the highest terms by many of the best scholars and ablest critics in the country. 
XII. Its decided advantages will cause it to supersede every other work of the kind as the Standard Dictionary of tht 
People. 

Complete in one large, royal octavo volume of 1,234 pages. Price, in cloth binding, $o. CO ; in library 
sheep, $6.00; in half morocco, $7.50 ; Full morocco, $10.00. 

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APPLETONS' 

CYCLOP/EDIA OF Vi/IT AND HUMOR; 

A Treasury of Humorous Literature. 

CONTAINING 

CHOICE AND CHARACTERISTIC SELECTIONS 

FROM THE 

Writings of the most Eminent Authors of America, England, Scotland, 

and Ireiand. 



Edited and Compiled by the Late 
WILLIAM E. BURTON, 

THE GEE AT COMEDIAN. 



Ulusti'ated with Portraits on Steel and Many Hundred Wood Engraving 

The Illustrations, at one cent each, make the price of the book, thereby giving the subscriber, 
free of cost, 1,140 pages of the choicest gems of the most celebrated English authors. 



This work, as its title indicates, is a "Treasury of Humorous LiTERATURE,"and it- aim is to 
furnish to all who would seek in the brillianl fancies of the humorist a relaxation from the 
of business, or a resource to enliven hours of dulness, or who would peruse with an appreciat- 
ing eye the writings of the most gifted humorous authors who have enlivened the English 
Language by their wit and genius— to furnish to all, in short, who love a genial and lively 
book, such a selection as shall satisfy the mirth-craving nature. 

It was compiled by the late William E. Burton, the greal comedian, who devoted the 
leisure hours of the best half of his life to making this book the 6nes1 and besl collection of the 
brilliant things said and done by all English-speaking ceh britii -. 

THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS BOOK NUMBER SOME SIX HUNDRED, 

AND ARE FROM THE PENCILS OF 

CRUIKSHANK, LEECH, DARLEY, SEYMOUR, KENNY MEADOWS, JOHNSON, 
CROWQUILL, BINE, HENRY L. STEPHENS, Etc., Etc., Etc. 

Besides these illustrations, there are eleganl Steel Portraits of many Distin- 
guished Authors, so that, taken altogether, this work is a rich and aim i\ i schausfc" 
less mine of humorous literature, invaluable to those who wish to become acquaint- 
ed with the writings of those gifted humorous authors who have enlivened the 
English language by their wit and genius. 

Complete in <>nr imperial octavo volume of 1,140 pages, beautifully I 
in Half Morocco, gilt hark and side, price, $9 .00 ; or, in elegant Cloth,$7-00; 
Cloth, gilt edge, $7.50. 

SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. 

D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 519 & 551 Broadway.. N. Y. 



Nearly 200,000 Copies of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible have been sold 
in America alone! It is now the Standard Authority. 

SMITH'S COMPREHENSIVE 

DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, 

WITH MANY 

IMPORTANT ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS 

FROM THE 'WORKS OF 

R0BINS0X, GESENIUS, FDRST, PAPE, TOTT, WINER, KEIL, LAN'GE, KITTO, FAIRBAIRN, ALEXANDER, BARNES, 

BUSn THOMSON, STANLEY, PORTER, TRISTRAM, KING, AYRE, AND MANY OTHER EMINENT 

SCHOLARS, COMMENTATORS, TRAVELERS, AND AUTHORS IN VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS. 

DESIGNED TO BE A COMPLETE GUIDE 

IN REGARD TO 

The Pronunciation and Signification of Scriptural Names ; the Solution of Difficulties respecting the 
Interpretation, Authority, and Harmony or the Old and New Testaments ; the History and 
Description of Biblical Customs, Events, Places, Persons, Animals, Plants, Min- 
erals, and other things concerning which information is needed for 
an intelligent and thorough study of the Holy Script- 
ures, and of the Books of the Apocrypha. 

Illustrated with Five Hundred Maps and Engravings. 

Edited by Rev. SyXTMTJICL W. J3 A RINTUM. 

The " Comprehensive Dictionary," on which nearly three years of editorial labor have been expended, 
owes its origin to a settled conviction, on the part of the Editor and Publishers, of the need of such a 
modified abridgment of Dr. Smith's original work as should make the results of modern scholarship 
generally accessible, and, it is believed, presents these results in a more complete, intelligible, and reliable 
form than either of the several other abridgments of Smith's Dictionary, or than any other Dictionary of 
the Bible in our language. It is designed to be, in all respects, a Standard Dictionary for the JPeoplQ 
Its leading features and points of superiority may be summed up as follows: 

I. It contains a History and Description of Biblical Customs, Events, Places. Persons, Animals, Plants, Minerals, and 
other things concerning which information is needed for an intelligent and thorough study of the Holy Scriptures. 
II. It is a Complete Guide in regard to the Pronunciation and Signification of Scriptural Names, and the Solution of Diffi- 
culties respecting the interpretation, Authority, and Harmony of the Old and New Testaments. 

III. It is a Complete Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary, all words being divided into then - syllables, and the etymolo- 

and significations carefully given. 

IV. It contains over two hundred more pages than any other Abridgment of Smith's original Dictionary, and each page 

contains more words. 
V. it has about two hundred more Maps and Illustrations than anv other Abridgment, and more than the original work. 
A I. Ii contains numerous Important Additions from the latest American, English, and German Authorities. 
VII. It has a greater range of topics than any other work of the kind. 

VIII. The significance and meaning of every Greek or Hebrew word are given in English, which is not done in other Dic- 
tionaries. 
IX. It presents the results of modern scholarship in a more complete, intelligible, and reliable form than any other Dic- 
tionary of the Bible in our language. 
X. In mechanical execution, type, paper, illustrations, and binding, it is superior to the other Abridgments. 
XI. It has been commended in the highest terms by manv of the best scholars and ablest critics in the country. 
XII. Its decided adi antages will cause it to supersede every other work of the kind as the Standard Dictionary of the, 
1'n", 

Complete in one huge, royal octavo volume of 1,234 pages. Price, in cloth binding, §5.C0; in library 
sheep, $6.00; in half morocco, $7.50; Full morocco, $10.00. 

solid oixri/sr B^r stjbscriptioit. 

WANTED. — Experienced Agenis wanted in all parts of the country to sell this important work. 
Clergymen who have acted as book agents will find this work well worthv their attention. Exclusive 
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D. APPLET0N & CO., Publishers, Kew York. 



APPLETONS* 

CYCLOP/EDSA OF WIT AND HUMOR; 

A Treasury of Humorous Literature, 

CONTAINING 

CHOICE AND CHARACTERISTIC SELECTIONS 

FBOM THE 

Writings of the most Eminent Authors of America, England, Scotland, 

and Ireiand. 



Edited and Compiled by tiik Late 
WILLIAM E. BURTON, 

TIIK GREAT i OMEDIAN. 

Illustrated with Portraits on Steel and Many Hundred II bod Engravings. 

The Illustrations, at one cent each, make the price of the book, thereby giving the subscriber, 
free of cost, 1,140 pages of the choicest gems of the most celebrated English authors. 



This work, as its title indicates, is a " Tim: vsttei of Hi mobotjs LiTEBATDBE,"and its aim is to 
furnish to all who would seek in the brillianl fancies of the humorisl a relaxation from tbe< 
of business, <>r a resource to enliven hours of dulness, or who would peruse with an appreciat- 
ing eye the writings of the most gifted humorous authors who haw- enlivened the English 
language by their wit and genius— to furnish to all. in short, who love a genial and lively 
book, such a selection as shall satisfy the mirth-craving nature. 

It was compiled by the late William E. Bueton, the great comedian, who devoted the 
leisure hours of the best bait' of his life to making this book the finest and best collection of the 
brilliant things said and done by all English-speaking ceh bri 

THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS BOOK NUMBER SOME SIX HUNDRED, 

AND ARE FROM THE PENCILS OF 

CKULKSHANK, LEECH, DARLEY, SEYMOUR KENNY MEADOWS, JOHNSON, 
CROWQUILL, BINE, HENEY L. STEPHENS, Etc., Etc., Etc. 

Besides these illustrations, there are elegant Steel Portraits of many Distin« 
guished Authors, so that, taken altogether, this work is a rich and alrnosl exbaust> 
less mine of humorous literature, invaluable to those who wish to become acquaint- 
ed with the writings of those gifted humorous authors who have enlivened 
English language by their wit and genius. 

Complete in our imperial octavo volume of 1,140 pages, beautifully bt 
in Half Morocco, gilt back and side, price, $9 .00 ', or,in elegant Cloth, $7 .00 ; 
Cloth, gin edge, $7.50. 

SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. 

D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 549 & 551 Broadway.. N. Y. 



Canvassing Agents will find the following a capital Book to sell. Exclusive territory is not 
iven to any one. It can be sold anywhere by our regular authorized Agents for 
other works. ^ 

COOPER'S LEATHER-STOCKING NOVELS. 



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CONTINUES TO PREVAIL, HIS MEMORY WILL EXIST IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE. So TRULY PATRIOTIC AND 

American throughout, they should find a place in eyery American's library."— Daniel Webster. 



A. NEW AND SPLENDIDLY-ILLUSTRATED POPULAR EDITION 

OF 

FENIMORE COOPER'S 

WORLD-FAMOUS 

LEATHER-STOCKING ROMANCES 

Five volumes in one, vis. : 



I. The Last of the Mohicans. 
II. The Deerslayer. 



III. The Pathfinder. 

IV. The Pioneers. 



V. The Prairie. 



This edition of the "Leather-Stocking" Tales is comprised in one handsome octavo volume of 1,008 
pages, superbly and fully illustrated with Forty entirely new Engravings (full-page), from designs by the 
distinguished artist F. 0. C. Darley, and bound in cloth, gilt back and side. 



COOPER'S SEA-TALES. 

A New and Handsomely-Illustrated Popular Edition 

OF 

FENIMORE COOPER'S WORLD-RENOWNED SEA-TALES. 

Uniform with (he " Leather- SloeJcing Tales." 

Each volume contains Forty entirely new Illustrations from the pencil of F. 0. C. Darley. Publishec 
in handsome octavo volumes, from new stereotype plates. The Series consists of — 



1. THE PILOT. 

2. THE RED ROVER. 



3. THE WATER-WITCH. 

4. WING-AND-WING. 



5. THE TWO ADMIRALS. 

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FIFTEEN YEARS OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY! 



NO*W IR, E -A. ID "5T 3 
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AMERICAN ANNUAL CYCLOP/EDIA. 



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a rapidly-extending list of subscribers. 

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TRACY'S 

HAND-BOOK OF LAW 

Every Business Man at times feels the necessity of having an accurate, reliable, and 
trustworthy Hand-Book. 

Such a work, complete to date (1876), 
CONTAINING AN EPITOME OF THE LAW OF 



Contracts, 
Bills and IVotcs, 
Interest, 
Guaranty and Suretyship, 
Assignments for Creditors, 
Agents, Factors, and Brokers, 
Sales, Mortgages, and Liens, 
Patents and Copyrights, 



Trade-Marks, 
The Good-Will of a Business, 
Carriers, 
Insurance, 
Shipping, 
Arbitrations, 
Statntes of Limitation, 
Partnership, 



WITH AN APPENDIX, 
Giving all Forms used in Business Transactions, has just been completed by 
WILLIAM TRACY, LL.D. 

1 vol., Svo. 679 pages. Half Basil, $5.00; Library Leather, $6.00. 

SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY, 



OZPI^IOnSTS OF E3^ri^TDB3STT JUHISTS. 

"It is a work of unusual merit." — Ira Harris, Prof, of Law, Albany University. 

" It ought to find a place in every counting-room." — Amasa J. Parker, LL. D., Late Justice of the 
Supreme. Court of A< W Ym /,: 

"Business men almost daily require the information contained therein." — Chas. H. Doolittle, Justice 
of the Supreme Court. 

" No business man can read it without great advantage and profit,"— John F. Dillon, U. S. Circuit 
Judge, Iowa. 

"I recommend the work cheerfully."— Wm. G. Hammond, Law Professor, Iowa University. 

" I keep always by me Tracy's Hand-book for Business Men ; I consider it a most valuable and useful 
work, and unhesitatingly recommend it as a guide to business men."— C. J. Jenkins, Late Chief Justice 
oj Georgia, 

"I have examined Tracy's Hand-book for Business Men, and consider it a very valuable and useful 
work."— Ward Hunt, Commissioner of Appeals, Uiica, April 15, 18'72. 

" 1 have had a copy of Tracy'- Hand-Book, and have found it a most complete and valuable work 

■ lend the book to the mercantile community."— Wm. J. Bacon, Late Judge of Supreme Court. 
" I fully concur in the above."— Hon. Francis Kernan. 

D. APPLETON k CO., Publishers, New York. 






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